Ben Tre to Chau Doc, 4 days one way

Day 1

Ho Chi Minh City to Ben Tre, then Vinh Long

Pick-up at 07:30. Ben Tre is about 85 km from the city, and since August 2025 the road crosses the Tien River on the new Rach Mieu 2 bridge rather than queuing for the temporary ferry, which stopped the day after the bridge opened. Allow one and three-quarter to two and a quarter hours.

The morning is spent on the small waterways: a sampan along a canal lined with water-coconut palms, a family workshop where coconut candy is cooked from coconut milk, malt and sugar and cut by hand, and lunch in a garden. In the afternoon the car crosses to Vinh Long, about 59 km, an hour to an hour and a half.

Before dinner your guide takes you to Van Thanh Mieu, a Confucian temple built between 1864 and 1866 on the Long Ho river, one of three such temples raised in the South in the 19th century.

Day 2

An Binh islet by boat, then Can Tho

A boat from the Vinh Long riverfront crosses to An Binh islet, which fills the space between the Tien and Co Chien rivers with more than 60 km² of gardens and canals. Your guide stops at Tien Chau pagoda, which dates from around the 1740s, and at an orchard where whatever is in season is cut for you.

We do not go on to the Cai Be floating market, upstream towards Cai Be. It still exists but has weakened; a 2026 guide reported only a few trading boats in the early morning, gone by the time you could reach it. Instead, after lunch the car takes you about 41 km to Can Tho. The afternoon stop is the Binh Thuy ancient house of 1870, and the evening is free on the Ninh Kieu riverfront.

Day 3

Cai Rang, then Chau Doc and the Cham bank

Two rivers in one day: Cai Rang at dawn, the Cham bank at Chau Doc after lunch

The boat leaves Ninh Kieu at 05:30 for Cai Rang, 30 to 40 minutes away, and you are on the market for its trading hour, roughly 06:00 to 07:30. Back for breakfast and checkout, then about 120 km up the Hau River via Long Xuyen to Chau Doc, two to three hours.

After lunch a small ferry crosses to Chau Giang on the far bank, where the Cham community lives in stilt houses. The Mubarak mosque there was first built in 1750 and rebuilt in 1922. On the way back you stop at one of the floating fish farms moored off the town. The day ends on Sam Mountain, about 284 m, above the rice fields at sunset.

Day 4

Tra Su forest, Chau Doc market, route ends

Out at 06:00 for Tra Su, 30 to 40 minutes away, at the gate for the 06:30 opening. A motor sampan, then a rowed boat, takes you through cassia forest where storks and egrets nest; from September to November the water is high and the boats go furthest in.

Back in town your guide walks you through Chau Doc market, known across the delta for mam, fermented fish and shrimp sold by the tub, and lunch is bun ca Chau Doc, a fish noodle soup. The route ends at about 13:00 at your next hotel, or with the car back to Ho Chi Minh City if you add it: about 235 km, 4.5 to 5.5 hours.