Mekong Delta day trip from Ho Chi Minh City: Klook tour review
An honest review of my experience with Klook Vietnam
After a few days in Ho Chi Minh City by myself, I wanted to get out in the countryside and experience the Mekong Delta region without renting a car or motorbike or paying for a taxi all day by myself, so this 1 day tour of the Mekong Delta with Klook seemed like a good way to visit the Mekong Delta on a day trip. I booked this tour in October 2019 and I paid for it myself, so this is a completely independent review.
I had some great experiences on this tour like visiting the beautiful gardens and giant Buddha statues at the Vinh Trang Temple, have a relaxing riverside lunch at a pomelo farm, a cruise down the Mekong Delta in a traditional style boat, and learning how coconut candy is made.
You can read a detailed summary of all the experiences I had on this Mekong Delta day tour or jump straight to the end where I share what I liked, what could have been better and my final recommendation for this Klook Vietnam tour.
Go to final recommendation
Keep Reading to find out what we did on the Mekong Delta 1 day tour from Ho Chi Minh City !
QUICK OVERVIEW OF THE KLOOK VIETNAM MEKONG DELTA TOUR
Destinations: On this Klook tour, we visited the Vinh Trang Temple, the Mekong Delta in both the main open river channel area and the more secluded jungle area, a restaurant at a pomelo farm, a coconut candy factory, a traditional music experience and a shopping stop to buy souvenirs.
Highlights: The highlights were the Vinh Trang Temple visit with the unique temple design and gardens, and having lunch at a pomelo farm on the banks of the Mekong River.
Who was on the trip: There were about 25 people on this English speaking tour. Myself and two other women were travelling alone, there were a few backpacker couples, one family and a few retired couples as well from Australia and New Zealand.
Who was the guide: This Klook tour had one guide and one driver, the guide was a young woman and she was fairly easy to understand and was very energetic and engaging and provided facts and commentary about the sites we visited.
How did we travel: On a coach bus that fit about 35 people, there were seatbelts and air conditioning, and it was clean. I do not believe there were restrooms on the bus itself. I would not recommend leaving anything on the bus, since you will be away from the bus for several hours.
How did I book this: I booked it on the Klook App, you can almost always find promo codes for booking these tours if you Google around a bit.
Read More : Check out my review of the Klook App to see if I recommend this booking platform !
Vinh Trang Temple
As the Klook bus left the city, the guide explained some history about our first stop of the day, the Vinh Trang Temple. This temple is actually one of the most popular attractions in the Mekong Delta region and you can learn more about the construction and history here from The Culture Trip.
This temple has really a unique design, even if you have seen many temples previously, I think this one stands out with the blend of Eastern and Western influences, and the added bonus of the beautiful gardens. There are also not one, but three giant Buddha statues around the temple complex.
I really enjoyed the flowers and gardens, I also got an iced coffee at one of the little shops and we had just less than a hour at this stop. Make sure to bring your camera and take a moment to relax in the gardens.
Mekong Delta Boat Ride
The bus ride continued until we arrived at a small harbour area for transferring to the boat to start a cruise down the Mekong river. You can see the style of boat in the picture, it’s a smaller wooden boat rather than a large ferry.
There were lifevests on board and commentary was provided over a speaker, though it was a bit hard to hear. We did have to go down a set of stairs and walk on to the front of the boat, again as seen in the picture, I think this could be a bit difficult for someone with mobility issues. Otherwise, the boat seemed safe enough.
Pomelo Farm Lunch
We were cruising down the Mekong River for maybe half an hour or so until the first stop for lunch at a pomelo farm. As someone from North America, I wasn’t sure what pomelos were, they are like a large grapefruit and we had the option to get a pomelo slush drink for about 1.5USD on the tour.
The lunch here was from a set menu unless you chose the upgrade. I asked for a vegetarian option and got rice, vegetables, fried egg and spring rolls, very simple but good. I sat at a table with the other solo travellers, a woman from China and a Taiwanese expat from France and we were joined by a retired Australian couple living in Thailand. The lunch stop was my favourite part of the trip, having lunch among the pomelo trees talking to other travellers, I found it very relaxing and a nice change from the busy city.
There were properly stocked restrooms available at this stop, but just to be safe, I could recommend bringing tissues and hand sanitiser gel with you in case supplies are not available.
Jungle Traditional Boat Ride
After lunch, we got back on the main boat to reach the next stop which was a short ride in smaller traditional boats through the jungle area. The small boats only fit about four people and they provide sun hats if needed, since there is no shade canopy on the small boats. While this is very much a tourist experience, I think it still gives a sense of what traditional life would have been like in this region of the country, in contrast to the northern part of of Vietnam.
This boat ride was quite slow and we didn’t go very far, it lasted about 15 minutes and then we walked along a path next to the river for the next few stops.
Tour Tip: Make sure you have adequate sun protection, whether that is a hat, sunscreen, or something to cover your arms as there are times when you will be in the direct sun, it also gets hot during the afternoon, some people on our tour even had little portable fans with them !
Coconut Candy Factory
We visited a coconut candy factory first, there was a demonstration, an option to taste the different kinds of candy and of course a store to buy some to bring home. It’s good, quite sweet and a bit chewy. I was still backpacking for six weeks after this tour so I had no room in my luggage for any gifts. We kept walking down the path and visited another shop which sold bottles of liquor with snakes in them and provided samples. I’m vegetarian so not interested at all in trying that.
Honey Farm and Music Presentation
There was a final stop at another shop where they gave a presentation about products made with a special kind of honey or royal jelly and we also sampled these sweet tea drinks. This issue was that a lot of bees or wasps kept flying towards the sweet drinks and that was concerning for some people.
Finally, there was also a short cultural music presentation from a folk song group with the option to buy a CD afterwards. I didn’t enjoy this stop as much because it felt like it was mostly to get tourists to buy things rather than learning anything in particular.
Mekong Delta Boat Ride
It was extremely hot out and several stops did have fans going but we made an unofficial stop along the way to get sugar cane slushy drinks which helped a bit with the heat.
We got back on the same bigger boat from the morning ride to the pomelo farm and went cruising back down the river for about 15 minutes to get back on the coach bus. I was extremely grateful for the air conditioning on the coach at that point !
Bus Ride back to Ho Chi Minh City
It was around the middle of the afternoon during the drive and we hit quite a bit of traffic coming back into Ho Chi Minh City.
All of a sudden, it just started pouring rain and hundreds of motorbike riders pulled over and put on these rain covers over themselves and their motorbikes and just kept riding I thought that was very interesting to watch from the bus. We were back to the starting point around 5pm.
Tour Tip : On the morning of the tour, the departure point can be quite busy and I recommend always getting there are bit early as there are typically multiple bus tours departing at the same time and you need to get checked in and be directed to the correct language group. It can be a bit confusing with so many people so better to arrive a bit early and not be stressed out about finding the group.
Final Recommendation for the Klook Mekong Delta day trip
What I liked : This Klook Vietnam tour was an easy way to get out of the city for the day. I liked just being able to sit on the bus and not worry about transportation. I also liked meeting some other travellers on the tour. I enjoyed the first half the most, the temple stop was interesting and lunch was very enjoyable. The tour guide was friendly and professional and I did appreciate the facts about Vietnam provided in the commentary.
What could have been better : The last few stops for the snake wine, the bee farm and the music presentation are very much tourist stops just so people can buy things. I would have preferred doing one activity that was more cultural or educational instead.
Would I recommend this Klook tour ? Overall, it was very affordable for a full day activity and you can often find Klook promo codes online to use for booking. I think this experience provides what is advertised by Klook and it was a convenient way for a solo traveller to visit both the Vinh Trang temple and Mekong Delta area in one day. However, if you would get frustrated or annoyed by the tourist shopping stops and presentations later in the day, you may want to look for something else instead !
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