The short answer
The Cu Chi Tunnels are two separate sites about 70 km northwest of central Saigon, Bến Dược and Bến Đình, both open from 07:00 to 17:00 every day. Foreign visitors pay 135,000₫ at the gate. The Sinh Tourist’s group coach tour costs 299,000₫ before that ticket, and whichever way you go, the trip takes half a day.
Most guides online miss the February 2026 price rise, the July 2025 commune renaming, the river boat with no sailings and the rerouted bus to Bến Dược. We have not made the trip for this guide yet: everything below is a desk check of the site’s own notices, the city bus authority’s route data, tour operators’ own pages and named news reports, re-checked on 11 November 2026.
| Cu Chi Tunnels | Checked 11 November 2026 |
|---|---|
| Bến Dược site | Ấp Phú Hiệp, An Nhơn Tây commune (before July 2025: Phú Mỹ Hưng commune, Củ Chi district) |
| Bến Đình site | Ấp Bến Đình, Nhuận Đức commune, on provincial road 15 (Tỉnh lộ 15) |
| Distance | About 70 km northwest of the city centre. The two sites are 13 km apart |
| Opening hours | 07:00 to 17:00 every day |
| Ticket, foreign visitors | 135,000₫: a 35,000₫ entry fee plus a 100,000₫ service and guide ticket, since 1 February 2026 |
| Ticket, Vietnamese visitors | 35,000₫ |
| The Sinh Tourist’s group coach tour | 299,000₫, excluding the ticket, so 434,000₫ for a foreign visitor before lunch |
| Cheapest way there | City bus 13, then bus 79 for Bến Dược: free until 31 December 2026 (listed fares 17,000₫ to 30,000₫ each way after that) |
| Time needed | Half a day, including two to two and a half hours on site |
| Phone | (028) 3794 8830, hotline and Zalo 0961 433 381. Bến Đình (028) 3794 6442 |
Cu Chi Tunnels tickets and opening hours
Both sites are open every day from 07:00 to 17:00, according to the management board’s website, and its notice of 25 October 2026 gives the same hours.
Foreign visitors pay two charges at the gate: a 35,000₫ fee for the historic site and a 100,000₫ “service and guide” ticket, 135,000₫ in all. The board announced the rise in a notice dated 19 January 2026, effective from 1 February 2026, when the guide ticket went from 90,000₫ to 100,000₫. Before that a foreigner paid 125,000₫. Vietnamese visitors pay the 35,000₫ entry fee. You can read the board’s price notice (in Vietnamese).
Other figures are in circulation, so trust the notice. VnExpress’s July 2026 travel guide gives 85,000₫ for foreigners, and older English guides still print 90,000₫ to 110,000₫. The board does not publish child, student or senior prices, so ask at the desk.
Check what your tour covers. The Sinh Tourist’s coach tours list “entrance fees” as excluded, and the Les Rives speedboat tour includes them. On a tour priced in US dollars, ask before you book.
Paid extras: the shooting range and the night show
Both sites have a firing range, run as an optional paid activity. The board publishes no price for it. The Les Rives tour page says “roughly 75,000 VND per bullet”, paid on the day, and we will add the price board once we have seen it. The board’s list of services also includes paintball, kayaks, a swimming pool, shrimp fishing and overnight stays.
The night programme, “Trăng Chiến Khu” (roughly “moon over the war zone”), costs 399,000₫. The next date the board lists is Saturday 21 November 2026, from 18:00 to 20:40. VnExpress describes it in two parts: a diorama and a 3D film about Operation Cedar Falls in 1967, then an open-air performance about village life in the liberated zone, with a night market. Book on the hotline (0961 433 381, also on Zalo), through Ticketbox or at the Bến Dược ticket desk. The November notice is in Vietnamese and does not mention English commentary. If you stay for it, the site rents riverside homestay rooms for 400,000₫ to 1,200,000₫ a night and tents for about 300,000₫, according to VnExpress.
Bến Dược or Bến Đình: which Cu Chi Tunnels site to visit
The two sites are 13 km apart, both close to the Saigon River, and they served different commands during the war.
Bến Đình: closer, and where most coach tours go
Bến Đình sits on provincial road 15 in Nhuận Đức commune. The management board says it was the base of the Củ Chi district Party committee from 1968 to 1975, and it was listed as a national historic site in 2004. Its page lists the committee’s living and meeting bunkers, a weapons workshop, trenches, a tunnel that runs under provincial road 15, and the wreck of an American M41 tank hit by a mine in 1970. There is a firing range and a restaurant by the river. The Sinh Tourist’s morning half day and its Cao Đài day both name Bến Đình, and Les Rives’ speedboat goes there too. Wikipedia’s account says Bến Đình “has tunnel reconstructions and some tunnels have been made larger to accommodate tourists”.
Bến Dược: the command base and the memorial temple
Bến Dược, in Phú Hiệp hamlet, An Nhơn Tây commune, was the base of the regional Party committee and the command of the Saigon, Chợ Lớn and Gia Định military region, and it has been a national historic site since 1979. The board’s page lists command bunkers, a meeting room, a surgery room, A-frame shelters against bomb blasts, food and weapons stores, secret trapdoors, air vents and the smokeless Hoàng Cầm kitchens, where visitors taste the cassava with salt and crushed peanuts that kept the fighters going. Wikipedia says the site “contains part of the original tunnel system”.
Bến Dược also has the memorial temple, which VnExpress describes as the first stop on a visit. It honours the people of Saigon and Gia Định who died in the wars against France and the United States, and 45,670 names of fighters and Vietnamese Heroic Mothers are carved on its granite walls. Beside it stands a nine-storey tower looking over the river. An electric cart covers the kilometre or so from the temple to the tunnel area, and there is a reconstruction of a liberated-zone village from 1961 to 1972 with a diorama of Operation Cedar Falls.
Our view
Going on your own, Bến Dược has more to see: the original sections Wikipedia describes, the temple and the village reconstruction, and the most direct city bus. Booking The Sinh Tourist’s coach tour, you will almost certainly see Bến Đình, which is fine for a first look.
How to get to the Cu Chi Tunnels: tour or do it yourself
There are four ways to get there. Here is what each costs one foreign adult once the 135,000₫ ticket is added.
| Way | Cost with the ticket | Leaves from | Times | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coach tour (The Sinh Tourist) | 299,000₫ plus the ticket, lunch extra | The Sinh Tourist’s office (free pickup in a set District 1 area) | 07:15 to about 13:30, or 13:00 to about 18:30 | The cheapest easy option, at Bến Đình |
| City bus 13, then 79 | 135,000₫; the bus is free until 31 December 2026 (listed fares 17,000₫ to 30,000₫ each way after that) | Saigon bus station, Lê Lai | Scheduled ride time up to about 2 hours 15 minutes each way, before waits | Bến Dược on a tight budget |
| Taxi or Grab car | About 500,000₫ each way for a taxi, plus the ticket | Your door | Whenever you like | Small groups sharing the fare, or doing both sites |
| Speedboat tour (Les Rives) | 2,399,000₫ adult, 1,799,000₫ child, ticket and lunch included | Hotel pickup, then Bạch Đằng pier | 07:00 to 13:00, or 11:00 to 17:00 | Reaching Bến Đình before the coaches, with no road transfer |
The cheap half-day tour, and its small print
The Sinh Tourist’s morning tour costs 299,000₫. It leaves its office at 07:15, reaches Bến Đình at about 09:30, leaves at noon and is due back at about 13:30. The price covers the bus and an English-speaking guide. Lunch and entrance fees are extra, and the tour needs at least eight people. The afternoon version costs the same and runs from 13:00 to about 18:30. Many tour listings, such as those on GetYourGuide, price in US dollars, and the small print on tickets varies, so read it before you pay.
By city bus to Bến Dược: 13, then 79
Take bus 13 from the Saigon bus station (Bến xe buýt Sài Gòn) on Lê Lai, by 23/9 Park, to Củ Chi bus station (Bến xe Củ Chi). The city’s route data gives 36 km, about 80 minutes, a bus every 17 to 22 minutes, and service from 04:00 to 19:45. It lists two single fares, 10,000₫ and 23,000₫. Since 10 October 2026 the return leg has been diverted around the Metro Line 2 works at Bảy Hiền and Tao Đàn, according to Tiền Phong. The outbound leg is unchanged.
At Củ Chi bus station change to bus 79. It runs out along Nguyễn Thị Rành and provincial road 15, takes about 55 minutes end to end, comes every 15 to 30 minutes from 04:30 to 20:00, and costs 7,000₫. The route has changed. It still carries the name “Đền Bến Dược” (Bến Dược temple), but it now continues over Bến Súc bridge to Thanh Tuyền high school on the far bank of the river. So do not wait for the last stop. Get off at “Ngã 3 Đền Bến Dược”, the turning for the Bến Dược temple at 2066 Tỉnh lộ 15. We do not yet know how far it is from that stop to the ticket gate.
You will not pay those fares this year. Routes 13, 79, 70 and 122 are all on the city’s list of 134 free routes, so the ride is free until 31 December 2026 (VOV, 22 June 2026). You must validate each trip with a bank card, VNeID, an e-wallet or the MultiGo app, a rule in force since 1 October 2026 (Tuổi Trẻ, 2 October 2026). The route data gives operating hours, not the time of the last bus back from Củ Chi, so plan to leave the tunnels by mid-afternoon.
By city bus to Bến Đình: route 70
Route 70 runs along provincial road 15 between Tân Quy bus station and Bến Súc, and the city’s route data lists a stop called “Địa đạo Bến Đình” (Bến Đình tunnels) in both directions. It runs from 04:00 to 21:05, every 12 to 20 minutes, and costs 7,000₫. Route 70 also stops at the Bến Dược turning, so it links the two sites. Reaching it from the city takes two other buses first, untested by us, so for Bến Đình we would book a Grab until we have tried it.
By Grab or taxi
VnExpress puts a taxi at about 500,000₫ each way. We have not checked a Grab fare yet, or how long you wait for a car at the gate on the way back. By road the usual route is national road 22, then provincial road 15. If you want to see both sites in one day, a car is the simplest way to cover the 13 km between them.
By speedboat, and why not the public boat
Les Rives runs a half day by speedboat for 2,399,000₫ an adult and 1,799,000₫ a child. Its guide picks you up at 07:00 from hotels in the wards that were Districts 1 and 3, and the boat leaves Bạch Đằng pier at 07:20 and reaches Cu Chi at about 08:40. Breakfast on the boat, lunch by the river, the guide and all entrance fees are included, and you are back at the pier at 13:00. An afternoon departure runs from 11:00 to 17:00. Guests from outside the pickup zone meet at the Saigon Water Bus station, the same pier as the Saigon water bus. Its FAQ says the speedboat goes to Bến Đình.
The management board’s directions page still tells visitors to take a Greenlines boat from Bạch Đằng. Greenlines’ booking system does list a Bạch Đằng to Củ Chi route, but it showed no sailings for 14, 18 or 21 November 2026, or for the dates we tried between late September and early November. For now the only way to arrive by river is a private tour.
What you see at the Cu Chi Tunnels, and which parts are rebuilt
The management board’s pages describe a visit like this at both sites. A guide takes you through a display of American bombs and shells and the weapons the guerrillas made, then to a hall for a documentary film and a talk on how the network was built. After that comes the tunnel area: bunkers, trapdoors, air vents, booby-trap displays, workshops, the Hoàng Cầm kitchens and a stretch you can crawl through, with the cassava tasting along the way. The people who used these tunnels were fighters of the National Liberation Front, known in the US as the Viet Cong, and the villagers of Củ Chi who supported them.
The history, from both sides
The board dates the first tunnels in Củ Chi to 1948, in Tân Phú Trung and Phước Vĩnh An communes: short, simple sections for hiding documents, weapons and cadres. Between 1961 and 1965, it says, six communes in the north of the district finished a “backbone” tunnel, and branches grew off it into a connected network. Estimates of its length differ. The board gives about 250 km by 1967, VnExpress says more than 200 km, and Wikipedia gives 121 km for the complex.
The area was the target of two large American operations, and the accounts differ: Wikipedia says Operation Crimp began on 7 January 1966 with B-52 strikes and about 8,000 American and Australian troops, the board dates it from 8 to 19 January 1966 with 12,000, and for Operation Cedar Falls in January 1967 both put the force at 30,000. The board’s pages present the tunnels as a victory over a modern army, and Wikipedia gives the American side, including the “tunnel rats” sent in to search them.
Are the tunnels real?
Yes, both sites are on the real network, but what visitors crawl through has been adapted. Wikipedia says Bến Dược keeps part of the original system, Bến Đình has reconstructions and some tunnels enlarged for tourists, and low-power lights have been fitted at both. The Les Rives page also describes the crawl as “a widened tunnel if you choose”. Nobody has to crawl: Les Rives notes that the tunnels are only a small part of the visit and that guests who stay above ground can still see everything else.
How long you need at the Cu Chi Tunnels
Allow half a day, with two to two and a half hours on site: coach tours are there from about 09:30 to noon and back in the city by about 13:30, and the speedboat stays from 08:40 to 11:30, lunch included. Make it a full day only if you want both sites or are adding the Mekong Delta or Bà Đen Mountain.
Combining Cu Chi with the Mekong, Tây Ninh or the War Remnants Museum
The Mekong Delta. The Sinh Tourist sells “Cu Chi Tunnels + Mekong Delta 1 Day” for 699,000₫. That is two long road trips in opposite directions, so expect a day of 10 to 11 hours. Our guide to day trips from Saigon covers this combination and the Mekong options in detail.
Tây Ninh: the Cao Đài Temple and Bà Đen Mountain. The Sinh Tourist’s Cao Đài Temple and Cu Chi day costs 599,000₫, runs from 07:15 to about 18:30 and reaches Bến Đình at 14:00, with lunch and entrance fees extra. VnExpress puts Bà Đen Mountain more than 50 km from the tunnels, about an hour by car.
The War Remnants Museum. A morning tour that is back by 13:30 leaves the afternoon free for the War Remnants Museum, with its tickets, hours and galleries. The tunnels show the war from the guerrillas’ side, and the museum shows what it did to civilians. The Independence Palace, where the war ended in 1975, is about ten minutes’ walk from the museum.
Is the Cu Chi Tunnels trip worth it?
For most first-time visitors with more than a day or two in Saigon, yes. It is the clearest place near the city to see how the war was fought on the ground, and the cheap coach tour makes it easy.
Weigh the drawbacks before you book. It is about 70 km each way, so a morning is mostly travel. The crawl sections are tight even where they have been widened, so skip them if you are claustrophobic: there is plenty to see above ground. With small children, note that the board publishes no child price. Some visitors also find gunfire from the firing range jarring at a site that includes a memorial. On a single day in the city, the War Remnants Museum and the Independence Palace cover the same history without the drive.
Tips before you go
- Go early. The speedboat operator’s whole pitch is reaching the site before the coaches, and the coach tours arrive mid-morning. On your own, aim to be at the gate soon after 07:00.
- Wear things you can get dirty. The crawl is through earth tunnels. Closed shoes are better than sandals.
- Carry cash. The shooting range is paid on the day, and we have not confirmed whether the ticket desk takes cards.
- Respect the temple. The Bến Dược temple is a memorial carrying tens of thousands of names. We could not find a published dress code, so covered shoulders and knees are the safe choice.
- Food. The board runs a restaurant on the river at each site. Củ Chi is known for bò tơ (young beef), and VnExpress says the restaurants on national road 22 charge about 150,000₫ to 250,000₫ a person.
- Addresses are changing. Many guides still say “Củ Chi District”, which was abolished in July 2025. Since then there is also a new Củ Chi commune elsewhere in the former district, so do not use that as the address. An Nhơn Tây, where Bến Dược stands, is one of 29 communes the city has proposed turning into wards. The People’s Council backed the plan on 27 August 2026, but no final decision has been made (Tiền Phong, 9 November 2026), so you may soon see “An Nhơn Tây ward”. Nhuận Đức is not on the list.
Back in Saigon
If you want the evening to be about food, Back of the Bike Tours runs motorbike street-food tours, including a night food tour. It does not run Cu Chi trips. We mention it because a half day at the tunnels leaves the evening free. Back of the Bike Tours is a Saigon Scene partner, which means it gives Scene Pass members a discount in return for being featured.
10% off regular prices for Scene Pass members with the Saigon Scene app.
For everything else to do in the city, with prices and hours, see our guide to things to do in Ho Chi Minh City.
How we checked
Nobody from Saigon Scene has visited the tunnels for this guide yet. It is a desk check, so nothing on this page is first-hand, and we will update it after our visit. We re-checked every time-sensitive fact on 11 November 2026, using the brief we researched on 27 October 2026 as a starting point.
Prices, hours, phones, the night programme and site layouts come from the management board’s website, diadaocuchi.com.vn (price notice of 19 January 2026, night-programme notice of 25 October 2026), and bus data from the feed behind the city’s official bus information service. The free-fare scheme is from Tuổi Trẻ (2 October 2026) and VOV (22 June 2026), the route 13 diversion and ward proposal from Tiền Phong (7 October and 9 November 2026), tours from the operators’ own pages, Greenlines from its booking system, distances, the temple and food from VnExpress (10 July 2026), and the history from Wikipedia (edited 13 October 2026). Commune names follow Resolution 1685/NQ-UBTVQH15 of 16 June 2025.
Prices and bus routes change. Check the board’s website, or call the hotline, before you go.
Cu Chi Tunnels: your questions answered
How much is a ticket to the Cu Chi Tunnels in 2026?
Foreign visitors pay 135,000₫: a 35,000₫ entry fee plus a 100,000₫ service and guide ticket, the price the management board set from 1 February 2026. Vietnamese visitors pay 35,000₫. Cheap coach tours do not include the ticket, so a 299,000₫ tour really costs 434,000₫.
What are the Cu Chi Tunnels opening hours?
Both sites, Bến Dược and Bến Đình, are open from 07:00 to 17:00 every day.
Is it worth going to the Cu Chi Tunnels?
For most first-time visitors with a few days in Saigon, yes: it shows how the war was fought on the ground around the city. It is a half day with about 70 km each way, the crawl sections are tight, and anyone claustrophobic can stay above ground and still see most of it.
How long do you need at the Cu Chi Tunnels?
About two to two and a half hours on site and half a day in total. Morning coach tours leave at 07:15 and are back at about 13:30.
Which is better, Bến Dược or Bến Đình?
Bến Đình is where most coach tours go. According to Wikipedia, parts of it are reconstructions and some tunnels were enlarged for visitors. Bến Dược keeps part of the original system and has the memorial temple, and city bus 79 stops at its turning. Going independently, Bến Dược has more to see.
How do I get to the Cu Chi Tunnels by bus?
Take bus 13 from the Saigon bus station on Lê Lai to Củ Chi bus station (about 80 minutes), then bus 79 to the “Ngã 3 Đền Bến Dược” stop on provincial road 15 (most of its 55-minute route). Bus 79 now continues past Bến Dược over the river, so watch for your stop. For Bến Đình, bus 70 stops at “Địa đạo Bến Đình”.
Are the Cu Chi Tunnels real?
Yes. The management board dates the first tunnels in Củ Chi to 1948, and the network grew to more than 200 km. Visitors crawl through short, lit sections. At Bến Đình some tunnels have been reconstructed or enlarged for tourists, while Bến Dược keeps part of the original system.
Is there a boat to the Cu Chi Tunnels?
Only as a private tour. Greenlines lists a Bạch Đằng to Củ Chi route but showed no sailings when we checked in November 2026. Les Rives runs a speedboat half day for 2,399,000₫, including the entrance ticket, breakfast and lunch.
