The short answer
The Independence Palace in Ho Chi Minh City, also called the Reunification Palace (Dinh Độc Lập in Vietnamese), is open from 07:00 to 18:00 every day at 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, Bến Thành Ward (formerly District 1). An adult ticket for the palace and its history exhibition costs 80,000₫, or 40,000₫ for the palace alone. Go in through the main gate on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, get there early, and give it about two hours.
This year brought changes most guides have not caught up with. The palace published a new timetable and price list valid from 1 May 2026, and since 1 August 2026 there has been a 500,000₫ camera ticket that, according to the palace’s director, ordinary sightseers do not need. Two older traps still catch people out: the side gate on Nguyễn Du stops selling tickets at 16:00, and the palace sometimes closes at short notice. Everything below was checked on 29 October 2026 against the palace’s own website and notices, press reports and, where we say so, our own guides.
| Independence Palace | Checked 29 October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Address | 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, Bến Thành Ward (formerly District 1). Side gate at 106 Nguyễn Du |
| Opening hours | 07:00 to 18:00 every day, including weekends, public holidays and Tết |
| Ticket desks | Main gate 07:00 to 18:00. Nguyễn Du gate 08:00 to 16:00 only |
| Full ticket (palace and exhibition) | 80,000₫ adults. 40,000₫ over-60s and Vietnamese university students. 20,000₫ children |
| Palace-only ticket | 40,000₫ adults. 20,000₫ Vietnamese university students. 10,000₫ children |
| Electric car round the grounds | 25,000₫ a ride, about 10 minutes |
| Audio guide | 90,000₫, in 10 languages |
| Where to buy | At the gate, or on the palace’s own ticket site |
| Time needed | About two hours for the palace and the exhibition |
| Dress code | No shorts, no sleeveless tops |
| Phone | Hotline 0916 624 419. Tickets 028 3822 3652 |
Independence Palace tickets and opening hours
The palace is open from 07:00 to 18:00, Monday to Sunday, including public holidays and Tết, “except for special cases with separate announcements” (more on those below). The timetable lists no lunch break. Some guides still give 08:00 to 16:30, a lunch break or a 15:30 ticket cut-off. The palace’s own timetable, valid from 1 May 2026, has none of those.
There are two tickets, and the difference is one building: the full ticket adds the exhibition house to the palace.
| Ticket (from 1 May 2026) | Adults | Over-60s | Vietnamese university students | Children (6 to under 16) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palace and exhibition | 80,000₫ | 40,000₫ | 40,000₫ | 20,000₫ |
| Palace only | 40,000₫ | Not listed | 20,000₫ | 10,000₫ |
There is no separate price for foreigners. The May 2026 list gives the student rate to Vietnamese university students, so expect a foreign student card not to count, though it does no harm to ask. The over-60 rate is listed simply as “Seniors (60+)”, without saying whether it is for Vietnamese citizens only, so take your passport to the desk and ask. The children’s band is muddled too: the May 2026 list says 6 to under 16, the palace’s home page still says 6 to 17, and neither page gives a price for children under 6.
The electric car is extra, 25,000₫ per person per ride. The palace’s older price page (from 1 August 2025) lists combos that add the car, 105,000₫ with the exhibition and 65,000₫ without, and the online shop still has combo categories, but the 1 May 2026 list leaves them out. It makes no difference: each combo costs exactly the two tickets added together.
Buy at the gate or online at the palace’s own ticket site, ticket.dinhdoclap.gov.vn, which it recommends “to save time”. At the desk you can pay by scanning a QR code, which the palace introduced with Vietcombank in 2024. Carry some cash as well, in case your banking app will not read the code.
Audio guide and guided tours
The audio guide costs 90,000₫ per device and speaks ten languages: Vietnamese, English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Russian, Spanish and German. Ask for it at the information desk.
If you would rather have a person, the palace prices guided tours per group, at rates in force since 1 November 2025. A full tour of the palace and the exhibition costs 600,000₫ for a group of one to 15 people, or 1,000,000₫ for 16 to 30. A limited tour of the palace or the exhibition costs 350,000₫ for up to 15 people and 600,000₫ for 16 to 30. Book on 080 85039 or 080 85123. The notice does not say whether admission tickets are included, so ask when you book.
Which gate to use
Use the main gate at 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, at the head of Lê Duẩn boulevard. Its ticket desk is open all day, 07:00 to 18:00. The side gate at 106 Nguyễn Du sells tickets only from 08:00 to 16:00, which catches people out in the late afternoon: if you turn up there after 16:00, walk round to Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa. Paid parking for motorbikes and cars is at the gate on Huyền Trân Công Chúa, at the back of the grounds.
Bringing a camera: who pays 500,000₫
Since 1 August 2026 the palace’s photography price list has included a “ticket for visitors with cameras”: 500,000₫ for one DSLR “or equivalent device”, valid until 18:00 the same day. The notice also asks you to tell the ticket staff if you are bringing a camera. That reads as if every tourist with a proper camera pays half a million dong.
Most do not. On 11 August 2026 Bùi Hữu Toàn, director of the Reunification Hall, which runs the palace, told the newspaper Tiền Phong that visitors who bring a camera for souvenir photos of themselves, their family and friends are not who the fee is for: it is meant to control professional shoots that hold the best spots for a long time. Two days later he added that it applies only to service photography, such as graduation and birthday shoots. Staff ask people carrying a large or professional camera what it is for, and if the answer is sightseeing, you buy the normal ticket and nothing more. In the scheme’s first 12 days the palace had more than 60,700 visitors and sold 89 camera tickets.
Souvenir photos on your phone are allowed in the designated areas. Drones (“flycams”) are banned outright. Wedding, art and couple photography crews of up to eight people pay 1,500,000₫ for the grounds or 3,000,000₫ to include the palace interior, with no flash inside. Commercial filming and group photos go through the hotline, 0916 624 419.
When the palace closes at short notice
The palace is still used for major events and official receptions, and its timetable carries the warning “except for special cases with separate announcements”. On Friday 2 October 2026, for example, it closed to visitors from 12:00 to 18:00. The notice went up on the palace’s Facebook page three days earlier, gave no reason, and said the other services on site would stay open. It did not appear on the website, so check the palace’s Facebook page the day before you go.
What is inside the Independence Palace, floor by floor
Yes, you can go inside, and you can see most of it on your own. The main building has nearly 100 rooms spread over a basement, a ground floor, three main floors, two mezzanines and a rooftop terrace. The old group tours were replaced by a self-guided route with information panels and room nameplates. The palace’s own map numbers 31 stops: the first floor first, up through the building to the roof, then the bunker, with the ground floor last. Following the numbers is a sensible way round.
First floor: the cabinet room and the banqueting hall
The formal end of the building. The cabinet room, the state banqueting hall and the conference hall open off the central staircase: this is where the cabinet sat and where state guests were received.
Second floor: the president’s rooms
The working heart of the palace: the National Security Council chamber, the presidential office, the reception rooms of the president and vice president, the vice president’s office, the presidential bedroom, the private apartments and the ambassadors’ chamber, where foreign envoys presented their credentials. Look at the stone screens that wrap this floor. The architect, Ngô Viết Thụ, based their bamboo-segment pattern on the doors of the imperial palaces in Huế, and they shade the rooms as well as decorate them.
Third floor: library, cinema and games room
The private side of presidential life: a library, the first lady’s reception room, a cinema and a games room.
The roof: the helicopter and the 1975 bomb
The top level holds the Salon of the Four Cardinal Directions and a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter on the rooftop pad. On 8 April 1975 Nguyễn Thành Trung, a South Vietnamese air force pilot who had infiltrated it under a false name, flew his F-5E over the palace. By his own account, published by the palace, his first pass put two bombs in the garden. On the second, a bomb hit the roof and exploded on the helicopter pad. The terrace is exposed, so see it before the midday heat.
The bunker
Under the building is the basement bunker, with six rooms on the palace’s map: the command centre, the backup radio station, the communications centre, the president’s bedroom, the president’s war room and the security room. The map numbers it straight after the roof.
Ground floor: the cars, the kitchen and the film room
The map numbers the ground floor last: the kitchen, a Jeep and a Mercedes on display, a children’s centre, a shooting gallery, a room showing documentary films, and the souvenir shop.
The exhibition house
This is what the extra 40,000₫ on the full ticket buys. The two-storey French-style building at the corner of Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa and Nguyễn Du was built in the same period as the old Norodom Palace, and it houses the exhibition “From Norodom Palace to Independence Palace 1868 to 1966”. If you want the colonial chapter as well as the 1960s building, it is worth it. If you only want the palace, save the money.
The grounds and the tanks
The grounds cover 12 hectares (120,000 m², about 300 m by 400 m), bounded by Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, Nguyễn Du, Huyền Trân Công Chúa and Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai. In front of the palace is an oval lawn 102 m across, and there is an octagonal pavilion with a tiled roof on the Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai corner. Two tanks numbered 390 and 843 stand beside the lawn. They are not the originals: the real tanks 390 and 843 were made national treasures in 2012 and are in military museums in Hanoi. If walking the grounds is too much, the electric car does a loop of about ten minutes with recorded commentary, from the entrance, for 25,000₫.
Why it has two names: a short history of the Reunification Palace
Its Vietnamese name, Dinh Độc Lập, means Independence Palace. After the war the building was renamed the Reunification Hall (Hội trường Thống Nhất), which is still the name of the government body that manages it, and that is why many English guides call it the Reunification Palace.
The first building here was Norodom Palace, begun on 23 February 1868 and finished in 1871 for the French governor of Cochinchina, and later the seat of the governors-general of French Indochina. France handed it to the State of Vietnam on 7 September 1954, and the next day it was renamed the Independence Palace.
On 27 February 1962 two pilots, Nguyễn Văn Cử and Phạm Phú Quốc, bombed it, and President Ngô Đình Diệm had the old building pulled down. Ngô Viết Thụ, the first Vietnamese architect to win the Prix de Rome, designed the replacement and hid Chinese characters in it: the floor plan is shaped like 吉 (cát, good fortune) and the façade forms 興 (hưng, prosperity). Diệm was killed in the coup of 2 November 1963, before it was finished. The palace was inaugurated on 31 October 1966, and it is marking its 60th anniversary in 2026. Nguyễn Văn Thiệu lived and worked here from 1967 to 1975.
The war ended at its gates. At 10:45 on 30 April 1975 tank 843 rammed the side gate, and tank 390 broke through the main gate shortly afterwards. At 11:30 Bùi Quang Thận, commander of tank 843, raised the flag on the palace. The last president, Dương Văn Minh, surrendered unconditionally. Since 2009 it has been one of Vietnam’s special national relics, among the first ten.
Two of our other guides cover an earlier chapter, the 1968 Tết Offensive attack on the palace: the café with the commando bunker, where the attackers kept their weapons, and Phở Bình, whose upstairs room issued the orders, in our guide to the best phở in Saigon.
How long you need, and when to go
Allow about two hours for the palace and the exhibition house at a normal pace. A visitor guide updated in October 2026 puts a full visit at one and a half to two and a half hours, and the electric car adds about ten minutes.
Go at 07:00. The palace is busy: in the first 12 days of August 2026 it had more than 60,700 visitors, roughly 5,000 a day, according to figures its director gave Tiền Phong. The main façade faces north-east onto Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa, so the front of the building is in the sun in the morning, which is also the best time for the roof.
The War Remnants Museum, with its tickets, hours and galleries, is about ten minutes away on foot and makes the other half of the day. Come here first and you beat the crowds. Do the museum first and you finish where the war ended, with time to spare: the palace’s main gate sells tickets until 18:00, an hour after the museum’s desk closes.
Dress code and rules
- Dress code. The palace asks for “polite and respectful attire”, which it defines as no shorts and no sleeveless shirts. Pack trousers or a long skirt and a T-shirt with sleeves.
- Bags. No bulky luggage, explosives, weapons or pets. We could not confirm a left-luggage service, so leave big bags at your hotel.
- Photos. Fine in the designated areas. No drones, and paid shoots need a photography ticket (see above).
- Access. We could not confirm a step-free route through the building. If you need one, call the hotline on 0916 624 419 before you go.
Getting to the Independence Palace
The simplest way is a Grab car or bike to “Dinh Độc Lập, 135 Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa”, which drops you at the main gate. The nearest metro stop is Bến Thành station on Line 1, at Ben Thanh Market, less than a kilometre away. If you come by motorbike, park at the gate on Huyền Trân Công Chúa.
What is nearby
- War Remnants Museum, 28 Võ Văn Tần, about ten minutes on foot: 60,000₫, open 07:30 to 17:30.
- Notre-Dame Cathedral and the Central Post Office, facing each other across Công xã Paris, about 500 m from the palace past Công viên 30/4, the park that was once the palace’s front yard. The cathedral is under restoration and open for Mass only, so see it from the square.
- Ben Thanh Market, its opening hours and food stalls, less than a kilometre away.
- Tao Đàn Park, a few minutes from the back of the palace, if you need shade and a bench.
For every other sight in the city with prices and hours, see our guide to things to do in Ho Chi Minh City, and our District 1 guide explains the new ward names you will see on addresses round here.
Where to eat or drink near the Independence Palace
The palace lists its own café among its services, but we could not confirm where it is or when it opens. For a proper meal, the five places below are Saigon Scene partners, which means they give Scene Pass members a discount in return for being featured. We picked them because they are our closest partners to the palace, all within about 500 m of the grounds on the Pasteur, Lý Tự Trọng and Lê Thánh Tôn side. The member discount comes off regular prices and never on top of a happy hour or another offer.
Luli’s Kitchen
Luli’s Kitchen at 182A Pasteur is a family-run restaurant, owned by a Franco-Vietnamese couple, cooking home-style Vietnamese food. After a morning in the palace it is the natural choice: a quiet, sit-down Vietnamese lunch.
BEPBO
Next door at 180A Pasteur, BEPBO serves Australian and American beef, pitched as an everyday steakhouse rather than a special-occasion one. Its signature is bò xèo, its own take on bò né, the sizzling-plate beef.
NORI Modern Izakaya
NORI, at 114 to 114A Lý Tự Trọng, is a modern Japanese izakaya that opened in January 2024: sushi and sashimi, charcoal-grilled skewers and cocktails. Better for an evening than a quick lunch.
La Fiesta
La Fiesta at 128 Lý Tự Trọng has been cooking Tex-Mex since 2014. Their own pick is the chipotle braised lamb shoulder enchiladas. It is also on our happy-hour map, which shows when its happy hour is on.
The Wagon Wheel
The Wagon Wheel at 200 Lê Thánh Tôn does American comfort food: hickory-smoked pork ribs, fried chicken and waffles, a New York strip. It is on the way to Ben Thanh Market if that is your next stop.
How we checked
We checked every fact on this page on 29 October 2026. Hours, prices and gates come from the palace’s own timetable and price list, valid from 1 May 2026, on dinhdoclap.gov.vn, and we say where its older pages disagree. The camera rules come from the palace’s notice of 1 August 2026 and the director’s interviews reported by Tiền Phong on 11 and 14 August 2026. Tour prices, the floor map, the architecture and the history come from the palace’s own pages, the 2 October closure from its Facebook page, the whereabouts of the original tanks from Znews, and the tanks on the lawn and the visit length from viet-go’s visitor guide (October 2026). Addresses use the ward names that replaced the districts in July 2025.
This guide is a desk check: nobody from Saigon Scene walked the route for it, so the visit length comes from a recent visitor guide rather than our own stopwatch. Prices and hours change, so check the palace’s website or Facebook page the day before you go.
Independence Palace: your questions answered
How much is a ticket to the Independence Palace?
An adult ticket for the palace and the exhibition costs 80,000₫, or 40,000₫ for the palace alone. Over-60s and Vietnamese university students pay 40,000₫ for the full ticket, and children pay 20,000₫. There is no higher price for foreigners.
What are the Independence Palace opening hours?
07:00 to 18:00 every day, including weekends, public holidays and Tết, and the timetable has no lunch break. The main gate on Nam Kỳ Khởi Nghĩa sells tickets until 18:00, but the Nguyễn Du gate only from 08:00 to 16:00. The palace sometimes closes at short notice, announced on its Facebook page.
Can you go inside the Independence Palace?
Yes. A self-guided route takes you through the cabinet room, the president’s office and private apartments, the rooftop with its helicopter and the basement bunker, with information panels and room nameplates along the way.
Is there a dress code for the Independence Palace?
Yes. The palace asks for respectful clothing, with no shorts and no sleeveless shirts. Bulky luggage and pets are not allowed.
Is the Independence Palace the same as the Reunification Palace?
Yes. Its Vietnamese name is Dinh Độc Lập, the Independence Palace. It was renamed the Reunification Hall after 1975, which is why it is also called the Reunification Palace.
Do I have to pay 500,000₫ to bring a camera?
Not if you are sightseeing. The 500,000₫ camera ticket, introduced on 1 August 2026, is aimed at paid service shoots. The palace’s director told Tiền Phong that visitors taking souvenir photos with their own camera do not pay it. Staff may ask what a large camera is for. Drones are banned.
How long do you need at the Independence Palace?
About two hours for the palace and the exhibition house. Go at 07:00 to beat the crowds and see the roof before the midday heat.
Is the Independence Palace worth visiting?
Yes. The 1960s building still has its state rooms, the president’s office and the bunker, and it is where the war ended. It is best paired with the War Remnants Museum, about ten minutes away on foot.
