Cities Vinh Long

Vĩnh Long City is the capital of Vĩnh Long Province in Southern Vietnam. A sleepy and dusty town, it has recently known as an eco-tourist destination, very popular with day trippers from HCMC. Vĩnh Long Province itself is one of the smaller provinces on the Mekong River Delta with total area of 1480 sq km but it's densely populated, about 1 million inhabitants as of 2010. It lies 130 km southwest of HCMC on the Tiền River (Sông Tiền), one of the two branches of the Mekong River. The main ethnic group is Kinh (as 88% of Vietnamese are nationally) but there are also significant number of Cantonese-speaking ethnic Chinese as well as Khmer (ethnic Cambodians).

Vĩnh Long contributes to the nation's history as part of the historic settlement of the Mekong River Delta as Vietnam expanded southward in the 18th and 19th centuries. A large part of its recent past has either been lost or poorly documented and thus, invisible to tourists, and to an extent, even ordinary town people. French colonial influence can still be seen in architecture as many old French buildings (now government offices and private residences) are scattered over the city. Chinese influence is strong with many Chinese temples, Chinese-own businesses (e.g. traditional Chinese medicine stores) and southern Chinese dishes and snacks. Many beautiful and serene Buddhist temples attribute to its strong Mahayana Buddhist heritage. Vinh Long produces two (Phạm Hùng and Võ văn Kiệt) out of only six prime ministers since 1975, no small achievement for a place very few people have heard of.

Get in

By bus

Vĩnh Long City has two bus stations: the main one (Bến Xe Lớn) about 4 km from town for long-distance buses and a smaller one in the center, just about 3 blocks from river bank and 1 block from the main market. The smaller bus station takes you to neighboring Cần Thơ City (Cần Thơ Province) and suburban/rural districts of Vĩnh Long Province.

Long-distance buses from Ho Chi Minh City, en route to other Western provinces (Can Tho, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau), drop you off at the main bus station . From there, the bus companies (currently including Phuong Trang and Mai Linh) give passengers a ride to any destinations within the city limit for FREE. The shuttle ride is included in the bus fare. If you would like to ride with a motorbike taxi, you should not pay more than 2-3 USD for a ride to a hotel in the center of town or to the boat quay on the Tien River (Bến Đò Sông Tiền) for your eco-tour or home stay on An Binh Island.

By boat

There are no scheduled boats anymore. However, it is possible to book a tourist boat to Chau Doc including a night on the Mekong (US$20) and a bus transfer to Phnom Penh (additional US$6).

Get around

• • Ferry to An Binh Island costs 500 Dong for pedestrians and up to 2,500 Dong for motorists, running every 10-15 minutes.

  • Motorbike taxi: cheap and plentiful but quite an experience if you never ride one before. Prices vary according to who you are; tourists usually pay a bit more than locals. Pay 20-40 cents for every km or mile is more than enough to compensate your driver.

  • Metered taxi: cleaner, safer, and more comfortable but you have to pay more

Do

• Mekong Boat Tour. is the thing to do in Vinh Long. A typical trip includes the floating market at Cai Be and An Binh Island lasting about 4 hours (about US$16 for a private trip, US$5 in a group). On sep 2011, standard price seems to be 300000 Dong/US$15 for 4-5h trip or through Cuu Long Tourist about US$25. Classical tour includes An binh, Cai Be floating market, coconut candy factory, bonsai garden, ...  edit

Our hotel advised us to find a boat for a tour at the waterfront at 6am. We found only one boat and booked it for $15 for 3 hours. Our larger boat did not enter the small channels of An Binh island. The Cai Be market was fairly quiet by our arrival at 7:30am.

• Visit An binh and the islands by land. If you are on budget or you already have done enough boat tours, you can go to An binh with the ferry (500 Dong, one way) and either walk on the main islands (small bridges connects nearly all the island), rent bicycle/moto or pay a mototaxi (40-60,000 Dong / hour). Bonsai garden is at about 20min from ferry pier by motorbike. By walk, just near the pier, there is a chinese temple and a school, a bit further a church (but it seems closed on sep 2011).  edit

• Walk on the riverside.  edit

Buy

There is Co.Op supermarket near inner bus station.

Eat

You can easily buy food from some street stall or in the market in town center.

There is a converted boat restaurant the moors opposite the plaza in front of the central supermarket, it goes on a small jaunt on the Mekong, prices from $3-20 per head depending on what you choose a la carte.

Sleep 

The accommodation options are a bit scattered throughout the town. Some hotels can be found along the main traffic arteries leading to the town centre. There are a couple of options in the city centre. Mosquitoes can be a nuisance in this area, however, hotels rarely provide mosquito nets, so bring your own.

On Hung Vuong close to the bus station are three hotels next to each other that are mere copycats of each other:

• Lac Long, 2G Hung Vuong, P.1 - TP Vinh Long (5 min walk from inner bus station), 

•  070.3836846 - 3822099. has decent no frills rooms. Apart from the standard features such as TV, fridge, phone, private bathroom with hot water it also has Wi-Fi - bring your laptop. All the rooms are available with fan or aircon. starts at 120,000 Dong.  edit

• Phung Hoang, 2H Hung Vuong. has as large a choice of comfort as the price indicates. Fan & AC, good WiFi, fridge in room. This place is popular with backpackers. Some family members speak English and all are friendly & helpful. 120,000-300,000 Dong.  edit

• Phung Hoang, 2R Hung Vuong. 120,000-300,000 Dong.  edit

Several places on the island offer what they call homestays. These may not be in actual local people's homes, but still in traditional-style houses right in the countryside. One of them is Green Island Tour (070 3859908), offering an overnight stay including a large dinner consisting of many different dishes, breakfast and a bicycle for US$10. It's excellent value considering the dinner alone would cost almost the same in any restaurant. A moto from the bus station can take you here for 50,000 dong including the ferry ride.

Get out

From Vinh Long back to Ho Chi Minh City, there are at least 5 bus lines as of 2013; they're all located in different parts of town. Mai Linh and Phuong Trang are at the main bus station (i.e. Bến Xe Lớn) on the edge of town. Your hotel can reserve seats on the bus with a simple phone call or you can show up at the bus station on your own 30 minutes before departure and hope that they'll have seats available. Buses run every hour from early morning until night. If one company doesn't have seats, just walk to the other next door. For your convenience, all bus companies will pick you up anywhere in town and take you to the station waiting for the departure for free. The fare as of 2013 is about 4 USD and will likely go up in the future. The bus companies will drop you off at the Western Province Station (Bến xe miền Tây) in the suburb of HCMC. From there, you can ride the FREE shuttle bus to their transit centers (trạm truân chuyển) usually District 5. Once you're there, it's a cheap taxi ride to any hotels in the city center. This involves getting on and off the bus a lot but it saves you money as most passengers on your bus will do the same thing.

Phuong Trang schedule to Saigon: every hour at half an hour mark. Price is 110000 dong (Sept 2015)

Mai Linh schedule to Saigon: 4:30, 6:30, 7:30, 8:30, 10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:15, 17:15. Price is 87000 dong (Sept 2015)

Futa Buslines to Saigon (if you want more comfort and wi-fi in the bus): 8:30, 16:30. Price 100 000 dong (Jan 2016)

If you're heading to Ben Tre, take yourself to the ferry crossing 4km east of town, (40,000 taxi ride) cross the Mekong on the car ferry (1,000 dong/person), walk 100m and take the No 8 local bus (at least hourly) to Ben Tre (19,000 dong/person in May 2016). This drives through central Ben Tre before arriving at the outer bus station.

For Western provinces (tỉnh miền Tây) such as neighboring Cần Thơ or further away provinces such as Cà Mau (for Cape Cà Mau--the westernmost point of Vietnam) or the Cape if National Forest), Bạc Liêu, Kiên Giang (for Phú Quốc Island or Hà Tiên), An Giang (for Cambodia border crossing), go to from the main bus station (Bến Xe Lớn) and catch one of the west-bound buses en route from HCMC. Buses run frequently (every hour); some are even equipped with lie-flat reclining seats for comfort and these cost a bit more. If you just want to neighboring Cần Thơ City and have some luggage or a few people in your party, it may be better to get a taxi because it's faster and more comfortable. The fare may be 20 or 30 USD for about 1 hour trip.

Tan Thanh THuy 5am 110k 4h

Xe PHƯƠNG TRANG Sài Gòn:  272 Đề Thám, quận 1. ĐT: (08) 38375570

Vĩnh Long: bến xe Vĩnh Long điện thoại (070) 387.9777, bến xe Bình Minh (bờ phà Cần Thơ) điện thoại (070) 374.2999.

Xe MAI LINH Tổng đài đặt vé tại Sài Gòn: (08) 39 29 29 29. Đường dây nóng: 0985 29 29 29.

Vĩnh Long: Bến xe Vĩnh Long, 1E Đinh Tiên Hoàng, ĐT (070)3878878.

Xe PHÚ VĨNH LONG Chạy tuyến:  Sài Gòn - Vĩnh Long, Sài Gòn - Bình Minh Trà Ôn, Sài Gòn - Sa Đéc, Sài Gòn - Cao Lãnh. Xe 15 chỗ. Xuất bến tại Sài Gòn từ 4h30 đến 19h30 mỗi giờ chạy một xe. Ngoài ra xe sẽ chạy đột xuất nếu đủ 15 ghế.

Sài Gòn: 572 đường 3/2-P14-Q10 (ngã tư 3/2 Ngô Quyền). Điện thoại (08)3866.0378 - 3866.0789 - 3868.6035 - 3868.6036. 

Vĩnh Long: 09 Nguyễn Huệ-P8-Vĩnh Long. Điện thoại (070) 383.4444 - 383.6666 - 3.888888. 

Bình Minh Trà Ôn: 435 Thuận Thới-Bình Minh-Vĩnh Long điện thoại (070) 375.0299 - 375.0277 và 69 Khu 10B-Thị trấn Trà Ôn-Vĩnh Long điện thoại (070) 377.4020 - 377.4022. 

Sa Đéc: 56A Lê Thánh Tôn - P2 điện thoại (067) 386.7222 - 377.2999. 

Cao Lãnh: 52 Quốc lộ 30-P.Mỹ Phú điện thoại (067)387.4747 - 387.9797 và 136 Hùng Vương-P2 điện thoại (067) 387.7678.

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