What is Thu Duc City?
Thu Duc City is a large urban area making up the entire eastern side of Ho Chi Minh City, across the Saigon River from the historic centre. It was created in 2021 by merging three former areas, the old Districts 2, 9 and Thu Duc, into a single “city within a city,” and it is big: around 47 square kilometres, with well over a million residents. It is essentially Ho Chi Minh City’s modern, expanding half, where much of the city’s new development is happening.
The important thing to understand, and the reason it confuses visitors, is that Thu Duc City is not one place with a centre you can go and see. It is an enormous, patchwork area that contains wildly different pockets: the leafy, cafe-filled expat streets of Thao Dien, the gleaming new riverside district of Thu Thiem facing downtown, sprawling university campuses, huge new Vinhomes housing developments, theme parks, night markets and some genuinely beautiful temples. When someone mentions “Thu Duc,” they could be talking about any of these, and they can be a long way apart.
So do not think of Thu Duc City as a single destination to tick off. Think of it as a collection of separate spots scattered across a large area, some well worth the trip, others not. The rest of this guide picks out the places actually worth your time and tells you honestly which are worth going out of your way for.
Things to see and do in Thu Duc City
Because Thu Duc City is so spread out, the trick is knowing which of its many spots are actually worth the trip. Here are the standouts, from a genuinely beautiful pagoda to riverside parks and theme parks, with an honest word on what deserves your time and what does not.
1. Buu Long Pagoda
If you go to Thu Duc for one thing, make it this. Buu Long Pagoda is one of the most beautiful temples in all of Ho Chi Minh City, and it looks like nothing else in Vietnam. Its architecture blends Vietnamese, Thai and Indian influences, crowned by a gleaming white-and-gold stupa that rises above the trees, with a striking jade-green pool in front of it. Set on a hill among forest on the edge of the city, it is peaceful, genuinely impressive, and far less touristy than the temples downtown. It is a fair way out, but of everything in Thu Duc, this is the one that rewards the journey.
2. Thu Thiem and the riverside
Directly across the river from District 1 is Thu Thiem, the city’s newest district and the place where Ho Chi Minh City is building its future skyline. For a visitor, the draw is the riverside. The park on top of the Thu Thiem Tunnel, along with the large Saigon Riverside Park, gives you wide-open green space and the single best view back at the downtown skyline and Landmark 81 across the water. It is hugely popular with locals, who come here to picnic, fly kites and watch the sunset over the city, and it is at its best in the late afternoon. You can also arrive by river on the Saigon Waterbus, which stops on this side.
3. Thao Dien
Also part of Thu Duc is Thao Dien, the city’s leafy riverside expat neighbourhood, full of specialty coffee shops, international restaurants, boutiques and relaxed bars. It has a completely different feel from the rest of Thu Duc, calmer and more cosmopolitan, and it is one of the more pleasant places in the city to spend a slow afternoon. There is a lot to it, and it is worth reading up on in full before you go.
4. Suoi Tien Theme Park
At the far end of Thu Duc, reachable right at the end of the metro line, is Suoi Tien, a wonderfully over-the-top theme park built around Vietnamese legends and Buddhist themes. It is full of dragons, giant statues, temples and rides, and it even has a water park with an artificial beach. It is kitsch, chaotic and unlike any theme park back home, and it makes a fun, cheap day out, especially with children. Being on the metro makes it one of the easier Thu Duc attractions to reach.
5. Vinhomes Grand Park
Out in the former District 9 is Vinhomes Grand Park, a vast new self-contained urban area with its own entertainment zone. There is an amusement park, the Tropical Island water park, landscaped gardens and evening light shows, and it is modern, polished and family-focused. Be honest with yourself about the distance, though: it is a long way out, and unless you are travelling with children who want a big day of rides, it is not worth crossing the city for.
6. Snow Town
Snow Town is an indoor snow park, a novelty attraction where you can play in real snow in the middle of tropical Saigon. There is skiing, snowmen and a European snow-village backdrop for photos, and children in particular love it. It is a fun hour if you are in the area or travelling with kids, but it is a novelty rather than a reason to make a special trip.
7. The university village and night markets
Thu Duc is home to a large cluster of universities, and the student area around them has a lively, cheap, thoroughly local feel. The night markets here, like the well-known one by the Agriculture and Forestry University, are packed with students, street food and bargain stalls, and they are a fun, budget, non-touristy slice of everyday life. If you want to eat well for very little among locals rather than tourists, this is a good place to do it.
8. Riverside seafood and photo spots
Thu Duc has a scattering of other spots the local guides love to list, and they are worth an honest word. The riverside seafood restaurants are genuinely good, and eating grilled seafood by the water is a pleasant evening. The lotus ponds, reed-grass fields and sunflower fields you will see mentioned everywhere, though, are pretty enough but heavily oversold, and they are really only worth it if you are a keen photographer or happen to be passing. Do not build a trip around them.
Food and nightlife in Thu Duc City
Being so large and varied, Thu Duc City does not have one food and nightlife scene but several, each tied to a different pocket of the area. Where you go depends entirely on what you are after.
For international food, Thao Dien is the place, with the best spread of Western, Japanese, Korean and other cuisines in the city, along with Saigon’s biggest weekend brunch scene. At the other end of the spectrum, the student area around the universities is all about cheap, cheerful local eats, with night markets and street stalls serving Vietnamese snacks for a fraction of downtown prices. Along the river, the seafood restaurants are a genuine local favourite, and there is good, honest Vietnamese food to be found right across Thu Duc if you know where to look. If you want to know which local dishes to seek out, our street food in Ho Chi Minh City guide covers them.
Nightlife works the same way, spread across different pockets rather than concentrated in one strip. Thao Dien has a relaxed, grown-up bar scene of craft beer, cocktails and riverside drinks. Thu Thiem, the new district facing downtown, is increasingly home to stylish rooftop bars and lounges with panoramic views back across the river to the city skyline, which are worth a drink at sunset. And the student areas have their share of cheap bars and karaoke, an important part of local nightlife. It is a mellow, scattered scene rather than a party district, and if a big night out is what you are after, you will find it back across the river in the city’s nightlife districts.
Getting there and around Thu Duc City
Thu Duc City covers a huge area, so getting there and around depends entirely on which part you are heading for. The good news is that the city’s main transport links run right through it.
The metro
Metro Line 1 is the single most useful way into Thu Duc, because it runs the length of it, from the Thao Dien and An Phu area near the river all the way out to Suoi Tien at the far end. That puts several of the main spots, including Thao Dien and Suoi Tien Theme Park, within easy reach by train, cheaply and in air-conditioned comfort. Our guide to the Saigon metro has the full route and how to use it.
Grab and taxi
For the many spots the metro does not reach, such as Buu Long Pagoda or Vinhomes Grand Park, a Grab is the practical choice. It is cheap and simple, but be realistic about the distances: Thu Duc is enormous, and a trip out to its far corners can take a good while and cost more than a short hop across the centre. Factor that into your day.
The waterbus
For the riverside spots, you can travel by boat. The Saigon Waterbus runs along the river with stops on the Thu Duc side, including near Thao Dien and Thu Thiem, and it is a scenic, breezy way to arrive that beats sitting in traffic.
A note on distances
The most important thing to understand about getting around Thu Duc is that its attractions are far apart. This is not somewhere you can see in a single day, and trying to bounce from Buu Long Pagoda in the north to Vinhomes Grand Park in the east to the Thu Thiem riverside will eat up your whole trip in travel. Pick one or two areas that appeal to you, and focus your time there rather than trying to cover the lot.
Staying in Thu Duc City
Whether Thu Duc City is a good place to stay depends entirely on which part of it you mean, because “staying in Thu Duc” can mean very different things.
Where to stay
In practice, staying in Thu Duc as a visitor means one of two areas. Thao Dien is the obvious choice: leafy, riverside, walkable, full of cafes and restaurants, and on the metro line into the centre, which makes it the most comfortable and best-connected base in Thu Duc. Thu Thiem, the new district across the river from downtown, is the other option, with modern riverside apartments and hotels and skyline views, though it is still finding its feet. The rest of Thu Duc is residential and a long way out, and not somewhere most visitors would want to base themselves.
Who it suits
Staying out in Thu Duc suits some travellers more than others. It works well for longer stays, for families, and for anyone who wants a calmer, greener, more modern base than the busy centre. It suits people who do not mind a metro or Grab ride to reach the main sights, and who value space and comfort over being in the thick of things. It suits a first-time visitor on a short, sights-focused trip far less, since they will spend a good chunk of each day crossing the river.
Is Thu Duc City a good place to stay?
For most visitors, the honest answer is that if you want to stay on this side of the river, stay in Thao Dien specifically, rather than “Thu Duc” in general. It gives you the calm, green, riverside feel with the best food and the easiest metro link into town. Beyond Thao Dien, the rest of Thu Duc is really too far out and too residential to make a convenient base for a short trip. And if this is your first visit and your days revolve around the central sights, you are still better off staying central, in a district like District 1. Work out what kind of trip you are taking, and the right choice becomes clear.
