Mekong Delta: Ben Tre Private Day Trip with Sampan & Lunch

★★★★★★★★★★ 4.97 (235 reviews) 97% rated it 5 stars

Free cancellationExcellent quality

1/9

Duration7h–9h

GroupPrivate

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Ben Tre’s quiet canals, coconut workshops and riverside lunch

You’ll taste fresh coconut candy in Ben Tre’s Mekong Delta villages, cycle shaded paths past rice fields with your guide, share tea with locals, float by sampan through peaceful canals—and linger over a riverside lunch with specialties like elephant-ear fish. It’s not rushed or crowded; just slow hours that stick with you long after you’re back in Saigon.

7h–9h

Step-by-step itinerary

Mekong Delta tour and local experiences

Pick up at hotel at 8am
Transfer 2 hours to Bến Tre town
Board motor-boat on Mekong tributary
See brick kilns and local industry
Visit coconut-processing workshop
Visit local family and traditional mats
Cycle or motor cart on shady roads
Enjoy 5-course riverside lunch
Hand-rowing sampan along canal
Drive back to Saigon
Drop off at hotel around 5pm

The Experience

The first thing I noticed in Bến Tre wasn’t the river or the boats—it was the smell of wood smoke drifting from those brick kilns. Our guide, Hien, waved us over and explained how these beehive-shaped ovens still bake bricks the old way. There was this soft hum of voices and a heat that made my shirt stick to my back. I kind of liked it. It felt real, not staged for tourists (actually, we barely saw any other groups all day).

We hopped into a motor-boat next—loud engine, but you get used to it—and drifted past tangled palms and houses on stilts. Hien pointed out a woman paddling with her feet (she grinned when she caught me staring). At the coconut workshop, I tried to say “kẹo dừa” for coconut candy—Li laughed at my accent but handed me a warm piece straight off the line anyway. Sticky, sweet, and somehow tasted like the air itself. We sipped fresh coconut juice under a tin roof while rain started tapping overhead for maybe ten minutes—just enough to cool things down.

Visiting a local family making mats was quieter—just the rhythmic slap of reeds and someone’s radio playing old songs in Vietnamese. They poured us tea that tasted almost grassy and set out fruit I’d never seen before. We cycled after that, slow enough to hear frogs croaking in rice paddies and catch bits of conversation from people working in their gardens. It was shady most of the way; even so, I got sunburned on my nose (should’ve listened about the hat).

Lunch was five courses at this riverside spot—elephant-ear fish fried crisp, spring rolls you wrap yourself, all sorts of herbs I couldn’t name. If you’re vegetarian or need halal food, just tell them ahead—they seemed happy to adjust. The last bit was gliding in a hand-rowed sampan along a canal so narrow our guide joked about “Mekong traffic jams.” I still think about how quiet it got there except for birds and someone chopping wood far off.

What’s included

Your day includes private hotel pickup and drop-off from Saigon by air-conditioned car, all boat trips plus either tuk tuk or bicycle rides through Ben Tre’s villages, snacks like fruit and coconut candy along the way, two bottles of drinking water per person, a five-course riverside lunch (with vegetarian or halal options if needed), and your friendly English-speaking local guide throughout.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleStroller friendlyPets welcomePublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by Asiana Link Travel