Located only 50km southwest of Saigon, Can Gio acts as the green lungs for the city. Technically Can Gio is a suburban district of Saigon but with the lush green forest, it feels a million miles away from the city.
Can Gio Island is a quick ferry ride across the river from Nha Be district (south of district 7), though they are building a bridge to make the island more accessible. It is classified as a UNESCO bio-reserve; think lots of rivers, mangrove forests and monkeys. There are so many monkeys that Can Gio is also sometimes called “monkey island”.
Jump to the bottom to see Can Gio on the map.
There are two ways to can get to Can Gio; by public bus or by motorbike. I’ve only ever driven myself to Can Gio so can’t comment personally on the bus, but from researching it looks like you would have to ask the driver to make extra stops for you and there would be a lot of time spent waiting to be picked up by the next bus. Motorbike seems to be the most efficient transport option so I would recommend hiring a driver for the day if you cannot drive yourself.
If you’re an expat living in Saigon then you probably already have a motorbike, but if you are travelling through or don’t have your own bike then you’ll need to rent one (see this post for places you rent). Once you get out of the city centre, the roads are quiet and easy to drive which could make it a good first road trip for newbie motorbike drivers.
To get onto Can Gio island, you will need to take the ferry. While there used to be two ferry crossings over to Can Gio, only the Binh Khanh ferry port in Nha Be district is currently operating (Mar 2020). It costs 4.5k to take your motorbike across on the ferry and they run every 15 mins.
💰 4.5k per ferry crossing ⏰ Every 15 mins from 5am – 8pm; every 30/45 mins from 8pm – 5am.
📍 Phà Bình Khánh
Once you arrive on Can Gio island, you’ll find yourself in a little town called Binh Khanh. I would recommend buying some water and/or gas if you need any here are there are not many gas stations between this town and Can Thanh town at the end of the island.
The first stop of the day is the Can Gio Bio-Reserve where you’ll find a mangrove forest. There are boardwalks you can wander around on as well as a series of activities you can book in for like kayaking, and taking a boat out to the wild bird reserves. On our trip, we just walked through the mangrove forests on the boardwalks.
It was around 12pm by the time we finished up at the mangrove forest. Unfortunately, their restaurant wasn’t open (though it was the first Monday after Tet) so we headed across the road to another little restaurant. Our group were mostly vegetarians and we were able to get some rice, eggs and veggies super cheap, but they also had meat and fish on offer.
Next up was a stop at Can Gio monkey forest, so named for all the monkeys that call this part of the forest home.
I’m not a huge fan of monkeys as they can be quite aggressive but this wasn’t the case here thankfully. That said, I highly recommend hiding any belongings (especially sunglasses and bottles) inside your bag to avoid the monkeys trying to steal from you; my friend had her glasses stolen off her head.
Within the monkey forest is a forest museum. Not much of the information is in English however gathering from the displays, there must have been a presence during the war here. There are full-sized model shelters, fires and camps set up (some complete with model people) as well as a Ho Chi Minh statue at the end of the walk.
There are also boat ride options here but as you split the cost per boat, it wasn’t worth it for me and my friends (I think it was ~600k per boat).
💰 70k
From monkey forest, it’s a 25 min drive to the end of Can Gio island where you’ll find a town called Can Thanh. Here you’ll find a beachfront with views over to Vung Tau. The beach is rocky in some parts and sandy when you walk further down, though honestly it’s not well kept and covered in trash so I don’t recommend bringing swimwear or getting in the water here.
In the town, there is a fish market and some cafes where you can get drinks and lounge in hammocks. We relaxed in a cafe called “Quán nhà mình” next to Can Gio park with hammocks, coconuts and drinks.
📍 Can Gio Park
After a breakdown by the waterfront, we got back onto our bikes and made the drive straight back to the ferry port in Binh Khanh. The drive from Can Gio park to the ferry port took around 1.5hrs and then a further hour back into the centre of Saigon.
I recommend visiting the sites of Can Gio as I have laid it out above, starting at the mangrove forest first and ending in the coastal town of Can Thanh before driving the route back. Otherwise, you risk not fitting it all in.
Click the star next to the map title to save it to your Google Drive for later.
⏰ We left Saigon at around 9am and returned around 6pm. This is a full-day trip.
💰 9k return ferry ride + 70k entrance to the monkey forest + 30k for lunch + 70k on gas for the day.
✍ For more motorbiking day trips from Saigon, check out my complete guide to motorbiking in Vietnam.
Can Gio is such a great day trip to take from Saigon, with ferry rides, forests, monkeys and beaches! Grab some friends and go!