Phu Quoc to Ho Chi Minh City: My Three-Day City Break
My trip from Phu Quoc to Ho Chi Minh City began with a trade-fair announcement and ended with fireworks, rain and a hurried departure on a night bus. In between were three days at Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam, a quiet base in District 7, a Russian lunch and the Monet and Van Gogh light exhibition.
This is my account of an April 2025 city break, rather than a three-day itinerary designed to cover every major sight. Work gave me the reason to leave the island; the things around it made the trip worth remembering. It also taught me to be much more careful about booking a departure straight after a major city celebration.
Leaving Phu Quoc for a change of pace
After a month on Phu Quoc, I wanted a change. I happened to see Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam 2025 online and opened the programme: décor, handmade products, fashion and export. That was enough to get me interested. Why not fly over and take a look?
The timing coincided with the end of my monthly accommodation booking. I still had more of the island to explore and did not feel like moving, so I extended my hotel for another month. The city trip became a short interruption in island life, not the end of it.
I had been staying in the Marina area. People do stay there for months, and I understood the appeal: life had become calm, and I was enjoying that. Wanting a few days in a big city did not mean I had grown tired of the island.
My taxi to Phu Quoc Airport took about 15 minutes, and the flight to Ho Chi Minh City took less than an hour. Those were my journey times, not a door-to-door promise. Airport formalities and the journey across Saigon still need space in the day.
For a similar break, compare flight times and baggage before choosing the cheapest fare. An arrival that leaves you usable time in the city can matter more than a small saving.
Why I stayed in District 7
The fair was at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center, usually shortened to SECC. I chose accommodation in District 7 because I would be going there repeatedly. From my hotel, the exhibition centre was about a 25-minute walk or a seven-minute taxi ride.
The neighbourhood felt slightly strange to me: more urban than the island, but much quieter than central Saigon. There were cafés, shops and room to walk. It worked for mornings with coffee, days at the exhibition and an uncomplicated dinner before returning to the room.
Phu My Hung, Crescent Mall, Crescent Lake and Starlight Bridge gave me places to think about beyond the exhibition halls. The attraction of this area was everyday convenience, rather than a dense concentration of historic sights. I would use a nearby hotel again for an SECC-focused visit; for a first sightseeing trip, I would weigh that convenience differently.
| Your main purpose | How I would choose the base |
|---|---|
| Several days at SECC | Stay near the exhibition centre and check the actual hotel-to-venue route |
| Central sightseeing and evenings out | Compare central hotels rather than choosing District 7 just because it suited my fair visit |
| A mixed work and leisure stay | Decide which journeys you will repeat most; allow for cross-city travel on the others |
You can compare Ho Chi Minh City hotel availability on Trip.com once the area is decided. For a more leisure-focused stay, my Saigon hotels with rooftop pools comparison looks at the differences between places to unwind.
Three days at Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam 2025
The 2025 fair ran at SECC from 24 to 26 April. It was a business-to-business sourcing event, so the conversations were about products, suppliers and orders. I went because the combination of home décor, textiles and handmade goods interested me, rather than because it was a tourist activity.
Registration was straightforward in my case. I entered my details online, received a confirmation and QR code, and used it to collect a trade-visitor badge. The orange lanyard quickly became part of my daily routine.
Inside, the home-and-gifts displays held my attention: rattan, coconut-shell products, woven materials, tableware and objects for the home. It was a different way of looking at things I might otherwise pass in a shop. Here, people were discussing the material, colour choices and the quantities needed for an export order.
Fashion and accessories occupied another part of the fair, alongside electronics and home appliances. There were larger manufacturers and smaller workshops, with repeated emphasis on handmade, recycled and eco-friendly products. Those words on a stand are a starting point for questions about materials and production, rather than a conclusion in themselves.
The exhibition also had business matching, fashion presentations and discussion sessions. For me, the value was in being able to look closely across different kinds of products in one place. A trade fair asks for a slower, more purposeful kind of attention than a shopping trip.
Anyone planning a future visit should use the official Global Sourcing Fair Vietnam page for the next edition’s dates and visitor registration. My badge process and the April dates above describe the 2025 event.
CCCP Saigon: a familiar lunch in an unfamiliar city
After the fair, I wanted something familiar. I remembered CCCP Saigon and took a taxi there. The change of setting was immediate: wooden benches, embroidered cloths, matryoshka dolls and Soviet-themed posters. Familiar songs played while I opened a menu that contained almost as much nostalgia as food.
There were pages about kvass, tea and dishes I recognised from home. I ordered solyanka, Olivier salad and kvass. The soup arrived hot, with olives, lemon and sausage; the salad had peas, mayonnaise and a little dill. The kvass was the part I was particularly pleased to find.
The portions were modest, and that suited me. I left fed and slightly thoughtful. Finding a familiar meal in Asia sometimes produces an odd overlap: the music and menu take you somewhere else, then you step onto the pavement and the heat and motorbikes put you firmly back in Saigon.
From a nostalgic lunch to Monet and Van Gogh
My next stop was Monet & Van Gogh Art Lighting Experience at Gigamall. After the restaurant’s familiar objects and music, walking into projected paintings felt like a complete change of direction. Colour moved across the room, with sound and animation replacing the stillness of a conventional gallery.
I bought a standard ticket at the entrance for around 250,000 VND. The cashier handed me a second ticket as part of a buy-one-get-one offer. I was on my own, so it initially felt like a slightly useless bonus. That extra ticket eventually became one of my favourite small memories of the trip.
The price and promotion belong to my 2025 visit. For the current location on level 8, ticket choices and what the experience includes, see my separate Monet and Van Gogh exhibition guide. The attraction uses digital reproductions and installations; I was not looking at original canvases.
For a future visit with a broader afternoon programme, the art-and-café tour below combines the exhibition with Tan Dinh’s pink church and Oasis Coffee. It is a guided outing, not the walk-up admission I bought. Compare the selected option’s inclusions and transport arrangements before deciding between the two approaches.
26 April: a city already celebrating
The last day of the fair coincided with the build-up to the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam. Reunification Day itself is 30 April; the evening I spent in the centre was 26 April 2025, when anniversary events were already under way.
After the exhibition, I went into central Saigon to walk around. Nguyen Hue and the surrounding streets were full of people: families, visitors and vendors, with music, lights and performances drawing everyone towards the river. The city felt completely different from my quiet routine near SECC.
There were projections and performances around the People’s Committee building. Flags and commemorative banners were everywhere. I watched the fireworks from a distance; the 26 April display began at 9:30 pm near the Saigon River Tunnel. It was part of that year’s anniversary programme, not a regular nightly attraction.
The experience made the city’s history feel much closer than it had inside a taxi between appointments. For a more deliberate encounter with that history, the War Remnants Museum deserves its own time during a stay. I would not add it merely to fill an empty hour.
The return to Phu Quoc: a connection I nearly missed
I had booked an 11 pm bus to Ha Tien. After the fireworks, the combination of crowds, road closures and difficulty finding transport suddenly mattered much more than the view. I reached the departure point with only about five minutes to spare.
That is the part I would change. Watching a major public event and then crossing the city for a fixed departure left very little room for anything to go wrong. On another trip, I would leave a larger gap or stay the night.
My return route was overland to Ha Tien, followed by the ferry to Phu Quoc. I use Vexere for bus bookings, and Phu Quoc Express is the operator to check for its sailing times. The company currently describes the Ha Tien crossing as about an hour and twenty minutes; the bus journey and waiting time are separate.
Compare the complete return journey with a flight, including the departure point, pier transfer and connection buffer. Do not plan a ferry connection solely around the advertised bus arrival, particularly when the city has road restrictions or the sailing schedule may change.
The extra ticket became a small treasure hunt
A friend was due to arrive in Ho Chi Minh City a couple of days later, and I decided to leave the spare exhibition ticket for him. My first idea was to hide it near the Opera House, but I could not find a suitable place in the crowds.
Then it started to rain. Outside Vincom Plaza, I noticed a row of large planters. I tucked the ticket into the one at the far left, photographed the spot and sent my friend the location.
Two days later, he arrived and found it. There was nothing elaborate about the plan, but it turned a spare ticket into a little adventure. Of all the things I had scheduled around the fair, that was the one I could never have put in a programme.
What I would keep from this three-day city break
Staying near SECC made sense because work shaped my days. Leaving room for the restaurant, the art exhibition and a walk through the celebrations made the trip feel like a change of pace rather than simply three days indoors at a fair.
I would keep that balance and change the final-night logistics. Phu Quoc was still waiting for me afterwards, along with the room I had extended for another month. I had not needed to choose between island life and the city; I just needed a few days of something different.
This article contains affiliate links. I may earn a commission if you book through them, at no extra cost to you.
