Can Tho, the other end of the line

Can Tho is a working city, not a riverside village, and the cruise piers are in the middle of it. That is useful: you step off a delta boat at Ninh Kieu into a place with hotels, taxis and a domestic airport. It is also the reason most delta cruises are a line between Can Tho and Cai Be rather than a loop. The city sits on the Hau river, the southern of the Mekong's two main channels in Vietnam.

The draw for most visitors is Cai Rang floating market, and it is worth being plain about it. The market's culture was recognised as national intangible heritage in 2016, and by 2020 it was already drawing about 750,000 visitors a year while road building and riverbank embankments squeezed the space for trade. A private guide published in 2026 gives two different boat counts on two pages, both far below the hundreds of past decades, and notes a growing share of tourist boats. Go early, go expecting a smaller market, and you will still see the river at its busiest hour.

If you sail from Cai Be towards Can Tho on a boat that passes Cai Rang, you do not need a night here; the market comes on the second morning. If you sail the other way, the boat leaves around midday and you miss the market. In that case one night in Can Tho before boarding lets you take a small boat to Cai Rang at about 05:30 and be back at the hotel for breakfast.

Two nights is more than most cruise passengers need. The city's other well-known sight, the Binh Thuy ancient house from 1870, takes an hour.

By road from Saigon, about 171 km on the expressway chain that now runs through to Can Tho; the My Thuan–Can Tho section opened in December 2023. Allow three to three and a half hours by car. Buses take about four hours and were listed at VND 170,000 to 260,000 one way.

Can Tho's airport (VCA) lists domestic routes only, to Hanoi, Phu Quoc and a handful of other cities; route lists change, so check with the airlines. There is no scheduled international service listed.

• If your boat runs Cai Be to Can Tho and passes Cai Rang on the way: the cruise already gives you the morning.
• If you want a lively, traditional floating market; Cai Rang is smaller and more touristic than it was.
• If your next stop is Phnom Penh: Chau Doc, further upriver, is where the daily speedboat leaves.

Cai Be to Can Tho, 1 night in either direction; two nights in the delta, which passes through on the loop; and Victoria Mekong's legs on the Saigon to Siem Reap page.