Ben Thanh Station Layover: Ho Chi Minh Metro
Part of the full Ho Chi Minh City in One Day: Old Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City’s one metro line runs 19.7 kilometres east from Ben Thanh station, ending at a theme park with dragons over its gates and passing within a kilometre of the 1865 zoo and botanical gardens two stops out.
Suoi Tien puts gold dragons over its entrance gates
Suoi Tien sits at 120 Hanoi Highway at the eastern end of the line, and it is a theme park built out of Vietnamese legend rather than imported characters: gate towers with gold dragons coiled up them, gilded halls shaped like temples, a lake, and rides threaded between the two. Standard entry is 180,000 dong, children under 1.4 metres pay 100,000, and the gates open in the morning and close around five.
It is the one stop on this line that genuinely needs planning, because the ride out is about half an hour and the ride back is the same, so five hours free is roughly the floor before it stops being a rush. Entry tickets sold in advance through a tours and activities platform save the queue at the gate, which on a Sunday is worth more than the few thousand dong difference.
The zoo and botanical gardens have been open since 1865
Thao Cam Vien was laid out on Nguyen Binh Khiem in 1865, while the French were still building the city around it, and it has never moved off that ground; the metro’s second stop leaves about a kilometre to walk. The botanical half is the better half: more than 1,800 plant species under trees old enough to shade the whole path network, which in the afternoon heat is the practical argument for going.
It opens 7am to 5:30pm every day, and entry can be booked ahead on the same platform. Sharing a wall with it is the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of History, Auguste Delaval’s building of 1929, opened as the Musee Blanchard de la Brosse, holding Cham sandstone sculpture, Khmer wood carving and Dong Son bronzes; it runs Tuesday to Sunday, 8 to 11:30 and 1 to 5, so an early afternoon arrival can walk into a locked door and not understand why.
A lotus-shaped skylight 21.6 metres across lights Ben Thanh station
The station is the largest of the fourteen on the line by a wide margin: 236 metres long, 60 wide, four levels down to a depth of 32 metres, under Le Loi and September 23 Park. Above ground, a canopy of tempered glass and honeycomb aluminium 21.6 metres across and six metres tall stands in the park in the shape of a stylised lotus, echoing the triangular roofline of the market opposite and dropping daylight down the shaft to the concourse. A public art space opened inside the station after it did, which is worth a minute on the way through rather than a trip of its own.
All of which is the reason to arrive without a bag: four levels and 236 metres of platform means escalators and a long walk at both ends of every journey, and a wheeled suitcase turns a six-minute headway into a missed train.
Last trains leave at ten, eleven at weekends
Service starts at five in the morning, with six-minute headways at weekday peaks and seven or eight at weekends, so getting out along the line is never the constraint. Coming back is, because after the last departure, ten on Monday to Thursday and eleven from Friday to Sunday, there is no later train, only a taxi down a highway that is busy at almost any hour. Nothing on this line reaches the airport: Tan Son Nhat is eight kilometres northwest of here, off the route entirely, and the connection is bus 152 from near the market above the station, 5,000 dong, stopping outside the international terminal, or a taxi at 25 to 45 minutes depending on the hour. Build in three hours between leaving central Saigon and an international departure.
If the line east looks like more travelling than the time allows, the main Ho Chi Minh City guide covers what sits within walking distance of the exits instead, most of it free and none of it more than about twenty minutes on foot.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Ben Thanh Station in Ho Chi Minh City?
Ride east, because that is the only direction the line goes. A kilometre's walk from the second stop, the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens has been open since 1865 and shares its wall with the city's history museum, which shuts over lunch and all day Monday. At the far end of the line, about half an hour of train time away, Suoi Tien is a theme park built around Vietnamese legend, with dragons over the gates and a 180,000-dong standard ticket. Three hours covers the zoo and the museum without hurrying; the theme park only makes sense with five or more, since the round trip alone eats an hour.
How much does the Ho Chi Minh City metro cost?
Between 7,000 and 20,000 dong for a single journey paid in cash, or 6,000 to 19,000 paid by card or app, with the price rising by distance: the shortest hop costs 7,000 and the full run to the eastern terminus 20,000. An unlimited day pass is 40,000 dong, which pays for itself on any trip involving two return journeys, and a three-day pass is 90,000. Tickets come from machines and staffed windows inside the station.
When does the last metro train leave Ben Thanh?
Ten at night from Monday to Thursday, and eleven on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Trains run from five in the morning, every six minutes at weekday peaks and every seven or eight at weekends. The late cutoff matters if you have gone out to the end of the line, because the ride back is around half an hour and there is no later service to fall back on, only a taxi down a highway that is busy at almost any hour.
Is Ben Thanh station step-free?
Yes, though it takes a while. The station runs four levels down to a depth of 32 metres, and lifts connect every one of them, alongside the escalators most people use. The platforms are level with the train floor. The catch is distance rather than steps: the station is 236 metres long and 60 metres wide, so getting from a street entrance to the right platform is a genuine walk, and the same is true in reverse when you come back up.