Is Bến Thành Market Worth It?

Why does it rate so badly?

Because it is priced and staffed as a tourist market, and the city around it sells the same goods better and cheaper.

Print the number, because almost nobody does: 3.4 out of 5, ranked #60 of 488 things to do in the city. For the most famous market in Vietnam's largest city that is a remarkable verdict, and the reviews explain it consistently — counterfeit goods, grabbing, and opening prices for foreigners at two to four times the local rate.

The touting is the part travellers are least prepared for. It is persistent and it is physical; arm-touching is common. If you dislike being called at, skip the interior entirely — you lose very little.

A traveller making the same argument this page makes, with the alternatives they shop instead. Video by MISTER ABROAD.

What is actually worth seeing?

The 1912 building and its clock tower, for about twenty minutes — and the night market outside, which is the better dinner.

The market has real history. Informal riverside trading here goes back to the seventeenth century; the French formalised it after 1859; the original burned in 1870, and the current building went up in 1912 with a fireproof metal structure, French-Indochinese styling and the landmark clock tower. It holds around 1,500 booths and over 6,000 small traders, and was renovated in 2022.

If you do go in, the gates specialise: south for clothing, textiles, shoes and jewellery; north for fresh produce, fish and cooked food; east for dried seafood, coffee, tea and spices; west for art and ceramics. The north gate is the interesting one.

The night market that sets up on the surrounding streets after 18:00 is food-heavy and is a better use of an evening than the hall is of an afternoon.

If you are going to haggle, here is how

Counter at 40–50% of the opening price and settle around 60–75%. Walking away is the strongest and most acceptable move.

• Ask bao nhiêu? and expect an inflated number.
• Counter at about 40–50% of what you are told, and expect to settle around 60–75%.
• Be smiling and unhurried. Walking away is normal and is the strongest move you have.
• Carry small notes so you cannot be told there is no change.
• Agree the price before anything is bagged or altered.
• Check a price in a fixed-price shop first so you know what the real number is.

One category to avoid on principle: counterfeit branded goods, which are sold in volume here and in the nearby stall malls. They are illegal to import into the EU, the UK, the US, Australia and most other home countries, customs do seize them, and the trade is linked to unregulated labour. Unbranded Vietnamese-made cotton, from one of the world's largest genuine garment industries, is a different and perfectly good thing to buy.

What to buy instead

Coffee and a phin filter, or Vietnamese bean-to-bar chocolate. Both beat anything in the market hall.

Coffee is the best souvenir-to-price ratio in Vietnam — buy the ordinary robusta or a single-origin Đà Lạt arabica rather than the weasel-branded tiers, at 60,000–150,000₫, and buy a phin filter with it for 30,000–80,000₫ or the coffee is useless at home.

Vietnamese bean-to-bar chocolate, made in this city since 2011 from cacao grown by smallholder co-operatives across the south, runs about 90,000–150,000₫ a bar and is the single best modern-Vietnam purchase available.