where should you shop in ho chi minh? 🛍

Planning a trip to Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam? This review might just be what you need! 😜

I rated 3 shopping places in Saigon based on the variety of goods available, quality of goods, shopping comfort level (air-conditioned?), level of haggling required.

📍 Location 1: Russian Market

Variety of goods: not as much as the other 2 locations and some stalls seem to have closed down (likely because of covid?). We were done shopping here in ~40 minutes and we even made a few rounds to make sure we didn't miss out on any stores. If you're looking to buy dried food goods or vietnam coffee powder here is NOT the place to go!

Quality of goods: the shirts I got here were of pretty good quality (thin materials and comfortable) though the designs were limited.

Shopping comfort level: this place is air-conditioned and the shop owners aren't too pushy. Most of the time they're minding their own business so you won't feel too pressurised too.

Level of haggling: the prices here are set quite high to begin with so yes you will have to haggle! Depending on your haggling skills, you may find yourself a good deal here. We tried haggling for a backpack but the owner refused to budge and wanted to charge us 1.6mil dong! We later found another shop near Ben Thanh Market selling the SAME backpack for 700k dong!!!

📍 Location 2: Saigon Square

Variety of goods: definitely more diverse than Russian market's! Although here is also NOT the place to go if you're looking to buy dried food goods or coffee powder. The things they sell range from souvenirs to shirts, backpacks, jewellery and more.

Quality of goods: by far the best quality in my humble opinion!

Shopping comfort level: this place is air-conditioned so you'll find yourself pretty comfortable. ALSO very importantly, the shop owners here are LESS pushy than those at Ben Thanh Market! This made me feel more comfortable browsing and walking around compared to when I was at Ben Thanh Market because there, I felt so pressurised to keep walking to avoid the pushy owners.

Level of haggling: I rated this place 3.5 because the shop owners are generally less aggressive and I didn't have to really haggle THAT much to get a good price.

📍 Location 3: Ben Thanh Market

Variety of goods: by far the biggest shopping place and HERE is where you can find dried goods like fresh nuts (cashews, walnuts etc), and coffee powder. They also sell fruit juices here so you can quench your thirst before continuing your shopping adventures!

Quality of goods: acceptable quality but for the shirts I wanted, Saigon Square's and Russian Market's were definitely of better quality (softer, thinner, more comfortable).

Shopping comfort level: not air-conditioned! and the shop owners are really quite pushy so I didn't rate this place as high as the previous 2.

Level of haggling: 4/5 BECAUSE U GOTTA HAGGLE TO GET A GOOD PRICE!!! We wanted to get this shirt and one of the shop owners wanted to charge us 350k dong. Eventually we haggled and got it down to 100k!!!

OVERALL REVIEW 📝

If you have limited time, then I will suggest you check out Saigon Square and Ben Thanh Market! These two places will give you a good shopping experience PLUS Saigon Square is near shopping malls like Takashimaya - perfect to seek respite after you're done shopping/a long day of walking around the city!

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