Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho Drive: Road Trip Tips & Info

Can Tho is the main city of the Mekong Delta, the "nine dragon river delta" where the Mekong River empties into the South China Sea. It's also the main transportation center for the region. The extensive canals make for a pleasant boat ride, and the nearby floating markets offer authentic goods and exotic local fruit. *Fly into Ho Chi Minh City International Airport where you can take a car or van (approximately 4 hours) to Can Tho.

If you’re planning this same drive and want to know all about it – how long it is, how long it takes, and where to stop along the way – read on. By the end of this post, you’ll know everything about the drive between Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.

How far is Can Tho from Ho Chi Minh City?

As the crow flies, it’s roughly 79 miles between Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. Luckily, we can’t skip over all the good stuff and have to drive – that means seeing some of the sights and countryside between these two points.

For driving, it is roughly 105 miles or 169 km between Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. This may vary slightly depending on your start and end points.

Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho drive hours

In terms of travel time by car, the 105 miles drive from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho takes 2 hours 16 minutes. Again, your final drive time depends on where you start in Ho Chi Minh City and end in Can Tho.

As 105 miles is roughly one tank of gas, you may or may not need to stop for gas along the way; there are plenty of options along these major roads.

Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho road trip

Realistically, you're not going to want to drive without stopping all the way from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho, especially if you're the main driver. So let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Can Tho, and you need to stop along the way to rest. Plus if it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting stops along the way, eat at great restaurants, and find a hotel to stay overnight. That's what we are perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Let's say you're actually planning a road trip to Andorra, and you want to stop on the way to explore. If it's a real road trip, you might want to check out interesting places along the way, or maybe eat at a great restaurant. That's what we are perfect for, helping you figure out travel plans in detail.

Road trip: 1 days of driving

With the full itinerary planned out, we can estimate your total travel time for this trip.

Travel time: 2 hours 16 minutes on the road

Itinerary

Start at Ho Chi Minh City.

Drive for about 2.3 hours and arrive in Can Tho

Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho airports and flights

To give you a better estimate of real-life travel, we've put together a flight itinerary with actual airports. Eventually you'll be able to customize this plan, choosing your own airports and flights. But for now, here's an example we've selected to give you an idea of how traveling might work between airports.

Departure airport: Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN)

Arrival airport: Can Tho International Airport (VCA)

With the airports selected, we can estimate the travel time to and from the airport, based on how far the airport is from downtown.

Getting to the airport: 5 minutes

Getting to your destination: 12 minutes

Now finally, let's look at an example flight from SGN to VCA and figure out how long it would take to fly including take-off and landing, and time to taxi on the runway.

Commercial flight time: 10 minutes

So now we can finally get an idea of the total travel time from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho including time spent getting to/from the airports, an estimated wait time of 2 hours at the airport for TSA security lines and waiting at the gate, and the actual flight itself.

Total travel time: 2 hours 27 minutes

Flying non-stop from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho

Now let's assume you have a private jet and you can fly in the fastest possible straight line between Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest distance is actually the "great circle" distance, or "as the crow flies" which is calculated using an iterative Vincenty formula.

Flight time from Ho Chi Minh City to Can Tho, Mekong Delta is 10 minutes under avarage conditions.

Our flight time calculator assumes an average flight speed for a commercial airliner of 500 mph, which is equivalent to 805 km/hr or 434 knots.

Actual flight times may vary depending on aircraft type, cruise speed, routing, weather conditions, passenger load, and other factors.