Saigon is a busy city with a lot of motorbikes and cars. But not everywhere, there are still some green lung parks, and one of them is Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
The Zoo and Botanical Garden are the largest plant and animal conservation park in Ho Chi Minh City. The garden is the 8th largest zoo in the world. The locals often call it Thao Cam Vien or Vuon Thu Saigon (Saigon Zoo).
The Zoo and Botanical Garden in Ho Chi Minh City
- Address: 2B Nguyen Binh Khiem Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, HCMC.
- Gate 2: 1 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, HCMC.
- Opening hours: 7:00 am – 6:30 pm
- Entrance fee: 50,000 VND/adult, and 30,000VND/child.
- Phone: 028 3829 1425
The Zoo and Botanical Garden have many other exciting things, besides looling at the animals.
The Zoo and Botanical Garden is a great place to escape from the heat.
In the early days, this area was originally a botanical garden, representing a green and diverse ecosystem of the region.
Later, it changed the name to the Zoo and Botanical Garden. Therefore, with the advantage of the perennial plant ecosystem, many people consider the Zoo and Botanical Garden as a place to avoid the heat, that is also very reasonable.
According to the record, the Zoo and Botanical Garden is a scientific research area, led by the French tropical plant researcher Mr. J.B. Louis Pierre in charge of supervision.
To turn this place into an animal and plant breeding ground for the whole of Indochina. By the end of 1865, the Japanese government provided the Botanical Garden with about 900 exotic plant varieties. Therefore, this is the reason why people call this garden a small lung of Saigon.
The plant has up to 1,800 trees of 260 different species, 23 species of domestic orchid, 33 species of cacti, 34 types of bonsai, and 20-hectare green grass. This site is divided into several areas:
- Zoo area
- Ornamental plants and orchids
- Play area (for all ages and sightseeing purposes).
While the zoo and play area are children’s areas, the bonsai area is the domain for students and older people. Why is that? It is because…
The Zoo and Botanical Garden is a site for virtual living and practicing photo skills.
Many young people today have a very elegant hobby of taking pictures. Fortunately, there are countless places in the garden for a virtual living and many things for practicing the photograph skills.
If you like to be photographed,
The Zoo and Botanical Gardens have thousands of beautiful quarters. If you want to have nice photos to share on your social accounts, you can come to animal cages, fountains, bridges, or lovely gates like movies.
If you like taking pictures,
If you do not want yourself appearing in the photos, but prefer to record the beautiful images for sharing, you have to go to the fanciful corners in this oasis.
The most famous location is the orchid garden and cactus. This site locates far to the left of the main stage. Open from 9:30 am, this place gathers many young people to rest and enjoy the coolness of a sky that only sees blue and green, and to keep the magic pictures.
It is because this orchid and cactus area is unique and favored. So, you will probably have to line up to wait for your turn to take pictures.
If you don’t like the mass, drop by behind the scenes of the main stage. It has a pretty terrace, but few people visit it. Here has classical architecture, which looks very fancy. Surrounding this area is a lush green shade, which is a perfect standard background for brightly colored dresses such as yellow or red ones.
Honestly, every corner of the Zoo and Gardens can take beautiful pictures, thanks to the natural green backdrop and the ancient architecture here. Some other pretty looks for photos are behind any of the gates, tree canopy, or right in the middle of the snake breeding maze.
The Zoo and Botanical Gardens are a great destination for families with young children.
Playground and animal learning area
Most children, in fact, don’t like nostalgia or classic style. Any place that can bring joy and laughter to them immediately becomes a paradise. So going to the Zoo to enjoy fresh air or virtual living is not a thing they care about.
But the Zoo and Botanical Garden have many thrilling games. Just bring your kids here, it will definitely have a refreshing time.
Here, you can use the tram to visit the whole botanical garden. Tickets for this type of vehicle are sold near the control gate on Le Duan street, only about 20,000 VND/ticket.
The area near the Nguyen Thi Minh Khai gate (also known as the back gate) is the most fun game in the park. Service time is from 7:00 am – 5:00 pm every day.
Children’s Zoo is a favorite place for plenty of kids. Your children can feed the young goats, lambs, etc. through the fence. Interestingly, on Saturdays and Sundays (from 9:30 am – 10:00 am) and public holidays (10:00 am – 10.30 am), the children’s garden will open the doors for free for them to visit and have fun. Babies can cuddle and play with these animals.
At around 3:00 pm daily in the barn for Lion, Indochinese Tiger, and Bengal White Tiger, you can watch the animals being fed. Wildlife food will be tied up so that the animals climb to maintain their wild behavior and keep them active.
Performing Arts
There are 2 free shows, elephant and music shows. Elephant performance takes place at the elephant rearing zone on Saturdays, Sundays, and the public holidays from 9:00 am – 9:30 am. Particularly for the Tet holiday, there will be an additional performance in the afternoon, from 14:00 – 14:30.
Musical performance: music, circus, and magic shows are at the main stage of the Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Saigon on Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Particularly, Sunday has an afternoon performance from 16:00 to 18:00.
However, recently the cultural shows have not been held often.
>>> You may want to see the best Ho Chi Minh parks.
What to eat at Thao Cam Vien?
Once you play, you will be hungry, especially when you have to take such a long walk. So when being hungry must eat.
However, there is no attractive food inside the Botanical Garden. Besides the Zoo canteen, there are only a few stalls selling ice cream and snacks for children. So, if you want to eat delicious food, then cross to Rubik Zoo.
Rubik Zoo is a shopping, dining, and entertainment center with a total area of over 5,000 m2. Rubik Zoo is also a semi-ecological project, born right on the Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens.
There are many food stalls, including food from different regions of Vietnam. From top to bottom, from inside to outside, just one step away is a food stall, which has tasty dishes.
Which is the best time to go to the Zoo Botanical Gardens?
The Zoo and Botanical Garden are very large, so it takes a lot of time to visit the whole area. Many people take 4-5 hours. Therefore, you should come here a little early, entering from 8:00 am – 9:00 am is most appropriate. If not, you visit it after 2:00 pm. Then you can visit a few sections, and go for a walk for a while.
During the year, summer from May to September is the peak tourist season when many local people spend time here. However, the best time when the flora blooms here is after the Tet holiday from the end of March to April.
While Ho Chi Minh City is usually noisy, the Zoo and Botanical Garden become an ideal place to escape from a stressful life.
The garden is suitable for family travel when you have children, and for people who like to take pictures.
You can not only see the animals in the zoo but also spend a relaxing time in the green regions.