Ben Tre, in the eastern Mekong Delta, is the "Kingdom of Coconuts." Amid scenery woven from expanses of palm groves and canals, it's a rustic riverside town where you can enjoy making coconut candy and taking small-boat canal cruises. You can visit it as a day trip from Ho Chi Minh City. This page compiles everything from the town's overall picture to how to get around, staple spots, model courses, food, souvenirs, and the latest topics, and guides you to individual articles on cafés, news, and souvenirs.
| Location | Southern Mekong Delta |
|---|---|
| Characteristics | The capital of coconuts |
| Best season | December–April |
| Suggested days | Half a day to a full day |
| Language | Vietnamese (English also understood in tourist areas) |
| Currency | Vietnamese dong (VND) |
| Time difference from Japan | -2 hours |
What kind of town is Ben Tre?
ベンチェ（2025年の行政再編でヴィンロン省の一部に統合されたエリア）はメコンデルタの中央に位置する水郷地帯。「ココナッツの首都」と呼ばれ、ベトナム全体のココナッツ生産の30%以上を担います。広大なココナッツ畑、無数の小運河（リョッ）、ココナッツキャンディー工房・伝統工芸の村々が点在。ホーチミンから日帰りツアーで気軽に行けるメコンデルタ体験スポットとして定番です。 ベンチェ省はメコン川下流域に4つの島を持つ水郷地帯で、ベトナム全体のココナッツ生産の約30%を占める「ココナッツの首都」。広大なココナッツ農園と無数の小運河（リョッ）が独特の地形を形作り、手漕ぎボートで小運河を巡るエコツアーが定番。岸辺のココナッツの葉が水面を覆い、緑のトンネルを進むような体験は他にはない魅力。ホーチミンから車2時間という近さから日帰りツアーで気軽に行ける本格的なメコンデルタ体験スポットとして、欧米バックパッカーから日本人観光客まで人気。
Access to Ben Tre and how to get around
Two hours by car from Ho Chi Minh City (via the expressway). There is no airport with direct flights. Many day tours depart from Ho Chi Minh City, and English-guided tours are common too. Between the city and sights, use motorbike taxis or tour buses.
Rather than town walks, the focus is boat tours around the canals and orchards. The staple route is passing through nipa-palm tunnels in a hand-rowed small boat and stopping by coconut-processing workshops and apiaries.
Ben Tre's staple sightseeing spots
We've summed up the representative spots in a quick-reference table. Use it as a guide when planning your route.
| Spot | Notes |
|---|---|
| Coconut plantation & small-canal tour | Explore the waterways by hand-rowed boat |
| Coconut candy workshop | Watch the making and sample it |
| Hong Choi Island (Con Phung) | A midstream islet of orchards and traditional music |
| Cai Mon horticultural village | A major hub for flowers and seedlings |
| Vien Minh Pagoda | A venerable temple in the town center |
Coconut plantation & small-canal tour
This is the staple experience: gliding slowly through narrow waterways lined with nipa palms on both banks in a small boat handled by a local rower. The stillness—nothing but the leaves overhead and the sound of water—lets you feel up close the original landscape of Mekong Delta life. The common flow is to cross the main channel by large boat and then transfer to a small one, with the canal stretch taking about 15–30 minutes one way. In the morning or evening, when the sun softens, the water is calm and easier to photograph. Bring a hat, sun protection, and clothes you don't mind getting wet, and you'll be at ease.
Coconut candy workshop
This is a workshop where you can watch Ben Tre's signature coconut candy finished entirely by hand, from the process of simmering down freshly pressed coconut milk. The deftness of cooling the candy kneaded in a pot, cutting it into pieces, and wrapping each one in paper never gets old to watch. You can sample the warm, freshly made candy on the spot and compare flavor differences like peanut, durian, and ginger. Many are stops on tours, and it's an easy place to buy some as a souvenir too.
Hong Choi Island (Con Phung)
A lush green islet floating on the Tien River, where you can enjoy orchards, apiaries, and coconut handicrafts all at once. Savoring honey tea and seasonal tropical fruit while listening to live performances of don ca tai tu, the traditional music of the south, is the staple way to spend time on the island. Touring the settlement by horse-drawn cart or bicycle, or slipping through the waterways by small boat—the movement itself becomes an experience. You access it by ferry from the mainland, and it's often built into half-day tours.
Cai Mon horticultural village
Spreading across the Cho Lach district, this is a leading flower and seedling production area of southern Vietnam. Alongside traditional flowers such as marigolds, bougainvillea, chrysanthemums, and dahlias, farms growing fruit-tree seedlings and bonsai cluster together, and a green-wrapped rural landscape continues. Before Lunar New Year (Tet), the whole village is colored with flowers for shipping, making it the most vibrant season. You can watch the tending of seedlings and bonsai up close, so it's an area with plenty to see for gardening lovers.
Vien Minh Pagoda
A temple in the town of Ben Tre, originally a shrine dedicated to Guan Gong, which through repeated renovations was arranged into a larger complex in 1951. It's easy to access from the city center, and though it sits amid a lively town, you can worship quietly. You can feel the calm bearing of the grounds and the way faith is rooted in the community. In Ben Tre, where sights are scattered about, it's an easy place to drop by between town walks.
Ben Tre model course
Morning: Cross the main channel by boat to Hong Choi Island (Con Phung). Tour the orchards and apiaries, savor honey tea and seasonal fruit while enjoying a don ca tai tu performance, and then experience a waterway tour slipping through the small canals in a hand-rowed boat.
Afternoon: Watch the making demonstration and sample it at a coconut candy workshop, and buy some souvenirs. Return to town and stop by Vien Minh Pagoda, and if you have time to spare, extend your trip to Cai Mon horticultural village to take in the rural scenery of flowers and seedlings.
Ben Tre food and specialties
We've compiled in a table the local flavors you'll want to taste in Ben Tre.
| Dish | Characteristics |
|---|---|
| Coconut rice | Rice cooked in coconut milk, faintly sweet and rich. Paired with dishes or on its own, it lets you easily savor Ben Tre's signature coconut flavor. |
| Coconut candy | Ben Tre's signature confection, a rustic-flavored candy made by simmering down and kneading coconut milk. There are also varieties with peanut, ginger, or durian, and it's beloved as a staple souvenir. |
| Cá tai tượng (deep-fried elephant-ear fish) | A dish that graces the banquet tables of the Mekong Delta—a large freshwater fish deep-fried whole until crisp. The staple way to eat it is to wrap the flaked flesh with vegetables and herbs in rice paper and dip it in sauce. |
| Honey tea | A warm tea of local honey combined with lime and kumquat, served at the apiaries on the midstream islands. It's offered as a break during orchard visits and is beloved as one scene of Ben Tre's farm experience. |
| Seasonal tropical fruit | In Ben Tre, with its many orchards, you can enjoy assorted seasonal fruits such as longan, rambutan, and pomelo. Savoring them while listening to a don ca tai tu performance is the way to enjoy the island tour. |
Souvenirs to buy in Ben Tre
We've summed up distinctly Vietnamese souvenirs by item (item names link to individual pages).
| Item | Genre | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Coconut oil | Food | Ben Tre is the home of coconut processing. Handmade products line the souvenir shops |
| Cashew nuts | Food | Available at markets, supermarkets, and the airport |
| Vietnamese coffee beans | Food | Available at markets, supermarkets, and the airport |
| Nuoc mam (fish sauce) | Food | Available at markets, supermarkets, and the airport |
| Basket bags | Goods | Available at markets, supermarkets, and the airport |
Ben Tre's latest topics
ベンチェに関わる最近の話題は、それぞれ個別の記事で詳しく取り上げています。
Best season, budget, and trip preparation
The best season is the dry season, December–April. The rainy season (May–November) is the flood period and canal water levels rise, but it's the bumper harvest season for fruit.
Budget 500–1,000 yen a day. Day tours from Ho Chi Minh City (Ben Tre + My Tho) leave around 7 a.m. and return around 5 p.m., typically costing 5,000–8,000 yen. The standard course includes a coconut candy workshop, a traditional honey-tea tasting, and a coconut-cuisine lunch. Hand-rowed small-boat tours run 1,000–2,000 yen per boat for 20–30 minutes. "Hong Choi Island" (one of the four islands) gathers orchards, apiaries, and traditional-music performance spots, so a Mekong experience can be completed in a single day.
Points to note
The small canal boats rock, so non-slip shoes are safer than sandals. Sun protection is a must. In this rustic area, many shops don't take credit cards, so you'll want to have cash ready.
Ben Tre on the map
