Checking Out Saigon Skydeck

By alantvuong on March 7, 2020

I have been to so many tall towers and building on all my trips, that I had to check out the Saigon Skydeck with my 3 friends when we visited Ho Chi Minh City back in November 2017. The Saigon Skydeck is located on the 49th floor of the Bitexco Financial Tower. This skyscraper is 68 floors tall and has a height of 263 meters (861 feet) and opened late 2010 with the Skydeck observation deck opening in 2011. When it initially opened, it was the tallest building in Vietnam but now ranks as the fifth tallest in the country. The building was designed to look like the lotus bud which is Vietnam’s national flower.

shaped like a lotus, Vietnam’s national flower

Getting There

The Saigon Skydeck is located in District 1 and is a short distance from Ben Thanh Market where we were just strolling by. It is only a 20 minute walk from our Rosabella Hotel on Bui Vien Street. We can either enter from the Bitexco Tower doors and cut through the shops and head to the Saigon Skydeck ticket counter or use the separate Saigon Skydeck doors to get in.

main floor of Bitexco Financial Tower

Bitexco Financial Tower

Bitexco Financial Tower features shopping, restaurants and a movie theater on the first 4 floors. Offices, premium office space and mechanical rooms pretty much fills the other floors up to the 68th floor except for a few. The Skydeck is on floor 49, Eon Cafe on floor 50, Eon 51 is a fine dining restaurant on floor 51, Eon Helibar equipped with a helipad on floor 52, and The World Of Heineken on floors 58 to 60.

If you wanted to skip the entrance fee of the Skydeck, views could be seen for free at the cafes or restaurants. Of course, you would have to buy something from them and prices are quite high. Also, these floors won’t allow you to see the full 360 degrees of scenery looking out.

newly opened just 2 weeks before our visit to the Bitexco Financial Tower

Saigon Skydeck

Visiting hours for Saigon Skydeck is 9.30 AM to 9.30 PM. Regular adult admission is 200,000 VND which is about $9 USD. Children, seniors and disabled persons only have to pay 130,000 VND. There are options to buy a combo ticket with the newly just opened The World Of Heineken but since we arrived later that night, we didn’t want to rush either attraction and opted to just experience the Saigon Skydeck.

all 4 of us enjoyed our visit

Once we got to the 49th floor, we were definitely rewarded with the great views of Ho Chi Minh City. The lights of the city at night really was beautiful. We noticed that there was no open deck, so sometimes it was hard to get a really good picture through the glass windows. Occasionally, there were reflections from the glass and some of the glass windows were a bit dirty making it a bit hard to capture the perfect shot. We did get a few great night pictures but I wish we got here a little earlier to see what the city looks like in the day.

night shot of the city

It was still awesome to look out and see the city from this height. I was a bit surprised that there wasn’t any glass floor like a bunch of tall towers I have been to. There was a mini museum showcasing Vietnamese culture that we enjoyed and looked through for a bit. A souvenir shop and some cool displays and information about the Saigon Skydeck were the other things that also could be found on the same floor.

mini museum

part of the mini museum

Overall Impression

All 4 of us really enjoyed our visit to the Saigon Skydeck very much and thought it was a wheelchair friendly attraction to do and would recommend it to everybody. Next time I come back, I would like to visit the Bitexco Financial Tower a bit longer to visit The World Of Heineken and either the cafe, restaurant or bar. The Skydeck itself could be seen in an hour but I can see it being a few hours longer if we visited the other places in this tower.