Saigon Motorbike Food Tours: Which One Should You Book?

What does US$30 actually get you?

Four hours, a dedicated pillion driver, ten to twelve tastings across several districts, and a five-star review pool in the thousands.

The four-hour evening motorbike tour at around US$30 is the category-defining product in this city, and Saigon is the category's epicentre. You ride pillion; someone else deals with the traffic; you eat things you would not have ordered and could not have found.

Sixteen dishes on a night food tour by motorcycle — filmed by a traveller rather than an operator, which is why it is on this page. Video by Rita Loves Travel.

Is the US$82 tour worth nearly three times the price?

For a nervous first-time pillion, a solo traveller — especially a solo woman — or anyone who wants insurance certainty, yes. For a confident traveller who mainly wants the food and the ride, no.

XO Tours started in 2010 as Vietnam's first all-female motorbike tour company, riders in áo dài. Its Foodie Tour runs about four and a half hours from 17:30, at 2,132,000₫ (US$82), with ten to twelve dishes plus dessert and unlimited drinks, across five districts.

Here is the part worth being blunt about. What the premium buys is licensed professional drivers and a genuine high-limit accident insurance policy included in the ticket. Budget alternatives at US$25–35 frequently lack both. Both tiers are legitimate; the difference is risk transfer, not the cooking.

XO also deliberately avoids phở and bánh mì in favour of dishes most tours overlook — bún bò Huế, charcoal goat hotpot in Chinatown, a District 4 seafood spread, optional balut at the end. If you have already eaten the famous dishes, that is a real argument for it beyond the insurance.

The newest product is the most interesting one

A US$29 Michelin-recognised food tour, four hours, 5.0 rated — with only 116 reviews, because almost nobody has noticed it yet.

Ho Chi Minh City now holds six of Vietnam's eleven Michelin stars, having overtaken Hanoi in the 2026 edition, and roughly thirty of the country's 74 Bib Gourmands are here — at 35,000–120,000₫ (US$1.35–4.60) a dish. A tour built on that list is a genuinely new product rather than a repackaged one.

Small review counts cut both ways: less proof, but also less chance the operator has scaled past the point where the guide still cares. At US$29 it is the same money as the volume leaders.

Cooking classes, if you would rather learn than ride

US$28–105, typically two and a half to four hours, and the good ones include a wet-market shop before you cook.

Aggregate ratings across the city's classes run about 4.98 from 433 reviews, which is unusually high even for this category. The market trip is the part that makes the difference — buying the herbs is how you learn what is in the food.

• Local-home class with a river-view kitchen — US$45, 2.5 h, 5.0 from 126 reviews
• Class with a chef, cyclo ride included — US$40, 4 h, 4.9 from 28 reviews
• Wet-market tour and cooking, private stations — US$32, 4 h
• Afternoon class, phở and bánh mì — US$35, 3 h
• Vegan-friendly class — US$29, 2.5 h