This pedestrian street lined with bookstores, stationery shops, and cafés is one of the popular tourist spots in Vietnam. For book lovers and stationery collectors, Ho Chi Minh’s Book Street makes a fun stopover after walking around the city.

Stretching 100 meters from Hai Ba Trung Street to the Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon, this street is open daily from 8am-10pm. It’s right next to the other tourist spots, like the Saigon Central Post Office and Notre Dame Square, and within walking distance from Independence Palace and Café Apartment. It’s lined with bookstores and gift shops, and there are cafés if you need a break from HCM’s notorious scorching heat.

The bookstores carry mostly Vietnamese titles, but you’ll find many English and international titles when you browse. I had fun seeing Vietnamese versions of some classics and novels that I have in English.

On top of books, most shops carry notebooks, stationery, stickers, postcards, puzzles, and other fun gift items. Instead of buying postcards from the post office, you can choose from the artsier selection of postcards on Ho Chi Minh’s Book Street and walk back to the post office nearby to mail them.

It doesn’t take long to explore this little street, so you’ll still have time to visit the remaining items on your itinerary for the day. I dropped by Book Street right after I mailed a postcard in Saigon Central Post Office, and hopped on a Grab bike to head to Café Apartment for a post-sunset drink with a friend.

Book Street is located at Nguyen Van Binh Street, Ben Nghe Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

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