Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden, Saigon/HoChiMinh City

Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden, Saigon/HoChiMinh City

The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden offers a peaceful getaway from the bustle of the city. It is one of the oldest zoos in the world and the adjacent botanical garden has some rare, native Vietnamese species of orchids.

The Saigon Zoo was founded by a French Veterinarian, named Louis Germain, and covered an area of 12 hectares in 1864. Later, eminent botanist Louis Pierre, who designed the botanical gardens of Kolkata in India, was invited to design the landscape for a garden, covering an additional area of 13 hectares, adjacent to the zoo, in 1869. A bridge across the Nghe Channel, built in 1927, connected the botanical gardens and the zoo. It is the biggest biological garden in Vietnam.

The Saigon Zoo and Botanical Gardens are home to over a 100 animals, ornamental plants and rare orchids. The zoo has several species of mammals, reptiles and birds. Visitors can view the deer enclosure from an elevated walkway and there is a petting area with domesticated animals. The botanical garden has plant species from across Asia, Africa and the Americas. There are 20 species of rare orchids, many unique cacti species and 34 Bonzai tree varieties. In 1927, the Japanese government donated to the garden over 900 rare plants.

Want to visit this sight? Check out these Self-Guided Walking Tours in Saigon/HoChiMinh City. Alternatively, you can download the mobile app "GPSmyCity: Walks in 1K+ Cities" from Apple App Store or Google Play Store. The app turns your mobile device to a personal tour guide and it works offline, so no data plan is needed when traveling abroad.

Download The GPSmyCity App

Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden on Map

Sight Name: Saigon Zoo and Botanical Garden
Sight Location: Saigon/HoChiMinh City, Vietnam (See walking tours in Saigon/HoChiMinh City)
Sight Type: Attraction/Landmark

Walking Tours in Saigon/HoChiMinh City, Vietnam

Create Your Own Walk in Saigon/HoChiMinh City

Create Your Own Walk in Saigon/HoChiMinh City

Creating your own self-guided walk in Saigon/HoChiMinh City is easy and fun. Choose the city attractions that you want to see and a walk route map will be created just for you. You can even set your hotel as the start point of the walk.
Chinatown Walking Tour

Chinatown Walking Tour

The relationship between Vietnam and China traces back over 2,000 years. Over this time, Vietnamese culture, customs, administrative system, and even the language have been heavily influenced by the great northern neighbor. So much so, in fact, that although Vietnam had its own spoken language, until the late 1800s its official written language was Chinese.

Chinatown in Ho Chi Minh City,...  view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 3.0 Km or 1.9 Miles
Shopping Tour

Shopping Tour

Among other accolades, Ho Chi Minh City is known as a great shopping destination. Attesting to its reputation are a plethora of street markets scattered throughout the city, selling all sorts of fresh local produce, including coffee beans, and other delights, not to mention street food and souvenirs – all at extremely competitive prices. There are also designated markets specialized in niche...  view more

Tour Duration: 1 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 2.5 Km or 1.6 Miles
Historical Religious Sites

Historical Religious Sites

For centuries, Vietnamese people have practiced Confucianism and Buddhism brought over from neighboring China. Added to these Eastern teachings, in the 16th century, was Christianity – introduced to Vietnam by Western missionaries. The result of this variety of faiths has become a mixture of gorgeous Confucian and Buddhist temples and Catholic churches in Ho Chi Minh City. Some of these...  view more

Tour Duration: 2 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 5.9 Km or 3.7 Miles
Saigon/HoChiMinh City Introduction Walking Tour

Saigon/HoChiMinh City Introduction Walking Tour

While many still refer to the city as Saigon, it was renamed Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) in 1976 after the reunification of North and South Vietnam. The name honors the first leader of communist North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh. But many still call the inner business district Saigon, while the larger metropolitan area is known as HCMC.

For most of its early history, this was a scarcely populated area...  view more

Tour Duration: 3 Hour(s)
Travel Distance: 4.9 Km or 3 Miles