Cu Chi Tunnels: Ben Dinh or Ben Duoc, and What the Visit Involves

Cu Chi is sold as one attraction and is actually two separate sites on the same tunnel network, roughly fifteen kilometres apart.

Ben Dinh is nearer the city, gets most of the tour traffic, and is the one you are on unless the itinerary says otherwise. Ben Duoc is further out, more used by Vietnamese visitors, and is noticeably quieter.

Both cover the same ground: a briefing, examples of the trap systems, a stretch of tunnel you can go down into, and the entrance hatches that are the most memorable thing at either site.

If your tour gives you the choice and you have the time, take Ben Duoc.

⚠️ The sections open to visitors have been widened and lit, and they are still tight, hot and airless. People who are certain they will be fine sometimes are not.

You move crouched or on hands and knees. There are exits at intervals so you can come out early, and the guides point them out before you go in, which is the thing to listen for.

It is not the place to discover you are claustrophobic, and it is hard on knees. Nobody minds if you skip it; a fair number of each group does.

Wear clothes you do not mind getting red dirt on. That dirt does not fully come out.

The drive is one and a half to two hours each way depending on traffic leaving the city, which means a morning tour returns in the early afternoon and an afternoon tour gets back after dark.

Many tours stop at a handicraft workshop on the way. It is a scheduled shopping stop and you are not obliged to buy anything.

Combining Cu Chi with the Mekong Delta in one day is sold and is a mistake: they are in opposite directions from the city and the day becomes almost entirely road.

The shooting range at the site is optional, costs extra per round, and is extremely loud across the whole complex, which some visitors find changes the tone of the place.