My Tho and Ben Tre, the near delta

This is the delta most visitors from Ho Chi Minh City see, because it is the closest. That has shaped it. Thoi Son islet, one of four islets in the Tien River traditionally named after the dragon, unicorn, tortoise and phoenix, runs a well-rehearsed circuit: a boat from My Tho's tourist wharf, a rowed sampan along a narrow canal under water-coconut palms, a honey farm, a coconut-candy workshop, a fruit garden and a group playing southern folk music. It is pleasant, efficient and very much a visitor product. We include it because it is the quickest way to see the islet canals, not because it is undiscovered.

In My Tho itself, Vinh Trang pagoda, completed in 1850 on a two-hectare site, has a gate from 1933 and a facade that mixes European and Asian forms. The town is also home to hu tieu My Tho, a noodle soup made with dry, chewy rice noodles traditionally from Go Cat rice, in a pork-bone broth with dried squid and shrimp; a bowl costs very little at a local shop.

Across the river, the former Ben Tre province is coconut country. Coconut candy, made from coconut milk, malt, coconut flesh and sugar, is the product every workshop shows you. Further in, the Cho Lach and Cai Mon orchards, more than 40 km from Ben Tre town, are known for fruit and ornamental plants, and are at their fullest from May to August.

Half a day is enough for what most visitors come to see: Vinh Trang in the early morning and a boat circuit on Thoi Son. That is how our four and six-day packages use it, on the way to Can Tho. We do not put a night here, because the islets' visitor circuit is a daytime product, and Can Tho's early market needs the night more.

A night would make sense for the orchards of Cho Lach in fruit season, which are too far from My Tho for a morning stop. That is a different kind of trip from our packages, and we do not sell it.

My Tho is about 71 km from central Ho Chi Minh City and Ben Tre town about 85 km, each an hour and a half to two and a quarter hours by road. Buses leave from the Mien Tay (Western) bus station; older published fares for the My Tho bus were around VND 60,000 to 90,000. On our packages a private car collects you at 07:30.

• If you have already done a My Tho day trip from Ho Chi Minh City; the islet circuit will feel familiar
• If you want quiet; this is the busiest stretch of the delta for visitors
• If you want fruit-season orchards; the Cho Lach area is too far for a morning stop
• If you are short of time; the three-day package, which starts with An Binh islet instead, skips My Tho

The four-day delta classic and the six-day delta and Phu Quoc package spend their first morning here before driving on to Can Tho. The pricing page shows how the shared or private boat to Thoi Son changes the price.