Can Gio Mangrove Adventure: Speedboat with Monkey Island

Let me put it in this way: if you have a lot of time to spend and done everything else already, you might consider this tour. You need to invest a good bunch of time for some nice, but not very spectacular activities. The pick-up service at the hotel worked well for us (keep in mind that there is one central drop off point after the tour, not your individual hotel. But they can drop you anywhete on the way back if you ask). At the next hotel we had a rather long time waiting for some guests who were late (about 20 minutes). Other companies have a „no show-no go“-policy if you keep the group waiting for more than 10 min, I understand now why and honestly, it’s an idea to consider for this company as well. On the way to monkey island you have to take a ferry which cost us another long waiting time (I‘d say over an hour) because of the traffic jam. (was it because of saturday, because we were later than planned or is this the usual situation - we‘ll never know). Once on the island, there was another waiting segment (toilet-stop) and 40 minutes later you arrive at the site: 5 min walking, meeting the monkeys - 5 minutes feeding and taking photos (yes - they are cute, no - do not wear hats or glasses, they are said to snitch them if they get the opportunity). Next stop: the crocodiles. 5-10 minutes watching and optional feeding (to be payed extra) and the first and second point on the bucket list are done. (so basically a zoo with only two species of animals). Then a lovely stroll through mangroves first on a broad pathway, later on a wooden track to a former military base. You can watch a ten minute video about the place, get some additional information from your friendly guide and explore the site for 15 minutes. There are several huts with big puppets in uniform and objects on display to get a picture of the life in the camp. The way back is on a motorboat through the mangroves which is quite fun (especially if you have a driver who likes to scare his guests a bit by doing a „rough ride“). You have late lunch in a restaurant - decent but nothing more. After that you get another 15 minutes at the fishmarket to look at all kinds of seafood. Then you head back to HCMC (again with a traffic jam before the ferry included, but considerably shorter). So all in all you will enjoy the activities but you spend quite some time on the bus.

This is a great experience to get up close and personal with the monkeys. The guide, Danh, was fantastic. Didn’t enjoy the fish market at the end, and the food was not great…but the tour itself was perfect!

It was a perfect day. Dan, our guide, was excellent, knowledgeable, and very informative. The tour was exceptionally well organized and enjoyable. It's a perfect experience for couples, families, and solo travelers alike. I highly recommend it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tour guide Dan was very knowledgeable, gave us a lot of fun facts during the tour and showed us some pretty unique local spots. It did not feel like he was trying to take us to places that ripped us off and charged us “American” rates. He showed up early and communicated very clearly!

Fantastic day out -we enjoyed everything-the guide was great /monkey island and speedboat was very good-perfect-highly recommended

Enjoyed this tour, time and logistics to get to the tour were very time-consuming (2+ hours each way), and time with and around monkeys were only about 30-35 minutes. We wished there was more time around the monkeys and less time walking through the trail to the old military base (about an 1-hour).

Nice day overall, good tour guide. Cheeky monkeys, the village was alright but maybe not my cup of tea.

Light tour with good balance between travel and activities. Signature trip with must do activities I if you’re around HCMC.

Brill trip Fu our guide was funny and knowledgeable and the trip was well timed and organised from start to finish -collected from our hotel early then driven to the car ferry across to the island. After a short comfort break (take paper) we had fun feeding nuts to the monkeys in Can Gio but they DO steal caps and sunglsses so listen to your guide's advice ! We saw lots of lazy crocs (feeding only at weekends ) then walked in to the mangroves to see a Viet Cong mock up settlement and watched a good filming about their lives here. Then we had a speedboat ride back through the mangroves. Our lunch stop was at a fab place for a hotpot lunch with a lovely pool / changing rooms and loos, make sure you take your swimmies an a towel. Finally dropped off in central HCMC about 5.30 -a fab day, good driver , guide, itinerary, breaks and timings..... thank you

I recommend this tour, the guides know and make the experience safe comfortable, and culturally rich