Vinh Long and Cai Be: An Binh homestays and a night on the Mekong

Choose your bank of the river first

An Binh island sits between the Tien and the Co Chien rivers, opposite Vinh Long town. It is the reason to stay: around 4,000 hectares of orchards, narrow lanes and canals, and a long-running network of family homestays. In the 2025 reorganisation the old communes of An Binh, Hoa Ninh, Dong Phu and Binh Hoa Phuoc were merged into a single An Binh commune, so a homestay advertised in Binh Hoa Phuoc or Hoa Ninh is on the same island. The commune's Party secretary told the provincial newspaper in February 2026 that it has 19 homestays, nine of them with ASEAN tourism awards, plus six places to eat and more than twenty orchard gardens that receive visitors. In 2023 a cluster of six An Binh homestays — Ut Thuy, Sau Thanh, Nam Thanh, Ba Linh, Ngoc Phuong and Ngoc Sang — won the ASEAN Homestay Award.

A homestay here is a family house in an orchard, not a hotel. Expect home cooking, a bicycle, a boat trip arranged by the hosts and an early night; check before booking whether the room has air conditioning, a private bathroom and a pick-up from the boat landing, because these vary from house to house.

Vinh Long town is the practical alternative. It has the provincial passenger port, which the provincial tourism promotion centre has run since 15 October 2022, and the town's restaurants and hotels. Cai Be is a smaller riverside town across the Tien River, now Cai Be commune of Dong Thap province (it used to be Cai Be district, Tien Giang). Vietnam's national tourism site points to family homestays on its Tan Phong islet; choose Cai Be if the old village of Dong Hoa Hiep is your priority.

On and around An Binh: orchards, kilns and a torch-lit evening

Spend the first afternoon on the island itself. Borrow the homestay's bicycle or ask for a rowing boat into the side canals; the orchards grow longan, rambutan and durian, and Binh Hoa Phuoc rambutan is one of the island's OCOP-rated local products. In the weeks before Tet, the yellow apricot growers of Phuoc Dinh, a craft village more than seventy years old, fill the lanes with flowering trees.

The visits the province shows to travel buyers give a good idea of what a day here can hold. In August 2026 an international group walked by coconut-leaf torchlight to An Thanh communal house to watch hat boi, the classical theatre of southern Vietnam; toured the traditional brick kilns of the Thanh Duc pottery; and watched coconut candy and puffed rice being made at the Cuu Long candy workshop. CocoHome, a three-room southern house built from more than 4,000 coconut trunks, opened at the end of 2019 and serves country dishes such as small river fish (ca coc) braised in coconut water and a salad of ban (mangrove apple) flowers. Ask your homestay which of these are running on the night you stay, and whether they need booking.

The other reason to come is off the island, reached by boat along the Long Ho river: the Mang Thit brick and pottery kilns on the Thay Cai canal in Nhon Phu commune, a craft area of brick and pottery kilns that the province wants to turn into one of its signature sights. The provincial chairman toured them by boat in April 2026 and said the preservation plan was moving slowly; many kilns are still working sites, so visit with a boat operator or guide who has arranged it rather than walking into a yard on your own.

Cai Be: an old village and a floating market that has faded

Do not plan the trip around the Cai Be floating market. The Dong Thap provincial newspaper describes it as a market that has thinned out over the years: roads and bridges now carry the fruit that once travelled by boat, and the families who lived on their boats have been moving ashore. The cay beo — a pole at the bow hung with a sample of whatever the boat is selling — is now seen mostly when the market is recreated. The commune has staged a recreated floating market during recent village festivals, and a Tet riverside fair in early 2026, but these are events, not a daily market. For a working wholesale floating market, go on to Cai Rang in Can Tho.

Dong Hoa Hiep ancient village, in Cai Be commune, is the better reason to cross the river. Its wooden houses, many 150 to 220 years old, were classified as a national monument in 2017. The house of Tran Tuan Kiet, built around 1838, stands on 108 hardwood columns; the Vo Van Vo house, finished in 1931, is still lived in by the fourth generation, and the family told the provincial paper that they charge no entrance fee and offer meals instead. There is a historical link with the other bank, too: in 1732 the seat of the new Long Ho administrative region was set up at An Binh Dong in this village, and in 1757 it moved to the site of present-day Vinh Long.

Vietnam's national tourism site suggests seeing Cai Be town by bicycle at first light: the riverside market, Cai Be Church, built by a German Catholic priest in the early 20th century, and the Cao Dai temple. The Tan Phong islet across the river, with its fruit farms and homestays, is no longer a ferry ride away: the Tan Phong bridge opened on 18 April 2025 and the ferries stopped.

• Dong Hoa Hiep festival 2026: the seventh Dong Hoa Hiep Ancient Village Culture and Tourism Festival is scheduled for 19 to 22 November 2026 in Cai Be commune, with a floating-market and food area, performances on the river and the old houses lit at night, according to the Dong Thap provincial plan as reported by its newspaper.

Vinh Long town and the boat routes

The provincial Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism counts 154 licensed tourist boats in the province, the Vinh Long passenger port and 24 registered private landings. The routes it promotes include the An Binh orchard route, the Long Ho river past the Van Thanh Mieu (the town's Confucian temple), the Tu Buoi house — a traditional three-room house built entirely of Vinh Long red pottery — and the kilns on the Thay Cai canal, and, further afield, the Thom river, where boats loaded with coconuts trade with the processing workshops on both banks.

The river cruise ship La Marguerite has also begun calling at Vinh Long on Mekong cruises between Ho Chi Minh City and Cambodia, stopping at the Van Thanh Mieu, the Mang Thit kilns and the Thom coconut market, according to the provincial tourism department. We found no official timetable or fare list for the local boats when we checked on 3 October 2026; ask your homestay or hotel to book a boat and agree the route and the return time before you set off.

Rain, tides and when to come

Vietnam's national tourism site describes December to April as the clear, sunny season in the Mekong Delta and May to November as the wet season, with a dependable afternoon downpour lasting a few hours. The wet months are still possible for a homestay, but plan the boat trips and the cycling for the morning.

Water levels matter as much as rain. In late September 2026 the provincial weather station warned that the mid-autumn spring tide, combined with rain and floodwater from upstream, would flood low-lying roads by 10 to 50 cm, with the highest water forecast for 29 September to 1 October; National Road 53 through Long Ho was among the roads flooded. If you travel around the full or new moon in the autumn months, ask your hosts whether the landings and island lanes are passable and allow extra time on the road.

A workable two-day route

This is an editorial suggestion, not a timetable. Check opening days and boat bookings with your hosts.

• Day 1 — To the island: leave Ho Chi Minh City in the morning, cross to An Binh, settle into the homestay and spend the late afternoon on a bicycle in the orchards; dinner with the family and, if it is running, the torch-lit walk to the communal-house theatre.
• Day 2 — River and old village: an early boat into the side canals, then Cai Be's riverside and the Dong Hoa Hiep houses before the midday heat; lunch in the village if a house is serving.
• Day 3 (optional): a boat from Vinh Long along the Long Ho river to the Mang Thit kilns, then onward to Can Tho for a night and the Cai Rang floating market the next morning.