Saigon – Cao Dai Temple – Cu Chi Tunnels Muslim Tour 1 Day

The Saigon – Cao Dai Temple – Cu Chi Tunnels Muslim Tour 1 Day is a private day trip that pairs the midday ceremony at the Cao Dai Great Temple in Tay Ninh with the tunnel system at Cu Chi, with a halal lunch between the two. Prices run from 97 USD per person for two or three travellers down to 32 USD per person for a group of twenty-one or more. Hotel pick-up and drop-off in Saigon are included.

Tour at a Glance

What You Will See

The Cao Dai Great Temple

Tay Ninh is about 95 km north-west of Ho Chi Minh City, near the Cambodian border, and the Great Temple there was built between 1933 and 1955. It is 140 m long and 40 m wide with four towers, and the inside is unlike any other religious building in Vietnam: pastel columns wrapped in dragons, the all-seeing Divine Eye above the altar, and portraits that place Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist and Christian figures side by side. Caodaism was founded in southern Vietnam in 1926 and draws on all of them deliberately.

The midday ceremony

Services are held four times a day and the one at noon is the one tours are timed for. Followers enter in white, with smaller numbers in yellow, blue and red robes, and the prayer is chanted to a traditional orchestra in the upper gallery. Visitors watch from the balcony, shoes off, and photography is allowed from there. Allow about 45 minutes including the walk round the grounds.

The Cu Chi Tunnels

We use the Ben Dinh site. The tunnels were dug by hand over roughly twenty years and run on three levels, with living quarters, kitchens and field hospitals underground; the system survived immediately north-west of Saigon throughout the war. You see trap doors, ventilation shafts, a kitchen whose smoke was vented metres away, and a section widened so that visitors can go through it.

Going into the tunnel

Nobody has to. The widened section is about 100 m long with exits every 20 m, and most people come out at the first or second. If you are claustrophobic, stay above ground: the surface walk shows you most of the system anyway.

Halal Food and Prayer

Lunch is at a halal restaurant we reserve in advance, taken between Tay Ninh and Cu Chi. Neither place has a halal kitchen of its own, which is why the meal is booked rather than improvised.

If you need the midday prayer, tell us when you book: the Cao Dai ceremony itself is at noon, so the day has to be reordered rather than squeezed.

Who This Tour Is For

Take this day if you want the two things southern Vietnam is best known for in one go: a religion that exists nowhere else, and the war seen from underground. It is a lot of driving for one day, so it suits travellers who do not mind the car.

Pick another tour if

You would rather spend the day on the river: take the Mekong Delta day trip. If the tunnels matter more than the temple, the Cu Chi and Mekong combination gives you the tunnels plus the delta.

Why book direct with Vietnam Muslim Tours

We are the operator, not a reseller. The guide who meets you at your hotel works for us, the driver works for us, and the restaurants are ones we book ourselves and keep checking. That means you pay the local price with our best price guarantee, changes on the day go straight to the person running your tour, and nothing is passed through a middleman who has never been to Vietnam. Our travellers rate us on TripAdvisor.

Customise This Tour

We can visit the temple only and return early, swap Ben Dinh for the quieter Ben Duoc site, add the Cu Chi war-remnants museum, or combine this day with a city day in Saigon for a two-day southern plan.

Local Expert Notes

By Jimmy, Vietnam Muslim Tours

• Cover shoulders and knees for the temple, and be ready to take your shoes off at the door. Slip-ons save time.
• Do not walk across the centre of the temple floor. Visitors keep to the sides and the balcony; the middle aisle is for the clergy.
• Noon is fixed. If the traffic out of Saigon is bad we lose the ceremony, which is why we leave at eight and not later.
• Wear something you do not mind getting red dust on at Cu Chi. The soil there stains.
• There is a shooting range at the tunnel site. It is loud, it is optional, and it is not included; tell your guide if you would rather wait somewhere quieter.

Book this tour

Tell us your dates, your group size and anything you need for food or prayer, and we will send a written quote, usually within 24 hours. You book direct with the company that runs the tour, at the local price, with our best price guarantee. Send your enquiry or message us on WhatsApp.

Updated 12 October 2026 by Jimmy, Vietnam Muslim Tours.