District 1 Park & ‘Runseeing’ Tour

District 1 contains many of Ho Chi Minh City’s important sites, with its elegant, wide boulevards and historic French colonial buildings. It’s one of the best areas to run in HCMC. The anchor of our run is  Tao Dan Park, which spills into the park around Independence Palace. Then there’s an option to head over to Le Van Tam Park, or down to the river. Start at the Tôn Thất Tùng transport complex and run past the War Museum into Tao Dan Park.  Enjoy the landscaped gardens and people doing all manner of activities, in the ~1 km loop of the paths. Head out and run into the Independence Palace, where you can get great views and a good run in doing a ~1  km loop of the perimeter.

Option 1: The next section, over to Le Van Tam Park adds ~3 km to the overall run. Run by the Youth Center at the rotary, and then take either Phùng Khắc Khoan or Hai Bà Trưng into the park. For the return, use any of the major streets or come back through the Palace/park complex. For a longer run, just east of Le Van Tam Park is the Hoa Lu Stadium, which has a publicly accessible running track. And the Saigon Zoo nearby has a section open for runners.

Option 2: Continue past the palace to City Hall, and then use elegant, pedestrian street Nguyen Hue to head down to the river, where you can run along the water for a brief bit. Retrace your steps or choose alternate side streets.