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June 27, 2020Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon Tan Son Nhat Airport Spotting Guide
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- last modified on December 14, 2022
Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN/VVTS) is the largest and busiest airport in Vietnam which is located in Ho Chi Minh City – the largest city and the main economic, financial and business center of Vietnam. This is the main hub of the flag carrier Vietnam Airlines, as well as its subsidiaries VASCO and Jetstar Pacific and some private airlines like VietJet Air and Bamboo Airways. In 2018, this airport handled 38.5 million passengers, which caused heavy congestion, due to the limited capacity of 25 million passengers annually.
Operation: Domestic flights include Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific, VietJet Air, VASCO and Bamboo Airways. For international flights, the airport is served by airlines from most parts of Asia and some from Europe (Air France, Aeroflot, etc.) and Oceania (Jetstar Airways only). No international flights from the Americas or Africas. There are some charter/seasonal flights also, which are served by LOT Polish, Edelweiss, Finnair, etc. Cargo airlines include many such as AirBridgeCargo, Cathay Pacific Cargo, Cargolux, etc.
Further development: A third terminal (T3) will be built at the south of the airport, right on the current remote parking bay (expected to be opened in 2023)
ALL spotting locations around SGN are on the rooftops of coffee/tea shops and offering an outstanding view. Once inside, please order something (All of them have a great selection of drinks with fresh fruits etc.) and show the waitress your big camera and they will show you the way to the viewing deck.
Written by Long Nguyễn Thành, Le Minh and Jan Seba. Last change: December 2022 (Spots 2-3 updated).
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| Airport Information | |
| Runways | |
| 07L/25R | 3050m (10007ft) – Concrete |
| 07R/25L | 3800m (12467ft) – Concrete |
| Terminals | |
| Terminal 1 | All domestic flights |
| Terminal 2 | All international flights |
| Spotting Information | |
| Ladder | No ladder needed. All spotting locations are in coffee shops or restaurants |
| Car/Public Transport | Every spotting location is accessible through public transport, taxis,buses, ride-hailing / ride-sharing services such as Grab and GoViet (similar to Uber), or hire a motorbike in your place you reside. As not many drivers / riders know English, prepare some papers and maps with name of location and address and show to the drivers.
In general we recommend western travellers not to drive yourself. Traffic in Ho Chi Minh City can become very dense and dangerous and it is safer to have a local drive. |
| Restrooms | Restrooms are accessible in every spotting location. |
| Drinks/Food | Food (some places only have drinks so you can ask waiters where to buy food or order by apps) and drinks are accessible in every spotting location and nearby restaurants/food stalls |
| Hotels | There are some hotels on Hong Ha Street, just before you turn into Truong Son Street, where the airport is located. ibis Saigon Airport Hotel is recommended. Staying in the city center is also possible, as it is not far from the airport and inexpensive to get to. |
| Season | By far the best season to visit SGN is between December and February. This can be considered the dry season, so you will have very little rain and lots of sunshine hours. Additionally, as SGN has 07/25 runways, the sun altitude will not be too high around noon time. And furthermore this is also the busiest travel season for the area. Please take note that usually during January/February Vietnam observes Tet holidays (at the same time as Chinese New Year). During this week most of the cafes will be closed and you could have difficulties going spotting in SGN.
If you are going in summer time (May – August) it will be a lot rainier and cloudier, but it will be possible to use the cafe on the northern side of the airports for evening photography. |
| Security | No problem is observed if you spot in spotting locations we recommend below. Do not move cameras out or take pictures on the streets. There is a high chance of robbery (e.g. by snatch tactics if you do this on the street. And do not take photos of the road around airport (Below a fence) because the road is used for military purpose |
| Runway Usage | |
| General Info | Usually 25L is for takeoff and 25R is for landing. Runway heading change to 07L/R is occurred rarely and only with strong winds. Usually SGN stays with 25 operation even if there is a small easterly wind. |
| 07L/25R | 25R is the main runway for landing. In case there is a runway heading change to 07L, this is the main runway for takeoff. |
| 07R/25L | 25L is the main runway for takeoff. In case there is a runway heading change to 07R, this is the main runway for landing. |
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Spot #1 – Long Van Coffee shop |
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| WHERE | The first location is called Long Van Coffee Shop, address is 602 Cong Hoa St., Ward 15, Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City. Once arrived here, go straight in the Long Van Building and take the elevator up to 7th floor. |
| WHAT | Mainly the location should be used for 07R Landings, which sadly occur rarely (please see General Info above). Otherwise you may be able to shoot 25L departure and to a very limited extent also 07L lineup, but you will face some obstructions, as can be seen below in the overview. |
| TIME | From early morning to noon. |
| MISC. | The shop will be closed on public holidays and weekends! Open during the week at different hours, but should normally be open at latest by 8 AM. Food/drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here. No issue with police. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | A little over 300mm for an A321 and still approx. 200mm for a B744. |
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Spot #2 – 55 King Garden Coffee |
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| WHERE | UPDATE DECEMBER 2022: Due to government projects there are heavy construction works at Pham Van Beach St. and all coffee shops had to shut down operations and will be demolished. |
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Spot #3 – Bay Coffee |
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| WHERE | UPDATE DECEMBER 2022: Due to government projects there are heavy construction works at Pham Van Beach St. and all coffee shops had to shut down operations and will be demolished. |
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Spot #4 – Ngam May Bay Coffee |
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| WHERE | The next coffee shop is the Ngam May Bay Coffe at 389/24 Quang Trung St., Ward 10, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City. Arrive at this address, go straight into the basement on the right hand side and take the elevator up to the 5th floor. Then take the stair on the left hand side to go to the shop at the rooftop. |
| WHAT | You will have an overview the airport, but the spot is best used for 25R landings. You can see 25L lineup (difficult for photography). 07L departure is possible for some very heavy airplanes. |
| TIME | Spot is only useable in summer time from afternoon till sunset. |
| MISC. | Food/drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 70-300mm |
View from this shop
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Spot #5 – Du Mien Garden Coffee Shop |
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| WHERE | The Due Mien Garden Shop is a pretty big one and located at 7 Phan Van Tri St., Ward 10, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City. Arrive at this address, go straight in and go upstair. There is a rooftop for spotting so ask the waitress for it. |
| WHAT | The spot can be an alternative to #4 for 25R landings, but usually #4 is the recommend spot as it will give better overviews and better angle for landing aircraft. |
| TIME | Spot is only useable in summer time from afternoon till sunset. |
| MISC. | Food/drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 70-200mm |
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Spot #6 – R&B Tea Gò Vấp |
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| WHERE | The next shop, the R&B Tea, is at 177 Quang Trung, Phường 10, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City. Arrive at this address, go straight in and order a drink. Tjhen go upstair to the 3rd floor and from there is a stair to the rooftop. |
| WHAT | The spot can be an alternative to #7/#8 for 25R landings, but usually the others are the recommend spots as it will givea better angle for landing aircraft. 25L lineup may be possible here but very limited shots. |
| TIME | The cafe opens at 8 AM, spot can be used until noon. |
| MISC. | Drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 50-300mm |
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Spot #7 – Lava Coffee Shop |
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| WHERE | Another nice terrace is on the rooftop of the Lava Coffee shop, located at 61 Quang Trung St., Ward 10, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City. Arrive at this address, go straight in, ordering something and walk upstair where the rooftop is. |
| WHAT | All 25R landing and 07L departure |
| TIME | The cafe openes at 7:30 AM and light is good until noon. |
| MISC. | Food/drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here and nearby restaurants (KFC, McDonald’s – few minutes of walk or you can order ). |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 70-200mm |
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Spot #8 – BUI SAI GON Restaurant & Cafe |
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| WHERE | This location is temporarily closed due to bankruptcy! We do hope that they will be able to reopen in the future, which is why we provide the spot regardless. The cafe is located right next to “The Big C Go Vap”, which is a big supermarket. Taxi or Uber Drivers should not the super market, so it is probably easier telling them to go there. In order to get in, just take the elevator upstairs, order something and go another flight of stairs up to the deck. The cafe has two upper stories which can be used for spotting, just choose one according to your preference. |
| WHAT | The spot is best used for 25R landings, but in rare cases where 25L landings are happening it is also possible from here, with a slightly worse angle though. In comparison to #7 this spot provides a much better angle for arrivals. 07L Departures would be visible as well, but will be very high already. |
| TIME | The cafe opened at 7 AM and light is good until noon. |
| MISC. | Food/drinks, restrooms and resting places are available here and a big supermarket is right here as well. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | Approx 250mm for an A321 and 160mm for a B744. |
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Spot #9 – Phen’s Coffee Shop |
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| WHERE | The last coffee shop called Phen’s Coffee shop and is located at 142 Nguyen Van Cong St., Ward 3, Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh CIty. Arrive at this address, just go inside and order. The rooftop is a litle bit narrow that you should take photos hurrily for other people turn. |
| WHAT | You can see lineups on 25L and arrivals on 25R, but for these you may have issues with heat haze, so other spots like #7 or #8 might be preferable. 07L Departures would be visible as well, but will be very high already. |
| TIME | From early morning to noon. |
| MISC. | Only drinks here, restrooms and resting places are available here. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | 50-300mm |
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Spot #10 – International Terminal Food Court |
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| WHERE | The last spot is located Airside in the International Terminal. So you will need a valid Boarding Pass in order to take photos here. The Food Court is located very centrally in the terminal right behind Security and Immigration. Just walk up the stairs or take an elevator and you are there. There are several fast food restaurants in the food court, so just buy something and take a seat next to the window. |
| WHAT | You will mostly be able to spot aircraft on the taxiways in front of your. If 25’s are used (which is much better for this spot), this will mostly be aircraft taxiing to the RWY for Departures or some few international airlines taxiing in after landing if they are parked on the east side of the terminal. If 07’s are in use, lots of the domestic traffic may not pass in front of you, so you would be limited to some international traffic.
Theoretically you can also shoot movements on the RWY 25L/07R, but heat haze will be very strong around noon, so it is only recommend early morning in winter. The other runway will be way too far out to shoot at. |
| TIME | From early morning until noon. |
| MISC. | You will have everything you need in the terminal. The author never encountered any problems with security, but they may ask you to stop taking photos.
Be aware: The windows of the terminal are heavily tinted, so you will have to shoot in RAW and strongly edit the coloring later in order to get good results. The windows may also be slightly dirty, but the author always found spots which were good enough to get sharp photos. |
| FOCAL LENGTH | Korean A330 (on the RWY) ~130mm, A321 on the RWY ~120mm and the Scoot A320 (on the front TWY after landing) just ~75mm. |
Hey guys. Its been a long time a comment occured. However, I would like to say, please do not head to Spots 1/2/3 anymore. I went to them today, and they were all closed, given myself a bit of an dissapointment. However, the ones on Quang Trung Street, which range from spot location 4-9 are still functioning normally, so feel free to visit them (except of the Big C spotting location as well), as I visited it earlier, and it has turned into a restaurant/bar where it isnt open during the day time. Otherwise, the spotting cafes are only good for spotting 25L/R arrivals. Cafe Ngam May Bay is the only coffee visible that clears exceptional views of the whole VVTS ramp and tarmac spaces, although spotting 25L departures could be a bit challenging due to buildings surrounding the cafe.
Hi, are these spots closed just temporary? Do you have alternative location when 07 runways are active?
-Julian
Hi, to my understanding, all of 07L/R coffee shops along Pham Van Bach St (Bay, 55 King Garden, etc.) are closed permanently and highly likely due to government projects (lane/road extension along Pham Van Bach St to accommodate more traffic flows, Pham Van Bach St extension project was planned but delayed for a long time and for now, highly likely the government is trying to relocate people living around there to their new homes so that they can bulldoze all houses along Pham Van Bach). Thanks – Long.
Thank you for the guide. I’m an Tan Son Nhat spotter, so I wish to visit Phen’s coffee tomorrow. However, spots 1&2&3 all looks interesting, and I will try to check them out on Thursday and Friday.
Location #2 is closed because of changing owner ( coffee is now become restaurant but the rooftop is no longer used .
A little bit of update for spot 1 during the virus crisis. It would be closed during special occasions and national holidays (Tet, 30 April,…). During weekday (Mon – Fri), both opening and closing hours are various (I cannot either determine the exact hour or retrieve info from the shop)… Shop is closed on Sun. Thank you. Long.