Vietopia — Attraction in Ho Chi Minh City

OMG - this is such a cute concept! This is a large 2-floors indoor theme park with probably 30-40 different small rooms/pavilion with various job functions representing a city: police station, fire station, newspaper, factories, photo studio, gas station and auto repair, supermarket, archeological site, space camp, dentist, post office, fashion design studio, court, recycling center, subway station, car design center, farm with cows, hospital, nursing station, science center, magic school, cooking school, and so forth.

The idea is that some pavilions require you to spend fake money while some places where you work, you earn fake money. It's such a cool concept to let your child understand the concept of "having to work" to earn a salary to be able to spend it later. At each station there is a sign showing how much each activity costs or earns. A staff person brings the kid(s) into the pavilion for the activity (parents aren't allowed to go in but can watch from the outside). Nearly all activities are for 4 year olds and above and take about 30 minutes or so. Most activities resemble a job/career. At some activities there are some souvenirs as well: for instance at the cooking school you actually get to bake a little pancake that you can take out and eat, while at one of the science places you get to bring the yogurt bottle out and drink as well.

I love how well integrated everything is. The actual ticket counter of this place resembles an airline checking counter complete with a fake security screening where the kids get an armband that you scan into each activity so the parents can keep track. There is a fake large passenger jet model where the kids can learn how to be a flight attendant. For the fire station, the kids actually ride in a small firetruck "across the town" complete with sirens to where the fake fire is and get to extinguish it there with a real water gun. Similarly, for the hospital work you might have to drive the ambulance "around town" as well and then treat a "passed out" patient at some other parts of the town. For the modeling school, the staff shows them how to perform on the catwalk behind the curtains first and then later the curtains open for the parents to see their kids' show.

Everything was so much fun and we couldn't finish all the activities in time, so I recommend coming here early to spend all day here. There is a real mediocre restaurant on site so you can buy and eat food. You probably can smuggle food in as they don't check bags at the entrance. The staff can speak English to the kids too, though I don't know how good it is as I asked them to speak Vietnamese to them. There is WiFi everywhere and one charging station with various USB/phone cables. Entrance ticket was about 280,000 đồng for a kid (4 years and older) and 45,000 đồng for adult. There are no in-and-out priveleges. We went on a Wednesday and it was fairly empty.

Some downsides: there is no AC so sometimes it can get stuffy and hot. It's also very loud in here, so if you as a parent want to chill at the restaurant and work, bring some earbuds.

I wish some activities take less then 30 minutes so that you can try more things. I also wish they would allow the parents inside each pavilion to take better...

Our only other experience with an entertainment place like this was Kidzania in Kuala Lumpur. My children ages 4 and 6 thoroughly looked forward and enjoyed their time there. Even my 2 year old who wasn't technically allowed to participate would once in a while be able to try on the uniforms like the fireman hat if I asked after the session and it wasn't busy.

We went on the Saturday prior to the Tet holiday weekend. We wanted to avoid the possible school group hoards during the week day days. Turned out excellent as it wasnt overly busy when we arrived at 2pm staying until 7pm. The stations are spread out on a larger area than and in KL with lots of room for my kids to run freely.

It was helpful that all staff spoke excellent English. They were what made it such a fun time for my children. They really got to the level of the child and encouraged them to participate. Always smiling and could tell they loved each other as coworkers and enjoyed their jobs.

Food options were a plenty and will get everyone fueled to keep on going. Lots of drink options including coconuts which was a healthier option. We just ate and drank along the way without eating at the restaurant.

Place is well kept and free of rubbish. Washrooms and cleaned regularly.

There is no lift/elevator so if you have a stroller be ready to lift it to the 2nd floor to leave at the bottom of the stairs.

There were ride on animals that required extra pay. 30 vdn for 5 mins on weekends and holidays. 25 vdn otherwise. It was nice to bring the 2 year old while she waited.

Many places for parents to sit for a rest.

Bring a little wallet so your kids can keep all the money they will receive.

Hope to go back again. Four hours was not enough to complete all the...

Hello, I'm writing this as I am 18. But I went to Viettopia in 2016 when I was 8, and I don't know if either the firefighting water spray activity or being forced by my mother to do the news reporting video that still traumatises me to this day. And definitely this themepark will bring me more trauma, now I am studying as a radiologist doctor (born and raised in Australia). From vivid memories: I had experiences in nursing, packaging drinks, spraying screen fires, flying a fake plane, learning vietnam's road signs, learning to drive simulator cars, pretending to be a model, learning how to make coffee, being a delivery driver (for packages), suprising a worker with my english while she was teaching me english words, creating icecream, seeing pepsi production, dentistry, photography, instrument playing and giving cpr to a dummy. I nearly went into nursing (babies) and dentistry - so I guess this themepark was the spark of my intentions to study medicine and health. Definitely even if you don't go to school here, at least bring your children to come here it gives them a good idea of what may spark their interests in the future. And some of these skills even though taught mainly in Vietnamese, I still take part in interest of like photography and instruments such as piano and flute. There are so many little stores and areas to play in there, I still have the little Viettopia paper money with me, as memories. I...