What I Spent Traveling for 1 Month in Vietnam — A Backpacker’s Budget
I am a very cheap traveler.
I stay in cheap hostels, I eat cheap street food, and I use cheap local transportation. I’m one of those weirdos who likes to walk everywhere and I will even avoid certain “must-see” tourist attractions. Package tours? What are those?
I admit my style of travel is not for everyone, but I think many can learn from my philosophy. For me, it’s not about the money, it’s about the experience. I’ve never been a particularly high earner, but I make my budget work.
On my current travels throughout Southeast Asia, I’ve meticulously kept track of every dollar, kip, and baht I’ve spent so I can report back to you with realistic, up-to-date prices.
Vietnamese Currency: The Dong
Vietnam uses the dong (go ahead and laugh!). It is abbreviated as VND and is at about 24,000 to 1 US dollar.
The dong is a weak currency right now, meaning that Vietnam is — for lack of a better term — stupid cheap. It’s on par with places like Laos and Thailand for being incredibly inexpensive. Even with rising prices since the pandemic, you can find good, filling street food for $1–2, a dorm bed for $3–5 a night, or a hotel room to yourself for as low as $7 per night. Beer can be had for less than $1 a can or bottle.
Interesting Fact: You may find some bills on the ground that look like dong, but don’t quite match any of your other bills. This is fake money printed specifically to be burned at Buddhist shrines!
What I Spent in 1 Month in Vietnam
Below is the total of what I spent for 30 days in Vietnam, as well as a breakdown of what I spent in different categories. Please note that for the breakdown, I did NOT include airfare; it depends entirely on where you’re flying from, what time of year you’re flying, etc. so I just left it off.
I also did not include visa fees, since some countries don’t need them and that price can vary (although for Americans, we have to pay about $50 to get in).
I only wanted to focus on daily expenses to give you a better idea of what to budget.
Total Expenses: $535.41
Daily Average: $17.85/day
The breakdown by category goes like this:
Transportation
$204.73
38.24%
Food & Drink
$152.10
28.41%
Lodging
$102.42
19.13%
Tickets & Tours
$26.78
5%
Miscellaneous
$22.41
4.19%
Alcohol
$15.41
2.9%
Services
$8.58
1.6%
Clothing
$4.74
0.89%
Analysis
The lion’s share of my monthly budget was spent on transportation. This included several sleeper buses, Grab motorbike rides, bike rentals, and two train trips.
In second place was food and drink, which is really where Southeast Asia shines: If you stick to the basics, food here costs NOTHING. In Quang Ngai I spent 25,000 dong (basically $1) on a big bowl of noodles and tea. Saigon, while being a huge city, has plenty of options for cheap eats and I routinely had delicious bun thit for around 35,000 dong.
The one thing that usually gets people is the alcohol. Yes, you can buy a beer at the corner store for about a buck or a buck and change, but those costs will add up. Bars are great but I recommend buying alcohol at the supermarket for a heavily discounted rate. A good local Vietnamese beer like Tiger or Saigon or Huda is pretty cheap and might cost around a dollar. Japanese Sapporo beer is more expensive, but also common.
Lodging is where Vietnam excels when it comes to cost-effectiveness. I swear by hostels, though I understand they’re not for everyone.
The good news is, either way, you’re in luck!
You can find good dorm beds for $3 a night, and more often than not they’ll be clean, feature hot water, and even provide breakfast for you!
For private hotel rooms, you can easily find them for $7 a night.
If you’re not using Booking.com yet, I recommend you do so because you can rack up Genius rewards to get money off your accommodations. I myself got a dorm bed in a very nice hostel in Sapa for…are you ready?…$1.50 a night. Hostels come in many forms and I even saw a place in Dalat renting tents for $1 a night, which is the absolute lowest I’ve seen anywhere in the world.
