How to Save Money on Your Trip To Vietnam

Based on the cost of a three week tour, our trip to Vietnam cost roughly the same amount of money for over seven weeks in Vietnam. Three weeks or seven weeks for the same money! Big difference. So how did we do it? And better yet, how can you save money on your trip to Vietnam! Find out below.

Reduce Your Vietnam Trip Cost: Organize it Yourself

An organized tour is usually the most expensive way to go anywhere or see anything. It is priced at a premium as a trade off for convenience. There is a lot of information about Vietnam (including on this website) and the tourism infrastructure is developed enough that it is easy to organize yourself. If you are worried about the language, most people working in tourism speak English, so it is not really an issue. So to reduce your Vietnam travel costs we recommed planning your own itinerary for Vietnam.

Take the weather into account when planning. Vietnam is a long, narrow country. Rainfall and temperatures can vary widely. We traveled from south to north. This was to avoid the north in the cold and rain, and be out of the south before the weather became really hot (it was hot enough when we were there!)   Moving in one direction rather than backtracking will also save you time and money.

Your two biggest costs will be transport and accommodation and those are pretty easy to sort on your own. So here’s our advice for traveling in Veitnam.

Below is a map of our itinerary, so you can follow along.

Vietnam Travel -Transportation – What is the best option?

The cost of getting to Vietnam usually by flying from somewhere else can vary widely depending on departure and arrival points. If you want some tips to find cheaper flights read this earlier post Travel Tips and Resources for Planning Your Trip.   Once you arrive let’s look at the options for travel within Vietnam.

Train Travel in Vietnam

We decided to take the train: my reasoning was it was a night’s accommodation and transport at the same time. In addition train stationa are usually easier and cheaper to reach as they are in the center of town, while the airport is usually outside of town requiring a longer and more expensive taxi ride. While this was true, I wouldn’t do travel by train in Vietnam again.

• The train in Vietnam was uncomfortable, old, noisy and generally very difficult to get any sleep on (and I can sleep pretty much anywhere and I usually enjoy the overnight train).
• It wasn’t all that cheap to reserve a sleeper car compared to an airfare.
• The condition of the bathrooms cannot be discussed in polite company.
• We arrived sometimes at the crack of dawn in a destination which made checking in impossible as the previous guest hadn’t even woken up, let alone checked-out.
• Due to lack of sleep, the first day was not all that productive.
• It was always a shared sleeper and it was potluck with cabin mates. On one trip we had a woman who talked non-stop (in Vietnamese) on her mobile. On another we had a man with his rooster in a cardboard box! In case you need more details: the rooster constantly banged about in the box, I had visions of bird flu!, and yes it started crowing at full volume at first light!
• And this was booking in the upgraded sleeper cars!

So being excited to travel the Reunification Express (yep, that’s the name of the train running Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City) I booked the first two legs in advance: HCMH to Nha Trang, then Nha Trang to DaNang.

We didn’t have a full itinerary with dates to book the whole thing or I would have! Lucky break your thinking! Ah, but no!

You can imagine my disappointment after the first leg of the journey, HCMC to Nha Trang, to discover the only way to get from DaNang to our next stop, Ninh Binh, was the train! So yep, back on the train for the third overnight.

And the only way to travel to Sapa, north of Hanoi, is the overnight train!

Luckily this is actually a different line, not part of the Reunification Express, and the train was a bit more comfortable, while still a shared compartment. So that’s two more nights (up and back) on the train. So, if you’re keeping count, that’s 5 nights of train travel in Vietnam.

If you don’t want to heed my advice, (and I have had other readers write and agree with me on this one!) there is more information about booking the train below in the Resources section.

Car Travel in Vietnam

Southeast Asia, (yes the entire place), is not a place I recommend driving. Language, reading signs, scams, unenforced road laws, animals and farm equipment (or anything else you can think of) on the road and terrible drivers all make it high on my do not drive list. It is not like I am going to be mistaken for a local either.

So with driving in Vietnam out of the question, that leaves being driven around or taking public transport. Luckily being driven around is not terribly expensive and won’t increase the your Vietnam travel costs much.  So as we often do in Asia and so we took this option for transportation.

We organized:

• A driver and guide as part of a tour through the Mekong Delta (more below)
• The same driver took us for a day trip outside of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) to the Cau Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels
• Private car transfers between Ninh Binh and Mai Chau and then on to Hanoi.
• Private car transfers DaNang to Hoi An and Hoi An to Hue.
• Taxis or walking within HCMC, Hanoi, and Hoi An.
• Walking or biking around Sapa, Hoi An, Ninh Binh and Mai Chau (these are all towns, not cities).
• The occasional (when it was the only option) transport on the back of a motorbike. Always in a rural area and always wearing a helmet.
• 2-way shuttle transfer from the train station to Sapa Town. (recommend asking your hotel to book this for you)
• Transfers by private car to and from Halong Bay.

Accommodation in Vietnam: Vacation Cost Examples

For the most part we stayed in middle of the range hotels. In Vietnam, cost of accommodation is not expensive unless you stay at the luxury end of the market.

We tend to try and stay at family run accommodation as the service and recommendations for the local area are usually good.

For most of our accommodation we choose what I would call tourist class accommodation (3 star), including a couple of apartments. 

“Apartment” is a relative term as most of these have a kitchenette, so cooking is very limited. However you do get more space and eating out is very cheap anyway.

We rented apartments in: Nha Trang, Hoi An and Hanoi.

Our luxury splurges:

• One night on our Mekong Delta tour was in a very nice place with a fantastic view and pool overlooking the valley.
• The Sofitel in Hanoi (now the Pan Pacific Hanoi after a change in ownership)
• The Sol Bungalows  in Mai Chau.
• Our cruise in Halong Bay.

Some places accommodation was just cheap, no other word for it really! The place we stayed in Ninh Binh, was $15 a night. Not because it was awful but because that is what tourist class hotels cost in Ninh Binh. I think everywhere we stayed, except the Sofitel in Hanoi, included breakfast.

Which leads us to the question, how expensive is Vietnam really?

Tours & Activities: Great Value Travel in Vietnam

Often times when I could not be bothered to sort out or make multiple transfers on local transport for areas more difficult to reach, we did a tour. All of our tours in Vietnam:

• 4 day/3 night tour through the Mekong Delta (including accommodation, guide and driver)
• 3 day/2 night Halong Bay Cruise
• Day tour to the Emperors’ tombs in Hue
• Food Tour Hoi An (walking no transport)
• Day tour to the Bac Ha Market in Sapa
• A day tour to the rural countryside in Mai Chau.
• A bicycle tour in Mai Chau (same guide as the day tour the previous day and it was cheap and we had a blast the first day!)
• Two Cooking schools in Hoi An: at Red Bridge Cooking School and a private lesson at the Red Dragon Restaurant (both including a trip to the market).

Keep in mind, some of this can be organized by your hotel on your behalf which makes it easier and/or you can find a lot of information on the internet.

Resources

How much does it cost to travel to Vietnam? Similar 3 week tours (covering Hanoi, HCMC, Mekong Delta and Hoi An) were an average of about $3000 to $3500 USD per person. This is after arrival in Hanoi or HCMC, i.e. not including international airfares. I am using this as an average because the cost is based on similar class accommodation and activities. We found cheaper tours, we found more luxurious. You can really find great holiday packages in Vietnam, but my point is you can save thousands of dollars taking the time to organize it yourself. Vietnam is a cheap travel destination. And transport and accommodationin Vietnam is not difficult to arrange on your own.

If you need some advice on how to plan your own travel, read Travel Tips and Resources for Planning Your Trip. 

Vietnam Travel Recommendations

If you need assistance with travel in Vietnam, here are some suppliers we used and are happy to recommend (yep this is where we share our travel Rolodex with you- for younger readers, a Rolodex was the old fashioned pre computer version of a contact list)

• Tony Nong from Ann Tours arranged our Mekong Delta Tour. The driver and guide were excellent. The service was superb and it was all arranged on incredibly short notice. Very professional operation. Additional contact details: Facebook,  email, or alternate email.

• Sol Bungalows in Mai Chau

• Halong Bay Cruise– Heritage Line very nice ship and great service.  You get what you pay for in a Ha Long Bay cruise.  And even saying that, this cruise was not expensive, just luxurious for Ha Long Bay.

• For all your accommodation, a comprehensive selection can be found on Bookings.com

• For assistance with the Train

– Man in Seat 61 provides all the information you need for train travel in Vietnam (and around the world).

– We used Seat 61’s recommendation of Vietnam Impressive for train tickets. (We had no problems, they provide excellent service) They can be reached via email. But I still stand by my recommendation to find alternative travel.

If you need a good budget airline in Vietnam check Jetstar and Kayak.com.  Read our recommendations about finding cheap flights, it can save you a lot of money not only on your trip to Vietnam but on all your travels.

If you have questions, leave a comment. Where would you go on your Vietnam trip?