How Cheap Is It? My Daily Budget in Vietnam

I spent a day tracking my expenses in the tourist-friendly town of Hue. While my hotel room was unusually cheap, most of the prices were about average for Vietnam. I’m not including the motorcycle rental, since that’s not something that most people would want to do.

Room — I was a little surprised at how much room prices varied throughout Vietnam. Here in Hue, I found a lovely clean, new place with AC for $8 per night.

Saigon was the most expensive, with most places running $16-18 a night. Hoi An was $13, Dalat $10, and I found a lovely AC bungalow on the beach in Mui Ne for $10. I’m in Hanoi as I write this and have found a pretty rundown but clean room with AC for $12 — most places were in the $20 range or higher.

Food — Theres a fairly large range in price depending upon whether you eat at a tourist/backpacker restaurant, a local restaurant/cafe, or on the street. The street is cheapest, of course, with a bowl of pho noodles costing about a dollar. Most places only serve one dish so you really have to look around a bit. Local eateries are where I had most of my meals — 50-100% higher than street food, but more of a selection, less worry of illness, and a cool fan blowing in the background.

For breakfast, I had a fried egg sandwich for $1.50 and an iced coffee for $1.00. Lunch was stir-fried noodles with beef at a local cafe for $1.50 and coke for $.75. Later in the day, I stopped at a stall for another coke for $.50. Dinner was BBQ pork ribs with rice at the same cafe for $2 and a Saigon beer for $1.25. On the way to the hotel, I bought a bottle of Dalat white wine for $3 and enjoyed it as I sat on the hotel balcony, watching the sun go down.

Beer averages about $.75-1.00, with some places charging as little as $.50. Here in Hanoi, they run about $1.00 each in a cafe. You can, of course, get the local bia hoi –fresh beer brewed that morning and served at stalls on street corners– for less than $.25 a glass. It’s rather watery and warm, but you do get to meet a lot of the locals.

Transport — I had the motorbike to get around, but motorbike taxis are cheap and readily available. The rule of thumb seems to be about 10,000 dong ($.50) per kilometer. Pedicabs are around the same price. My one experience with a taxi was here in Hanoi, traveling from the bus station to the town center. It ran me $10 — about twice what I expected. The meter was on, but the numbers flipped really quickly and I suspect it’d been tampered with.

I’ve only taken a bus once, a two-hour ride in a new AC mini-bus from Ninh Binh to Hanoi. Total cost was 45,000 dong — just over $2. Unfortunately, they dropped me off on the far south side of town, resulting in the expensive taxi ride I mentioned above.

Miscellaneous — Visiting the Imperial Enclosure was $3 well-spent. Hue has quite a few old tombs of former emperors that can be visited for free, but the tomb of Minh Mang is the largest and most ornate — it’ll set you back another $3, though I didn’t visit it this day. Buying water from a small store is the way to go — $.50 for a large 1.5l bottle — half what you’ll pay in a hotel or cafe. I scratched my latest pair of cheap sunglasses and had to buy another pair of Ray Ban knockoffs from a street vendor for $1. Using my iPhone for internet access has been extremely handy and costs less than $.75 a day so long as I didn’t make international calls.

Tagged as: Budget, cost-per-day, tips, Vietnam