Budgetting for a trip to Vietnam/Thailand

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  voteoften on 13/01/2013 - 01:51

  You should be able to stay nicely for $30 a night or less. Everything is cheaper in Vietnam. Someone who was just there said beer was 25 or 50 cents.

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  voteoften on 13/01/2013 - 01:52

  Do NOT book ahead tours in Phuket. Do not book from the shuttle bus. Walk down the street and deal with the ticket sellers. We saved 70 - 80% that way for the same thing others had paid full price for or double what we paid using groupon or the like.

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  guydevrip on 13/01/2013 - 08:20

  buy yourself a copy of lonely planet travellers guide to thailand and one for vietnam too. You can also buy smalll handbooks made by the lonely planet for the languages. Also ive found that consulting online forums are immensely helpful. try using thaivisa.com for forum advice on everything from tours to hotels to where to buy the cheapest alcohol . there are expats who live in the areas you will be goijng to who wll be only too happy to provide their knowledge and advice, any question you have the odds are someone has asked it before and there will be a thread on the subject. i use thaivisa often while over in thailand. as far as vietnam goes, i dont know but try typing your questions in on google and chances are someone will have posted something that can help you.
  when booking accommodation i use agoda.com and-or asiarooms.com, there are always specials and cheap rates they have maps on where the hotel is which is important and when booking flights i use skyscanner.com
  if anyone knows a better flight booking site id like to know.
  cheers. hope this is useful.

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  blackraven on 13/01/2013 - 10:27

  Hi,

  Just came back from Thailand (not Vietnam) 3 weeks in December
  Total cost per person was $3500: with some caveats

  1) Stayed in REALLY nice accomodation in Phuket ($850pp/pw) - so could easily save $500pp there
  2) Bought everything last minute (finished exams November 26th, flight out on Dec 30) - could probably save $300pp on return flights (we paid $1000pp)
  3) Stayed in nice hotels as per booking.com/tripadvisor: average stay excluding Phuket was around $30pp/pn at hotels such as FuramaXclusive Sathorn and Hotel M Chiang Mai (both recommended).
  4) We flew Airasia domestically last minute: around $300pp for two flights - booking ahead you could probably at least halve that figure

  So all up, we did a trip similar to what I think you would like: at last minute: and I think by booking ahead you could easily save $1000, and Vietnam is cheaper, so if you spent some time there rather than all in Thailand maybe squeeze to $2000 without compromising accomodation, transport, activities?

  I think anything less than $100/day including flights you will have to make cuts to expectations re: above

  Also: re the above recommendations: we used Agoda and Booking.com and Expedia and I can say all three were flawless - I like booking.com layout best but that's just subjective, all three were easy and had no problems

  Haven't found a reliably good website for flights, I often just go straight to each airline. Will try skyscanner.

  Hope that helps,

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  Benicio on 02/02/2013 - 16:17

  It's easy enough to find cheap flights/hotels on the numerous search websites all over the place.
  I budget at around $100 a day per person for food/transport/tours (average) for my time away. Alcohol and night life can easily double that number though :)

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  HAL on 02/02/2013 - 18:58

  Just finished travelling around the region…

  My budget was ~$50/day on average, this is for accommodation + food + tours + transport… (excluding flights to and from Sydney)

  http://www.travelfish.org/ + http://www.tripadvisor.com.au/ were invaluable for accommodation… There are plenty of good hostels + budget hotels with private rooms… on average i paid $15-25 a night… (clean, private room, own bathroom… I wouldn't rule them out)

  Don't book any tours do it all in the country (voteoften is right)… For tours in:

  Vietnam - https://www.thesinhtourist.vn/ a good, cheap and most importantly reliable operator… went down the length of Vietnam with them no issues…

  Thailand - I booked day tours thru my hostel or hotel, or hired a tuk tuk for a day…

  I wasn't pressed for time so mainly caught buses from city to city… flights will obviously add more to the cost…

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  NigelTufnel on 04/02/2013 - 10:35

  +1

  Budget $50 per day and yous should be fine. It will probably work out to more like $30/day. My friend and I went around SE Asia in 2011 for 2 months and we ended up paying about $15/day staying in backpackers, doing tours every nowand then, travelling mainly by bus and train etc. Quite comfortable, but budget $50/day just in case.

  If you have some spare cash at the end, go wild!

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  macharmaine on 12/02/2013 - 20:48

  wow thanks a lot for these tips! I am going to Thailand & Vietnam for 2 weeks in June, and came across this thread randomly! awesome!! thanks.

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    voteoften on 13/02/2013 - 01:03

    There are several other threads for Thailand and Vietnam. Search this forum.

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    lynx on 14/03/2013 - 11:07

    hey mate, im going in june as well, what kind of ticket prices do you have for the flight to vn?? prices seem to have gone up!

    V.

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  ftweet on 19/02/2013 - 22:08

  If you're in Vietnam, specifically Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City, stay around the 'backpacker area'. There are a number of cheap, clean hotels around this area (road is called Pham Ngu Lao). Hotel rooms cost around $30 or less and are around the central location to most tours, sights in the city etc. However, I'm not 100% sure on the price of the hotel as I am lucky enough to have relatives living in Vietnam, specifically the 'backpacker area'.

  My advice with flights would be to get a stopover in Singapore Changi Airport, usually flights are cheaper this way and the only flights direct from Aus to VN I am aware of is through Vietnam Airlines.

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  Frangipani on 15/03/2013 - 10:55

  We usually budget $100 a day for 2 of us for food, shopping, taxis etc…..accomodation can be found for $30 a night in both places.
  Read the reviews in tripadvisor. That's where I find my hotels.
  We just sayed in a gorgeous hotel In Hoi an for about $22 a night with an amazing breakfast. Hoangtrinh hotel.