We’re going back to Southeast Asia, this time Vietnam! We’ll have 14 days, from start to finish, to see as much of the country as we can while still maintaining a rather leisurely pace. In those 14 days we will see 5 areas of Vietnam and stay in 4 different cities. This time around, we have another couple joining us on this adventure, Taylor & Marisa.
Here is a break down of the costs and how I booked the travel:
- Initial Flight Roundtrip: $2188.64 ($547.16 per person)
- Vietnam Visas: $260 ($65 per person)
- Ho Chi Minh City > Nha Trang: $73.88 ($18.47 per person)
- Nha Trang > Da Nang: $170.56 ($42.64 per person)
- Da Nang > Hanoi: $252.18 ($63.04 per person)
- Hanoi > Ho Chi Minh City: $148.98 ($37.24 per person)
- HCMC Hotel (1 room): $325.92 (4days/3nights)
- Nha Trang Hotel (2 rooms): $460.02 (4days/3nights)
- Hoi An Hotel (2 rooms): $389.10 (4days/3nights)
- Hanoi Hotel (2 rooms): $120 (2days/2nights)
- Last Night in HCMC Hotel (1 room): $114.72
- ^The other couple chose to stay in a different hotel for the last night.
- TOTAL COSTS: $4389 /4 = $1,114 per person!
NOTE: We are using Da Nang as a commuter location and will actually be staying in Hoi An!
As always, I started off with the initial, roundtrip flights leaving from LAX on November 7th and coming back on November 21st. Like usual, it is cheaper for us to fly out of LAX than San Diego which can easily save us a couple hundred bucks right from the get-go and all we have to do is find someone to drive us up to LAX, or take the train up the coast. I booked all our flights through Skyscanner and I used STAtravel to book the hotels and research locations. Always remember to clear your cookies before starting you search in order to pull up the cheapest options. Need help doing this? Simply google how to do it on your browser.
Booking for four people this time was a new challenge as well. Coordinating between us couples and trying to keep everyone happy and on the same page was also an interesting experience. If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I am a solid researcher and I take my time to find out the nitty gritty before we go to a new destination. I read article after article, blog pages, travel sites, ask friends and family that have visited, and contact locals in order to really learn about what kind of experiences we can have. I do this so that I know where going to have an amazing experience and I always book things in advanced so we don’t have to worry about it once we’re abroad.
Compared to our Thailand/Cambodia, Indonesia, and Acapulco trips that we’ve taken recently, we’re still a couple hundred dollars cheaper than those other trips for the same amount of time abroad (ave. 2 weeks). Because of this, we were okay about spending a little more money on hotels rooms than we normally would. I try to keep my hotel rooms under $60 per night while traveling but we wanted to splurge a little on this trip and stay at fancier places.
Now that all the bookings are completed and I can focus on saving for the actual trip, it’s time to start researching tours and excursions. Of course, any suggestions/tips are always welcome!
Make Me a Jetsetter 