Sweden is expensive. Vietnam is not. This basic economic reality funded three months of travel on savings that would have lasted three weeks at home. My average daily spend was around 25 USD, and I never felt like I was sacrificing anything.
Accommodation took the biggest chunk, averaging about 8-10 dollars per night. I stayed mostly in hostels, but not the party kind. Vietnam has incredible guesthouses and family-run hotels that cost barely more than dorms but give you a private room. In smaller towns, 5 dollars got me my own space with air conditioning and hot water.
Food was almost comically cheap. Street meals rarely exceeded 2 dollars. A bowl of pho, a banh mi sandwich, a plate of rice with various toppings. I ate three meals a day, plus snacks, plus coffee, for under 10 dollars total. And this wasn’t ramen-noodle backpacker sustenance. This was genuinely excellent food.
Transportation surprised me with its affordability. Overnight buses between major cities cost around 15 dollars and saved on a night’s accommodation. Local buses were cheaper than walking, practically. Grab motorbike taxis worked out to a dollar or two for most rides. I only flew once, when a budget airline sale made it cheaper than the bus.
The key to budget travel here is living like a local, which is also more interesting than tourist bubbles. I ate where Vietnamese people ate, traveled how they traveled, stayed where they pointed when I asked for recommendations. The tourist markup doesn’t apply if you avoid tourist places.
Some expenses couldn’t be avoided. Entry fees to attractions add up, maybe a few dollars here and there. The visa cost 25 dollars. Travel insurance was non-negotiable for me, about 30 dollars for the month. But these were drops in a very cheap bucket.
My most expensive days were actually the most touristy. Ha Long Bay cruise cost real money, around 80 dollars for the budget overnight option. Cu Chi Tunnels tour, about 15 dollars including transport. These outliers barely dented my monthly average because everything else was so affordable.
I tracked every expense in a spreadsheet because I’m that kind of traveler. The numbers proved what I’d suspected: Vietnam is genuinely cheap, not “cheap for Asia” or “cheap for what you get” but actually, objectively affordable. My 25-dollar average included plenty of small indulgences, craft beer, nice dinners, entrance fees I didn’t skip.
Coming from Sweden, where a lunch easily costs 15 dollars and a beer is 8, Vietnam felt like a financial vacation as much as a geographic one. I stopped calculating conversions after week one. Everything was basically free.
Three months of living well, eating extraordinarily, seeing beautiful places, meeting interesting people. Total cost: roughly 2,500 dollars including flights. My rent at home for the same period would have been higher. Sometimes the math works out in your favor.