5 Easy Ways to Keep Your Solo Travel in Vietnam Budget
1. Share Taxi Fee with Other Travelers, Who Are also in Their Solo Travel in Vietnam
The most popular starting point once being in Hanoi after a long flight is Noi Bai International Airport which is about 30km to the center of city. The taxi price to get from the airport to Hanoi Old Quarter is from 380.000VND to 400.000VND (17$ - 20&). It’s wasting if you go alone, so why not sharing taxi fee with other travelers who also want to get to Hanoi Old Quarter, surely almost of them want to keep their travel cheap like you.
This is also a good way not to feel bored during the way. You can talk with them about your travel and what you expect from the journey, maybe you can become companions. Who knows?
2. Share Room with Other Travelers
The hostels in Hanoi Old Quarter would cost a travelers about 200.000VND to 300.000VND (about 12$) but if you and other travelers agree to share room with each other, you even could stay at a good hotel at a lower price than hostel, so why not? At night when both of you want to hang out, you can go together, stroll around together for sightseeing, coffee and street food.
3. Join a Group to Travel Together
If you have a plan with an ideal itinerary already, just tell about it on the forums, travel groups on Facebook or meat them somewhere while visiting around. Maybe your itineraries will be the same or a little different but could be changed, just join together and have the travel buddies. By this way, you can save a lot of money: hostel stay, meals, transportation, etc …
4. Always Bargain when Buying Something
Vietnam is glorified as the paradise of souvenirs made from handicraft products as well as the delicious street foods sold by the vendors. However before buying anything, just ask the price in advance if you don’t want to pay much more than its real price. Remember! Only buy what you like when you see its price is reasonable.
5. Companion with a Local Person, Maybe a Student.
This is not a really popular way but intelligent. Vietnamese people like talking to foreigners but in some ways, they don’t want to start a conversation with you because they think that you might be disturbed and in some ways, you don’t know if they could speak English or not. But now, do something different! You can contact some local people in advance on Facebook or forums for a meeting. Surely if they are not busy, they are willing to take you around and visit some best places to visit, enjoy authentic street foods and show you away from troubles en route.
Specially, it’s great if you could companion with a local student who are very active and eager to go with a foreigner around. If you want to pay the entrance fee for him/her, don’t worry! With student cards, tickets for them are discounted a lot. With only 100.000VND (4.5$), you can pay for their entrance fee at approximate 10 attractions (in Hanoi)
With the above 5 easy ways to keep budget for your solo travel in Vietnam, you can believe that you will have a cheap solo holiday in this country with a lot of interesting experience and friendly friends. Pack your bag and go!
• Author & Copyright: Brian Vu - Hello Vietnam Travel (Vietnam Local Tour Operator: Organize & Customize Vietnam Tour Packages)