Travelling Solo in Vietnam: The Land of Everything

(This is part of my Vietnam story series. For travel itinerary & tips, check my Vietnam Travel Guide.)

When it was time for my first international solo trip in 2018, I hardly had any second thoughts about choosing Vietnam, with an 11 days itinerary. Being a lover of nature, history and culture – and mostly being broke – I was always fascinated by Vietnam since college. From whatever I read of it, it seemed to be as diverse and as beautiful as India, if not more. From mountains to beaches (and combination of both), beautiful villages to busy cities, ancient monuments to unique nightclubs, cheap beer to the best food in the world – Vietnam has it all.

Solo Trip Timeline:

Let us get one thing clear – Vietnam is huge, and covering all major tourist destinations will take at least a month. I made a plan for 11 days, with two weekends and taking 7 days leave. It was the April of 2018, which I believe is the optimum time to visit, without tourist rush and a near-perfect weather.

Since I was on a tight schedule as always, I researched and shortlisted only unique places worth visiting that complement the other places in the itinerary. I started my journey in Central Vietnam and ended in North Vietnam, completely skipping the south, given my time and budget. I chose to ignore the cityscapes (e.g. Da Lat) and places I find similar to India (e.g. Sapa). I even let go of Ho Chi Minh City, since it was far off from the other places of my itinerary.

Itinerary:

I kept a hectic itinerary for myself since I wanted to take it all, but some places turned out to be even more beautiful than I imagined, which made me shift my planned itinerary for the last few days. Here is the itinerary I followed: (Click on the links to read the detailed story)

Day 0: Chennai to Da Nang via Bangkok
Day 1: Da Nang: Lady Buddha and My Tryst with Snake Wine
Day 2: My Son: Vietnam’s Temple Ruins and the Lone Visitor
Day 2-3: Hoi An: An Unforgettable Walk in the City of Lanterns
Day 4: Hai Van Pass: A Bike Trip of a Lifetime
Day 5: Hue: In Love with the Most Undervalued City of Vietnam
Day 6: Hanoi: Looking Beyond $1 Beer and the Cityscape (story coming soon)
Day 7-8: Cat Ba Island: The Best and Cheapest Ha Long Bay Cruise (story coming soon)
Day 9-10: Ninh Binh: Packing every essence of entire Vietnam (story coming soon)
Day 11: Hanoi to Chennai via Kuala Lumpur

In my following travel series, I’m putting down detail of every place I visited – how I did vs. how I think others should, now that I’ve learnt the lesson. I am also providing multiple itineraries to choose from – depending on how much time you’ve got – representing what I believe were the best elements of Vietnam.

Budget:

(Note: Currency of Vietnam, Dong or VND, is quite devalued. 1,000VND is equivalent to Rs.3, or 4 cents.)

I usually divide my daily travel budget into 3 components – food, stay and travel. Vietnam is extremely cheap in all the 3 aspects; cheaper than India in most cases. I did not compromise on my comfort – I never stayed at a place without wifi, had beer almost every day, always had a two-wheeler to myself (since solo trip) and never took an overnight journey – and yet, guess how much it cost on average?

Only Rs.1500 a day! (Equivalent to 500,000VND or $20)

Well, don’t get shocked – here’s how I did it:

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1. Food: Unless you go to some fancy place, a non-veg meal at a decent restaurant will cost you 50-70,000VND (Rs.150-200); and you won’t believe how great it tastes. Roadside snacks cost 20,000VND (Rs.60). A can of beer costs ONLY 20,000VND (Rs.60). Do you even dare compare that to the beer cost in an average Indian bar? And the best thing? The places I stayed usually offered free breakfast and free beer!

Average cost per day: Rs.500 (~150,000 VND/ 7 USD)

2. Stay: Vietnam is quite tourism-friendly. In every place worth visiting, you’ll find hostels or homestays – most ideal place for backpackers, especially in a solo trip. A decent hostel with free breakfast (and free beer or rum, if you’re lucky) will cost you 100,000-200,000VND. Highly ranked places in Hostelworld and Booking.com are easiest to choose.

Average cost per day: Rs.400 (~120,000 VND/ 5 USD)

3. Travel & Sightseeing: I used to rent bike for intra-city travel, which costed 100,000VND, and with petrol of 50,000VND usually lasted the whole day. For intercity travel I used private buses – fast and cheap – costing around 100,000VND; the flight to Hanoi being the only exception. The sightseeing places were reasonably priced, going up to 100,000VND for world heritage sites.

Average cost per day: Rs.600 (~180,000 VND/ 8 USD)

My total spend for 11 days was less than Rs.20000! Flights were a bit expensive, around Rs.30000 for Visa and flight tickets, since there were no direct flight from Chennai. However, excluding shopping, the entire solo trip costed me less than Rs.50000 (~700USD). If you are traveling from Delhi or Kolkata, you will get cheaper flights nowadays to Vietnam.

Read my detailed accounts on how I had the best view of Ha Long Bay in 1/10^th the normal price, how I rode 30km in heavy rain with my eyes almost closed, how I faced the dogs guarding a place I wasn’t supposed to visit, and many more. To plan your own trip, click here for Vietnam Travel Guide.