The techie, whose third visit to his favourite destination was for his honeymoon in November last year, sayshe prefers Vietnam over Goa for two reasons: it is more tourist-friendly and costs nearly the same.
“You basically get to experience a new country at the cost of domestic holidays, which feels amazing,” Harsh told Mint.
As part of Mint’s travel series, Harsh shares the details of his two-week trip to Vietnam with his wife Deeksha Singh for around ₹1.2 lakh.
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Why Vietnam
The first time I went to Vietnam was to work remotely for a month after the covid-19 pandemic. I had researched all possible destinations I could work from and Da Nang offered the right balance of affordability with the right amenities for remote work. The city has ample cafes with good internet and cheap hotels. I fell in love with the country which is extremely tourist-friendly and where travelling becomes seamless. I realized this was the ideal place to spend time with my life partner.
For our honeymoon last year, we travelled for 13 days acossHo Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang. Though Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are relatively more popular among tourists, we decided to spend most of our time at Da Nang because of its pristine beaches and stunning infrastructure.
With limited tourist footfall, premium hotels in Da Nang are available at dirt cheap prices, which is, in a way, true for all of Vietnam if you compare it to popular holiday destinations in India.
We booked a sea-facing 4-star hotel calledBlu Sun in Da Nang for the entire durationthat cost us ₹2,400 per night, including breakfast. In comparison, similar hotels in Goacost around ₹7000 and above.
I negotiated with the hotel directly to get the best offer price. I checked out hotels on online travel agencies (OTA), zeroed down on this one and reached out to them on their Facebook page. I used our long stay of nearly two weeks as the bargain chip to get a deal with a 15-20% discount on the OTA price.
I’ve also had a good experience booking through OTA as hotel owners respect prices you have managed to lock online, something that Indian hotels are known to decline.
Also Read: How this Pune couple planned a budget trip to the second most expensive country in the world
Across Vietnam
I keep going back to Vietnam or other Southeast Asian countries not just for the lower costs but also to experience varied cultures and all this at the same cost as what I would spend in Goa.
We took a direct flight toHo Chi Minh City, spent the day exploring the city and took an evening flight to Da Nang.
We used Grab taxis for all our local commute. The cheaper, and more widely used option is to hire a two-wheeler for self-drive but neither of us can drive one so we took cabs. It wasn’t too costly either as we spent less than 10% of our total budget on cabs, which even includes a ₹2,500 return trip to Hanoi from Da Nang.
The main attractions included Buddha statue on top of a beautiful mountain, Ba na hills for a unique amusement park with European style architecture and the gorgeous bridge over lush green valleys and marble mountain for the spiritual sites. Entry fee for most sites was either free or under ₹100, except Ba na Hills, which has an entry fee of ₹3,000 per person.
Da Nang has long and expansive promenades with excellent walking infrastructure which makes it ideal to take long evening walks along the ocean. For us, such slow and long late night walks were the one of the best parts of the holiday.
Hoi An is just a half-hour drive from Da Nang, so we did a day trip. Though located in proximity to Da Nang, Hoi An has a starkly contrasting retro ambience. We explored the entire city and returned by evening.
Also read: Hot air balloon, Limousines, and hammams: A luxurious ₹5 lakh Turkish Holiday
Google flights for cheap deals
The key to a budget Vietnam trip is to lock the right fares for flights. I use Google flights to get the best deal. One can go to the explore destinations button to check out flight fares displayed for all locations.
We took a direct Vietjet flight from Mumbai for ₹19,000. However, being a low-cost airline, such fares are available only for carry-on 7 kg baggage tickets. We took that option for our Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh flight, shopped widely in Vietnam and bought baggage for the return leg from Da Nang, which cost us about ₹29,000.
Many people who don’t track and book tickets on time can end up paying double what we paid just for flights. In such a scenario, it’s no longer a budget trip.
Apart from flights, we didn’t budget for any other expenses. We had two sit-down meals everyday at cafes and restaurants. Food is among the cheapest expenses in Vietnam with each meal costing an average ₹500.
As for payment methods, cards are widely accepted, except American Express. I used a Fi zero forex debit card and credit card for most payments. Fi is a fintech company that offers debit cards in association with Federal Bank. One has to open a bank account with Federal Bank to get the card. We didn’t convert money at the money exchange and instead withdrew from ATMs with low withdrawal charges. Through my three trips, I have found that MB Bank (a Vietnamese commercial joint stock bank) charges zero forex fees on cash withdrawals.
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