Cost of Budget Traveling in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. $5 for Hoste...

I spent 3 months in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) in May-August 2024; sharing what I've learned about prices there.

Hostels

I'll start with the toughest point - hostels. Why the toughest? A hostel can be anything in Southeast Asia: one can resemble a prison and another can be a shared 3-star room.

I stayed at three hostels in Saigon in 2024.

Hotel / Hostel Ha Vy near Bui Vien Street is in the image above, I haven't stayed there but loved the look of the hotel signs.

Little Tricks

First, I was at Saigon Cozy House & coffee (😐). They asked 125.000 dong (5$) for a night on booking com. The location is central, AC works only at night. Generally clean, no bedbugs in the second-floor dorm. Alas, when I decided to stay for a month and paid the whole sum with a discount for the long term, we agreed on (105$ for a month), they started using little tricks like turning off AC for the whole day. I didn't have AC for 3 days and there was only one fan in the large dormitory so I was sweating AF while sleeping. Long story short, I made a loud scene and left. Happily, they gave me the money back, and that's why I didn't begin the review vendetta against them. 😁

Bed Bugs

The second hostel was AULE Hostel (😞). They ask around 95.000 dong (4$) for a night on booking.com, and their place is even more centrally located, with quite hard-working staff. A Spartan style, with little space in the dorm, but okay. Unfortunately, they had bedbugs; not many and that's why I even didn't notice them for ten days or so (despite a couple of night checks I had). Then, I discovered that my large backpack was literally colonized by a horde of bedbugs... Every time I touched it, these disgusting insects appeared on its surface and then hid back in the backpack's endless folds. 😭😭😭

Home Away From Home

As a result, I put this infested backpack in a trash plastic bag and moved to another hostel. They were shocked at the reception when they saw a guy dragging a black trash sack. A receptionist told me "that's scary", probably hinting I could have a dismembered corpse in the trash bag 😁

That hostel is called Aloha Saigon Hostel (😃) located within a distance of 20-minute bus ride from the city center. 150 000 dongs (6$) on booking com but they offered me 125.000 dogs (5$) when I decided to stay longer than a few days including a free decent breakfast + free water refill.

A dorm in Aloha Saigon Hostel is in the image. Looks plain but believe me that was amazing. Fresh air in the room, personal light, two sockets, a shelf next to the bed to keep a laptop or anything els. All-day AC. Friendly staff. Hard-working cleaning every day.

Modern bathroom with hot water and much space. After having a shower in a 50-cm gap between a toilet bowl and the wall (in AULE hostel), washing yourself at this spacey glass shower cabin (on the right in the image above) is a priceless return to civilization.

Food

The central district of Saigon is called District 1. It is the oldest part of the city, built during the French administration. At the same time, it hosts most modern high-rise buildings. In general, restaurant food prices there are twice as high as in other parts of the city.

Sometimes, you can find a cheaper place there. The problem is that when you arrive in the city for the first time, you don't know what regular prices for food are. To help you, dear traveler, I'll share prices for food in street restaurants of District 3, a middle-class area but without tourism.

Rice with chicken

When you buy cơm gà ("rice chicken"), you can expect this type of food:

Rice, fried chicken, a bit of veggies, and broth with seaweed.

When you have a full leg, the price is 50.000 dongs (2$ = 72 baht), when you have a chicken thigh only, the price is 35.000 (1.4$ = 50 baht).

In a more basic restaurant (with awful smells), a full-leg set costs 45.000 dongs. I had a takeaway there to eat at hostel.

If you want to add a fried egg to this set, you pay 5.000 dongs for that (0.2$ = 7 baht).

There were many such cơm tấm places in District 3, and prices were like I mentioned above.

Soup Pho

Soup pho with beef (phở bò) or chicken (phở gà) is a soup made of

broth
noodles
meat (beef, chicken, etc)
fresh herbs (basil and pak chi farang) you add before eating
chili and lime you add before eating

First, pho is delicious, secondly, you can get a ton of vitamins with this dish so you don't need to eat a salad.

There are many varieties of soup pho for different prices. 50.000 dongs can be considered a normal price in Saigon away from District 1. I loved to visit Phở Trang Lê Quốc Hưng restaurant in District 4: locals say in reviews that the place is clean, hygenic, and prices for pho is reasonable. I also tried soup pho in District 1 for 50.000, and it was awful: stinking beef broth, awfully overcooked noodles, no fresh herbs were offered, meat was so-so.

Tip: In Thailand you can count on a normal portion of food on every corner, in Vietnam there are more restaurants with bad food, unsanitary conditions, stink... Use Google maps to find good restaurants!

Banh mi

Banh mi is a sandwich made of a small baguette with any filling (fried eggs or pork as the main filling ingredient are usual). Banh mi are sold on every corner. Prices for banh mi are quite the same in the city including District 1:

banh mi with 1 fried egg and veggies = 15.000 dong (0.6$ = 22 baht)
banh mi with pork and veggies = 25.000 dong (1$ - 36 baht)

Together with eggs or pork, they also add some dubious ingredients like cheap mayo (right from the chemical hell) and sausages made of better not know what. 🤢 Happily, you can point with the finger not to put dubious ingredients.

Hygiene

A cart with affordable meatballs and sausages. I tried in Thailand, not good; wouldn't risk to do so in Vietnam.

Very subjective topic. I'll answer from the Eastern European perspective. To me, Vietnam street food, as for hygiene, is between Thailand and India. Many rats in Saigon, many filthy-looking and filthy-smelling street restaurants. How to be then? Search for neat people selling food (middle-class city dwellers) in the streets. Read Google.Reviews as well.

Cheating at Restaurants

It happens from time to time. They can overcharge you as a foreigner - +5.000-10.000 dongs for a dish. Some waiters can invent tips, like, paying extra +5000 dongs that will be included in the receipt. Then, you will know that was a decision of the waiter, not the policy of the restaurant. Etc.

It doesn't cancel the fact that there are a lot of honest people among Saigonese. Some of them, for example, can invite a foreigner to the table and feed and drink him/her as a guest (I mean for free).

Light bite

If you aren't too hungry but you need to eat something - that's the time for a light bite. If I have a good lunch at 2 pm, I often don't need a real dinner in the evening. At the same time, eating a banana isn't enough. So I need a light bite, for example: 2 eggs, 1 piece of bread, and a glass of tea with lemon.

They have baguettes in Vietnam so it is much easier with light biting in Thailand.

These are prices:

Bread (a short light baguette): 4.000 dong (6 baht)
A boiled egg in a convenience store: 5.000 dongs (7 baht)
Milk, 180 ml: 12.000 dongs (0.5$, 18 baht)
Yogurt (tasty, real!), small: 6.000 (0.25$, 9 baht)
Avocado (great with bread, filling): below 1$ for 1 kg

Yes, dairy products are great and affordable in Vietnam.

I also drink hot green tea with calamansi fruits. I never noticed calamansi in Thailand but they are often in Vietnam, even in convenience stores. It tastes like a lemon (not a lime) and its peel tastes like dried orange peel. Thus, a calamansi in a cup of tea creates a delicious drink, extremely healthy for the throat, besides.

Fruits

Nothing special here, the same as in Thailand: you can find fruits with the price 1$ and slightly below but many types of fruits cost 2$ or more. The only special features of Vietnam I noticed: green mandarins (sweet) can cost very cheap, like, 0.5$ or lower. As I mentioned above, avocado costs 1$ and lower.

Fruits and veggies are overpriced in large chain shops except the CO.OP chain.

Choose people selling fruits from the ground if you want cheaper. Avoid tourist areas (like Ben Thanh market). Price tags are a good sign too, but their absence doesn't always mean you'll be overcharged.

A mango shop at an underbridge market (here) for locals in District 1. 1 kg of mango from 0.4$. (Keep in mind that different mango varieties cost very differently, some are quite expensive.)

Beer

That's easy. $0.5 for a beer can. Amazing.

Beer at bars and nightclubs cost more but still surprisingly cheap.

Transportation

There are many public bus routes in the city. Not that many as in Bangkok but not few at all. Buses have spare seats in 99% of cases and I've never encountered crushes in buses as in Bangkok. They also have light AC.

A ticket costs amazingly cheap: from 5.000 to 7.000 dongs depending on the route. Which is a quarter of the US dollar or around 9 Thai baht.

Saigon metro, alas, is still under construction but they promise to open it in 2024.

There are too many motorbike taxis in Ho Chi Minh City. 😄 You can bargain to pay the normal price (if you know it). Or use Grab or other apps for that.

Ticket for Travel Attractions

There are no marvels in Saigon (except the colorful Vietnamese urban lifestyle) so prices for entering museums are like 2-3$. All temples in Saigon and Cholon (Chinatown) are free to enter.

Independence Palace is in the image, 40.000 dongs (1.6$) entrance fee.

While visiting museums in Vietnam, keep in mind you are in a classical unfree country with the classical Communist brainwashing (about the French colonization, revolution, and Vietnam War).

Summary

If you stay at hostels, eat at budget restaurants, and travel on buses, 10$ a day is enough in Saigon. This is without tours (if you want them - I didn't want). A tour to the Mekong Delta and Cu Chi Tunnels are most popular in Saigon. Prices for the tours depend on quality. 20-50$ each tour.

Hope it was helpful to fellow travelers. Thanks for stopping by, guys!

Cost of Budget Traveling in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. $5 for Hostel, $2 for Dinner, $0.5 for Beer