Thailand and Vietnam: Our 85-Day Trip Cost Breakdown & Travel Insight

I think it might be of interest to some people who might be interested or considering making a similar trip as to how much our trip to Thailand and Vietnam cost, so I thought I'd share our costs along with some notes and points worth considering.

As many of our family and friends know, this trip was our first 'big' post-retirement trip, and it was also our first trip to anywhere in Asia. In the past, when we were working and/or when the kids were still at home with us, it was not a feasible option for us to try and go to Thailand within the normal 2-3 week holiday period as it would be far too expensive, not to mention really, really rushed.

Before retiring, we had done a fair bit of research as to what we wanted and were looking for in 'our' retirement, and those who know us may know that we have always loved to travel, and we love to experience different places and embrace different cultures. I mean, I don't think I have ever gone anywhere where I did not have a planned itinerary of what we needed to try and see and do during our time. That is just me - I always tried to pack in as much as possible in the time that we had in any place, as my philosophy was that I was unlikely to come back to this area again, as the world was just too big. I wanted to cram in as much as I could of it in my lifetime (and within reason, of course).

Then I learned about geo arbitrage (living in a less expensive location, so getting better value for your money), and this, along with the idea that we aren't getting any younger and no one knows what is around the corner for them, etc., cemented this idea even more. Events during the pandemic also brought this home to us. Although we realised that we wouldn't have the largest of pensions by retiring earlier than normal, we believed that we would, in reality, be 'buying' our time and freedom, to have the ability (& opportunity) to see and enjoy the world whilst we were still "reasonably young and fit." This appealed to us, especially if we could do it carefully with our planning and budgeting.

Monday - Planning Tool

It is also probably useful at this point to mention another app that I used to keep things organised for us. That was an App called Monday.com, which you can access online or through the app on your phone. This was helpful for us as we were both able to access the information, and we could also update and add information and files before the trip started and during the trip as things changed. For example, we would add our electronic boarding pass files to this for the various flights we took. We had to change one accommodation when they cancelled our booking due to unexpected renovation works; we added our train tickets for Hua Hin here. This meant we didn't need to take loads of paperwork items with us. We just used the free version of this, which allows two collaborators, and this was fine for the two of us. For an idea of how we used it, see the images below:

R and I don't have extravagant tastes, but we like to have special treats now and again, which is reflected in our costs and travel. For example, we are happy to cut our food costs by eating at less expensive places, but we like to have a bit of a mix-and-match for accommodation, as there is a basic accommodation standard that we like and need. We are too old to do basic accommodation, and if we do hotels, then we usually like to include breakfast as this will set us up for the day and mean we don't 'waste' part of our day trying to find somewhere and something suitable to eat, and we can get by with just a late lunch or early dinner afterward.

We're both introverts, so we are not keen on bars or places that are too noisy or busy. That is just not us. Same as we are not beach people. It's been so funny when people ask us if we are doing this island or that island in Thailand, and we're like - "Erh, nope." We can handle a short beach duration, but there needs to be other stuff for us to do and see. We're also not your typical active gym bunny types either, so sport-type activities are not our thing either. We like walking and exploring different areas, and we also like to be away from the very touristy areas and annoying tourists!

So, depending on the type of person you are and what your preferences are, our costs may be lower or higher than your equivalent.

TravelSpend

I have always tracked our holiday costs as much as possible by just recording upfront costs on an Excel spreadsheet and then writing up our spending receipts and bank transactions after the holiday. I still use Excel, but now I try to record everything related to the trip on an app called Travel Spend. I have a free account (you can pay extra for the full premium version, but the free one is fine for my needs, especially as I also still use Excel. The good thing about the app is that it has a built-in currency conversion for whatever currency you are using, so it's particularly popular with nomadic travellers, and it has some additional useful features, like budget tracking, your daily spending, etc. Note: the free account only allows you to track one trip at a time, which again is fine for me as I always have the Excel version that I can look back on if need be, and I just update this periodically during the trip from the app information.

For this trip, I recorded a total of 352 transactions.

Currency and Bank Cards

R and I ensured that we had several bank cards with us, which would cover us if we lost a card or needed money to pay for any emergency costs. The main thing is to ensure you are not getting hit with transaction fees, so know which ones are best to use in which situations.

We took a total of about £1000 in currency with us. This was split as £700 in Thai Baht (about 29,728 THB) and £300 in Vietnamese Dong (about 9,594,519 VND). You will also see shortly that we did quite well and actually had some remaining currency left at the end of the trip.

Monzo

We also used our Monzo cards, which we found to be very useful for paying for things like grocery transactions, and these accounts were also linked to our Uber (for the UK) and Grab and Bolt (for Thailand and Vietnam) taxi apps. We liked Monzo as it doesn't charge any foreign transaction fees, but you need to be careful if using it to withdraw money abroad as it is often limited to £200 a month and/or three withdrawals before you incur ATM operator fees. We didn't make any cash withdrawals at all during our trip. We also didn't keep a lot of money in the main Monzo account, but had a Monzo 'Holiday Money Pot,' which we would transfer money from every so often into the main accounts we used. This was just a precaution if our cards were lost or compromised in some way.

American Express

Before the trip, we also took out an American Express credit card, which is fee-free for the first year, saving £195. The main reason for taking this out was to take advantage of the Membership Reward Points that you earn on flights and purchases. It also comes with 4 airport lounge passes a year. Of course, you need to ensure that you pay this off in full every month, as otherwise you will be hit with a horrendous interest charge! We haven't used any of the lounge passes yet - mainly because our flights were either short or we didn't have any long layovers. The reward points can be used towards the payment of future flights and hotels, so it might come in handy in the future. We will decide when it comes to the first anniversary of the card if the annual fee is worth it to keep this card or not.

Trip Overview

Our trip consisted of almost 3 months (85 days) and covered two countries, Thailand (63 days) and Vietnam (20 days), and two travel days (getting there and back). However, for ease of calculation, I've just lumped the travel days into the Thailand grouping.

Flights

Our trip involved 11 flights, around 35.5 hours of flying, covering almost 14000 nautical miles. Of course, there was a lot of additional time spent getting to and from the airports and then getting through security, waiting to check-in, board and get off the plane, get through immigration, etc.

We used several airlines: British Airways, Qatar Airways, Vietnam Airlines, Air Asia and Bangkok Airways. Although our main booking was made through British Airways, which has a good cabin baggage allowance (one cabin bag and one personal bag), what we didn't realise was that for any connecting flights with their partner airlines, we would be restricted to the cabin baggage allowance for the partner airline if it was covering the longest part of the journey and for Qatar Airways, they only allow a measly one bag and a maximum of 7kg! We were fine going out for the flights, but coming back, we had to check both of our rucksacks in as checked baggage as they were both in the 11 to 12 kg weight range.

Thailand and Vietnam are 7 hours ahead of UK time.

Baggage

Our main flight from Glasgow to Bangkok included a checked bag of up to 23 kg for each of us. However, we had already decided that we wanted to try not to check in any luggage, so we would only be travelling with our Osprey Fairview and Farview 40L rucksacks and a smaller 'personal bag' item, so just using carry-on baggage.

The bags themselves are really good and well-constructed. The Fairview is the female version, and the Farview is the male version of the bag. I had done a lot of research on travel rucksacks, and this was the one that I felt suited me best (& R then bought his after he had seen and inspected mine!). It's a clam opening, so similar to a suitcase, and we both used some compression bags to keep our items sorted. There is also a section at the back for your laptop, which was great, and I liked the fact that you could use it as a rucksack or zip away the rucksack part so that it looked more like a suitcase bag.

Even though we thought we had done well on the packing side, we both still took too much stuff, and we had items that we never used (or used so infrequently that it did not warrant taking them!), so we will be downsizing more for our future travels, and that should reduce our cabin baggage weight a bit more. The downside of this was that we had very little space for buying anything to bring back with us (sorry, kids!).

As we were already fully aware, 'less is more' and you can usually buy things if you forget or need them when you are in another country, and as long as you can access laundry facilities regularly, you do not need to take masses of clothes with you. No one cares what you wear. Although I would say, if you are female, that where possible, try and have a capsule wardrobe of clothes that you can mix and match a bit, just so you don't feel like you are wearing the same thing all the time. That said, I did use most of my clothes, whereas R had a small number of items that he preferred to wear due to the weight, zipped pocket sizes, etc., so he looked like he wore the same things the whole time.

Overall Cost Breakdown

The chart and figures table below will give the trip breakdown costs, and I have then gone into a little more detail for each of the categories.

Accommodation (32%)

This was our biggest expense (£2830), but it should be remembered that we had 37 days of Home Exchange in Bangkok, which did not cost us anything other than our existing Home Exchange saved points balance. This was a big cost-saving. The rest of our accommodations were all fairly nice places, and we could have saved money here if we were willing to stay in cheaper hotels.

It's also worth noting that if you are happy to stay in one place for a longer period, say a month, then you should get a better deal on the accommodation costs, especially if you use places like Airbnb, as they normally discount for longer stays.

We stayed in 13 different accommodations during our trip, ranging from one night to eighteen nights. Eight places were hotels, four places were self-catering homes/apartments, and one was a daily serviced apartment in a hotel. Overall, we prefer to have a self-catering apartment as it means we usually have more space, access to a washing machine, microwave, etc., and can do as we please without having to concern ourselves with daily housekeeping, etc.

For the end of our trip, we had booked a very lovely 2-night stay in an Executive one-bedroom suite at the Chatrium Riverside Hotel overlooking the Chao Phraya River.

This was a pricey luxury stay, but we wanted something special to mark the end of our trip. Also, the cost of this accommodation was largely paid for via the money that I had received as a retirement gift from my work colleagues, so it didn't cost 'us' very much at all, and it was a very memorable way to use this very generous gift from my work colleagues.

Flights (27%)

This was the second biggest expense (£2437), and I don't think it is too bad, considering it covers a total of 11 flights for two people.

The biggest flight cost (£1640) was for the six main flights (Glasgow to London, London to Doha, and Doha to Bangkok), getting to Bangkok from Glasgow, and the return journey. The remaining £797 was for five flights: Bangkok to Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Min City to Da Nang, Da Nang to Hanoi, Hanoi to Chiang Mai, and Chiang Mai to Bangkok.

Note: we only travel economy and with cabin baggage, so no checked-in baggage. That should be another blog post, and perhaps I will cover it in the future! However, we did need to check in our bags on the return flights as the Qatar airline person at BKK was unwilling to allow our bags to pass as cabin baggage as they were over their 7 kg limit. We didn't need to pay to check them in as we each had a checked-in bag allowance with our tickets, but we paid to have them shrink-wrapped (£11.57, misc. cost) as we didn't want the bags to get damaged during transit.

Visas

We didn't need to apply for a visa to enter Thailand, as we got the automatic 60-day tourist visa on arrival. If we were staying the whole time in Thailand for this trip, then we would have needed to get a 30-day extension added before our 60-day one expired (you can do this via a local immigration office, but there is a bit of paperwork and a small fee of about £50 involved).

Instead, we decided to exit Thailand before our visas expired and then re-enter again after our expired date, this then reset us under a new 30-day visa, which will cover us until we leave the country again. This process is often referred to as doing a 'visa run,' but I think you can only do it so many times within a certain period.

For Vietnam, we got an automatic 45-day tourist visa on arrival, which was fine for us.

Medical (16%)

So, this section covers our travel insurance and all the costs associated with our travel vaccinations (£1450).

Insurances: This included additional premiums for extended travel (greater than 30 days) and existing health conditions for both of us, which was on top of R's travel and medical insurance coverage through his bank packaged account, which has a monthly premium (£18).

Another reason to travel as early as you can is that insurance premiums go up a lot as soon as you get into your 50s and 60s, and that is also the time when health issues can start to make an appearance, which will also increase your premiums.

Vaccinations: The travel vaccinations were quite expensive and a bit of a faff (so make sure you get them done and timed accordingly, as some require multiple doses and a certain period between the administration of the doses). Some of these are one-off costs and will cover us for future travels. For example, the Dengue vaccine has 3 months between the doses, so we need to get our 2nd dose for this once we are back home.

The NHS Travel Clinic service will do some of the vaccinations for free once they have done a travel assessment with you. These would be any vaccinations that could affect public health if you were to catch something and bring it back or pass it on to others.

Note 1: The NHS does not provide a service for you to organise to pay for any additional vaccinations that you may need through them, so you need to find a Private Travel Clinic for these.

Note 2: There are only so many vaccinations (usually 2) that you can get done at any one time in any arm, so again, you need to ensure that you do not end up in a situation like we did where you are running out of time to get the courses completed before you travel.

Note 3: Dengue is a fairly new vaccine, but it is an attenuated live vaccine, and you can only get one live vaccine at any one time. I note that this is being recommended for people who have had Dengue in the past, but it seems a little counterintuitive. The nurse who was giving us our vaccinations had lived in Malaysia in the past, and he had suffered a Dengue infection. He said it was a horrific experience and that there is a reason it is called 'breakbone fever.' So he very much recommended that we get this vaccine, as we did not want to catch Dengue fever during our trip.

Note 4: Be aware that some travel clinics (NHS and private ones) may only operate on certain days of the week, so this may impact your schedule for getting the vaccinations, also, especially if you need a few visits and doses before your travel dates.

Note 5: Be prepared to have sore, bruised arms for a few weeks!

We got the following vaccinations before our trip, and the approximate subsequent costs and schedules for these were as follows:

Vaccine	No.of Doses	Cover Duration	Provider	Cost
Rabies	3 (£79 each)	Life	Private	£237
Japanese Encephalitis	2 (£119 each)	2 Years	Private	£238
Dengue*	2 (£95 each)	4 Years	Private	£190
Cholera	2 (£44 each if done privately)	2 Years	NHS	Free
Hepatitis A	1 (£74 if done privately)	1 Year	NHS	Free
Typhoid	1 (£49 if done privately)	3 Years	NHS	Free
Diphtheria/Tetanus & Polio (combined)	1 (£46 if done privately)	10 Years	NHS	Free

The total cost for our vaccinations (for both of us) was around £1200, I think, which is quite a lot, especially if you are not aware of this.

We also qualified for the flu vaccine and got that before we went, too.

All of our travel vaccinations are recorded in a little yellow booklet, which you take with you to the provider each time you are getting any vaccinations, and they complete the details of the vaccination in this. This is handy to carry with you (I keep these in the folder with our passports), and it also reminds you of when future vaccinations are due.

Food and Drink (11%)

Most of our food costs (£980) were for low-cost meals, groceries, and drinks at cafes. We ate very well, even though we didn't go to fancy, expensive type restaurants. Most of our breakfasts were either a light breakfast in the apartment (from our grocery items) or were included in the price of the hotel stay. Although a lot of our postings show lots of food, we didn't usually eat three meals a day, as it was just too hot. Also, we'd often have breakfast and a late lunch/early dinner, and then a snack later if we were still hungry. The food was fantastic, despite the two occasions when it did not agree with me. Alcohol, except for local beer, is very expensive by comparison, so we didn't drink very much during our trip.

Experiences & Sightseeing (8%)

Our main 'experience' for this trip was the 3-day/2-night cruise to Halong Bay in Vietnam. All other costs are mainly small amounts to enter buildings and museums. The total for this category was £693.

As we now have more 'time' on our hands, we don't feel the need or rush to see every 'must-see' tourist sight on offer. For example, Ba Na Hills is a famous tourist destination near Da Nang in Vietnam. It has the famous 'hands holding up the bridge,' cable cars, and a whole 'village' which looks quite amazing. However, the weather was not that great or clear for most of the time we were in Da Nang, so we knew we would not get great views. An even bigger obstacle for us was the fact that R does not like heights, so he wouldn't be doing the cable car, and he wouldn't be going on the bridge. That meant there was little point in us spending around £100 on a trip there.

Transport (3%)

The total for this category was £298. This was mainly for taxis to get us to and from the airport to our accommodations, between accommodations, e.g. from Da Nang to Hoi An, or to somewhere that was just a little too far to walk to, or it was for public transport. We also had some toll costs, railway journeys from Bangkok to Hua Hin and back again, and then using the BTS and MRT systems in Bangkok to get around the city.

It also included the taxi costs from our home to Glasgow Airport and back again, which was about £62.

We do quite like to walk as much as possible, but sometimes the distances are just a little too far, especially in the heat. That said (and based on the step counter on my phone, which was not always on me when we walked), we did manage to walk an average of almost 5 miles a day and covered 420 miles.

Also, depending on where you are going and staying and the duration of your stays, then this can vary quite a bit. That is also one of the reasons why people say that they prefer to 'slow travel' as it generally works out cheaper for transport, accommodation, etc., as you don't have the same number of transfers and logistics to deal with.

Miscellaneous Costs (3%)

I've just bunged all the other costs (£258) that don't warrant their own category into this one. It covers things that are infrequent, unusual, or one-offs, such as haircuts, gifts (sorry, kids - we are at maximum carry-on capacity, so very, very limited on space for gifts!), tips, and the eSim cards that R has had to get during our time here.

Overall Costs

Our overall cost for the 85-day trip came in at just under £9,000, which comes out at around £105/day for the two of us. Of this, about £79 was the cost to cover accommodation, flights, and medical costs, and the other £26 was for food, drinks, sightseeing, general transport, and miscellaneous items.

Accommodation	2830
Flights	2437
Medical (Vaccinations & Insurances)	1450
Food & Drinks (restaurants, cafes, street food, groceries, etc.)	980
Experiences & Sightseeing (mostly Halong Bay trip)	692
Transport (taxis & public transport)	298
Misc. (gifts, haircuts, tips, eSims, etc.)	258
TOTAL COST (for two people for 85 days)	8947
DAILY COST (for two people)	105

Spending in Thailand & Vietnam Comparison

In terms of our daily costs when in Thailand and Vietnam, when comparing our currency and bank spending, we spent slightly less in Thailand (~£17/day) compared to Vietnam (~£19/day). As we had more time in Thailand, we did have some days where we didn't do very much, or we would eat in the apartments, which may explain the difference between daily spending.

Overview

So, was this trip worth it, and was it value for money? In our opinion - ABSOLUTELY! We loved every minute of it. We have seen and done so much, and in all honesty, if we hadn't done this blog, we would probably have forgotten half the stuff we've done or got things completely mixed up. I have no idea when I will be ready to sort out all the photos I took (I have over 6000 photos on my phone!!).

I'm sure the cost will also be balanced out even more by what we will have saved by not being at home during the winter period (both in utility and food costs!).

Would we do a long trip again? Yes. Would we recommend this type of trip? Yes. Will we return to Thailand? Yes. Will we return to Vietnam? No. Will we visit any other Asian countries? Yes - hopefully!

The Best Bits

• The weather (though a little too hot at times, too!)

• Seeing and experiencing different cities

• Having bucket list memories to look back on

• Trying different and amazing foods

• The cost of living is so much less than what we are used to

• Meeting up with Thai friends

• The friendliness of the Thai people

• Living like a local (when staying in Home Exchange accommodation)

• The transport systems in Bangkok

• The malls in Bangkok

• The temples in Thailand

• Vietnamese food (great and not as spicy as Thai food).

The Not-So-Great Bits

• Travel days

• Being ill

• Missing our adult kids over the Christmas holiday period

• Poorly maintained pavements or a lack of pavements when walking

• Noisy and chaotic traffic

• Difficulties when trying to cross roads and poor pavements

• Some pushy hotel staff

• Experiencing some scam artists in touristy spots

• Having a little anxiety during the bad storm weather at home, and hoping the house was ok.

• Very spicy food

• Unsafe health and safety practices - we saw a lot of stuff that you just don't see here

This concludes my blog posts for this trip. For those who have read any of these posts, I hope you enjoyed them, and they have given you an idea of what our first Asian experience was like. Perhaps they may even have inspired you in a way. Or maybe you have gained a little bit of knowledge and/or tips from our mistakes and experiences.

Best wishes and safe travels...

Liz