6 of the 7 Continents For The Budget Traveler: 3 Weeks in Vietnam

2 years ago me and some friends had an amazing trip in Thailand, as always as budget travelers we didn't have the luxury of staying in South East Asia forever and had to get back home to work and other obligations, but countless travelers there told us about their time on the same journey to Vietnam. We knew we would have to come back to this wonderful region of the world. Cut to January 2018...

When anyone has asked me this year, how was your trip to Vietnam? My answer has been the same, "It's was so damn good, that it ruined my year. Nam set the bar so high I don't really know if anything this year is going to top it!" As we found a flight round trip from Arizona for only $600 the deal was sealed that we were going. To this date in 20+ years of domestic and international travel but mileage that is the cheapest flight I have ever taken. I paid $500 to fly to visit my Uncle in North Carolina and 1 year later I'm paying another $100 to go to Vietnam. Crazy... Anyway... We had plenty of time to plan this trip out before we departed, during this time I was really sick, but luckily it gave me countless hours to research on the computer what we were going to do during our time here, here's my top Vietnam pleasures/advice:

No time is too short. As always if you only have a week, go a week, don't let anyone tell you that you need to explore the whole country, I am glad we got to see as much as we did, but had we only been to Saigon I would still be writing this was the best trip of 2018! If you have time to see it all...
Old City Hanoi is a great base for the northern city, night clubs, shops, theaters, and museums. We saw the famous water puppet show, saw some insane architecture, visited the Vietnam War Prisons, got $3 massages, and partied with the locals in both bars and night clubs.

Water puppet show

And of course check out the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum for history
No stop up north is complete without a trip to Halong Bay. Halong Bay is undoubtedly beautiful, but I think too many people spend too much time here, 1 or 2 nights is all you need. I would definitely splurge on a house boat stay. We kayaked the bay, and did a little boat party, but the main thing you want to really enjoy Halong Bay is to just sit down and appreciate the beauty.

Bar on house boat
Dive into the local food, of course you are going to have Pho, but I tried to eat almost everything that wasn't seafood. At really local restaurants they will sit you down on a tiny seat outside with whoever is there already, not ask what you want and just serve the food they are cooking. Not only was it delicious it only cost $0.25!

Visiting Temples is an obvious highlight, they are in just about every city, some more famous than others. None of them broke the bank.
Central Vietnam Caves.... Hang En, Son Doong: We did the Hang En cave tour as Son Doong was too long and too expensive. Hang En was the priciest thing we did this whole journey (about $350 each) but WELL WELL WELL worth it. It's not an easy hike, mountains, muddy, jungles, etc,while carrying your bags, but when you reach the caves, it's a place like no other in the world.

One of the best meals on the trip was home cooking in a cave with our guides!

Uber is going to be your best friend rather than conventional taxis which rip off tourists world wide. We started taking normal Uber for about $1 a ride, then went luxury with Uber Black for $2 a ride! And when one of us was rolling solo Uber moto all the way for about a quarter!
Besides local Vietnam food, international cuisine was pennies on the dollar, we ate at a Steak House in Hanoi that would likely cost close to $100 here in the USA, it was $15 there each for steaks with alcoholic beverages.
Tour the Vietnam war tunnels, and try to fit in them if you can!
We ended our journey with Saigon aka Ho Chi Minh City, if there was a city for me to live in this region of the world, Saigon is it. We visited the museums, got custom tailored suits, ate both gourmet and local food, did some shopping, hit the gym, met tons of great people, partied on Bui Vien street as well as more local spots, and that was just the first Monday ;)

Bui Ven gets pretty crazy, brace yourself!

Rocking out my custom shirts from Phan's Custom Tailor

Last day in Saigon we hit the Bitexo Financial, aka Saigon Tower, great ending!

Oh did I mention that on that sick Air China deal, we got to do a 16 hour layover in Beijing, just enough time to leave the airport, viist the Great Wall (which was nearly empty as it was freezing!), toboggan slide down, and head back to USA.

I think the best thing that made this trip so amazing was the diversity. Every 2 days it was like a completely different journey, one day in basement night clubs in Saigon, the next day hiking thru a jungle, the next day spending a whole day in museums, etc. The trip total was less than what most of my friends spend in a weekend in Las Vegas. But of course it takes longer to get to Vietnam, but for me the journey is always worth it.

There are some places that you wanna see once, and others that you know you will want to go back before you even get there. I thought Vietnam was going to be a one and done, I can say now, that every part of me wants to go back. But for now, this place holds an epic spot in my heart.