Vietnam - Ease of Attaining Cheap Accomodation?

Squashie

I'm to be living in Hồ Chí Minh City for 8 weeks this summer, and am then planning on railing from here all the way north to Hà Nội through Hạ Long Bay with a few stop-offs along the way. Now I work out that the travelling expenses there and back will cost me around $500, and I'd like to book it all now to get it out of the way. My only problem is that I'll be booking under the assumption that I'll be able to find (cheap) last-minute walk-in-a-door-can-I-have-a-room accomodation if needed at each of my stop-offs. Would anybody know if there might be a difficulty with this in any of the following places?

• Hồ Chí Minh City
• Nha Trang
• Đà Nẵng
• Huế
• Hà Nội
• Sa Pa
• Lai Châu

Thank you.

Straight Flush

Congrats on choosing Vietnam for your trip. You're going to have a great time.

If you want to do things cheaply, I wouldn't bother booking anything in advance (this goes for any trips too). The walk-in-the-door places will all give you a better deal than anything you could book from home. Use a guidebook to find where the budget guesthouses are, then do some hard bargaining and get yourself a good deal.

I believe accommodation in Đà Nẵng is slightly more expensive than most places, but it certainly won't break the bank. I haven't heard of Lai Châu before but in all your other places, you'll have no problem getting cheap lodgings, perhaps as little as $7/night for a basic room.

Good luck.

filthymcnasty

I spent a month in Vietnam and visited most of the places you listed, paid about 8-12 dollars a night for decent accomodation. Had nothing booked, walked into all on the day.
The only place with some difficulty was Hanoi, there did not seem to an identifiable 'backpacker' area with cheap digs- but this was a few years back so could have changed by now.
its a fantastic country - have a blast and check out the Guns n Roses bar in HCMC

Vietnam is handy to find accommodation in and it's generally dirt cheap... I've stayed in about 35/40 small cities and towns here and you'll always find somewhere.

The places you've mentioned are all on the backtracker trail so you'll be fine.


If you do end up out of the way, "khach san" is hotel and "nga nghi" is guesthouse.