If you’re a traveler headed to Vietnam, you’re in for a treat. This is not a country of natural superlatives unless you’re really into the food, but when it comes to value for your budget, it’s a dream.

These days Vietnam is on par with Thailand in some respects, cheaper in others. Overall, none of the prices are too outrageous so this one comes in squarely as one of the cheapest places to travel in the world. This is not some sad and downtrodden country anymore where a lot of people are struggling to get by though. It’s a thriving economy where motorbikes seem to sprout from the ground each time it rains. When you say “Everybody and his brother has one,” it’s really true. Nevertheless, you’ll find plenty of screaming bargains here and the budget hotels in Vietnam are some of the best for the price you’ll find anywhere in the world.

Our $57 Hanoi room, with full breakfast for three

Hotel and Hostel Prices in Vietnam

Ask people who have traveled for years where the best lodging values are and they’ll likely say Vietnam. Yes, there are plenty of countries with cheaper places to flop for the night, but what you get for your money here is impressive. Things a budget backpacker doesn’t usually get—like towels and a maid who will change the sheets—are common even at the bottom level. Note that the prices below nearly always include internet access and often a good breakfast.

Hostel bed: $6 – $10 (there aren’t many of these, especially outside big cities)
Cheap shared bath double room: $10 – $18
Basic double with private bath, A/C: $14 – $25
Mid-range 3* or 4* equivalent: $20 – $60
Best hotels in town: $75 – $200
Triples are often just a few dollars more than a double and lots of places have family-friendly rooms or suites.

Food & Drink Prices in Vietnam

Bia hoi! No that’s not a battle rallying cry. It’s the name of the cheap draft beer sold by the plastic pitcher on the street. Sometimes it comes out to as little as 30 cents a liter if you get the local price. But the bottled stuff is a bargain too.

There are supposedly 500 traditional Vietnamese dishes, generally variations of rice or noodles with vegetables, seafood, or meat, and a wide variety of soups. You usually use chopsticks and a spoon, often sitting on a small stool on a sidewalk. Vegetarian food is plentiful and cheaper, though it will usually have fish sauce used as a seasoning.

US 35 cents for a liter of beer

Ice cream cone: 30 – 75¢
Street stall dishes: 40¢ – $1.50
Cheap restaurant meals: 75¢ – $4
Nice restaurant meals in tourist places: $1 to $6, set menus with several courses $5 – $12.
You’d have to hit an international hotel or a restaurant catering to foreign business travelers to spend much more than $30 for two.

Sodas and coffee: 30 – 50¢
Fruit juice/shake: 40 – 80¢
Mineral water: 50¢ – $1 per liter-and-a-half
Two-liter pitcher of draft beer: 60¢ – $1
Large bottled beer in a restaurant: 50¢ – $1.25.
Name brand liquor cocktails: $2 (happy hour) – $5 (nice club)

Transportation Prices

Getting around in Vietnam can be a big chunk of your budget since this is such a long and skinny country. Go slowly and you’ll spend a lot less than someone trying to cover it top to bottom in two weeks.

Long bus trip (Hanoi to Hue): $8 – $15
Sleeper train same distance: $18 – $65
3-hour train trip (Danang to Hue): $3 – $5
Hop on/off bus Saigon to Hanoi or opposite: $50
Flight Saigon to Hanoi or opposite: $100 on Jetstar
Flight Saigon to Danang: $55 – $75
City taxi rides: 50¢ – $4
Airport taxi rides: $5 – $20
City bus rides: 15¢

Other Vietnam Traveler Prices

3-day tour of Halong Bay or Sapa: $60 – $90
Day tour of group sightseeing, A/C van: $8 – $10
Admission charges: 15¢ to $1.50 most, occasionally $4 (rare, like Hue royal tombs)
Cultural performances: $1.50 – $5
Manicure or pedicure: $1
Hour of internet access: $1 or less
SIM card for your mobile phone: $5

Where do you go in Vietnam to see all the tribes in one place? The somewhat inconveniently located (but worth the trip) Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi.

Some cities you visit because of the wealth of cultural attractions and interesting sites. Few people would put Hanoi in that category. It’s a great place to visit for a lot of other good reasons instead: a historic quarter good for strolling and photos near a pretty lake, French Colonial buildings in another area, great food, and bargain prices for nearly everything. It’s also a great hopping-off base for exploring the north.

Before we got to Vietnam, a friend who used to live there said if we had a child with us, this museum should be at the top of the list. My guidebook concurred, though when we visited, there were surprisingly few foreigners there, especially compared to how many were in the crazy long line in the 38C/100F heat to see embalmed Ho Chi Minh looking waxy in his tomb.

Family, couple, or single though, it’s worth paying a few bucks for a taxi ride to this part of town to see the beautifully presented items from the 54 ethnic groups living within the country’s borders. If you head up north toward Sapa you see people from the Tay, Hmong, or Yao groups, but most visitors encounter only a fraction of the ethnic diversity. It it would be hard to catch them wearing some of the outfits on display too since some are just brought out during festivals.

The inside displays are arranged by ethnicity, generally including what’s unique about that culture’s customs, apparel, or utensils. Musical instruments and farming implements make appearances and some displays replicate the living quarters of a family. A favorite of mine was a Mekong Delta fisherman’s bicycle loaded up with more than 200 fish traps and baskets. Other displays include backpacks made from reeds and bamboo, ritual dolls, and a willow-looking tree loaded with messages to the ancestors.

There’s a whole separate outdoor section that’s more hands-on and—good for the kids—involves some climbing. The house at the very top is a traditional longhouse copied from one in the central highlands. The steps can be pulled up at night. Another communal house modeled after that of the Bahnar people was built on site here by 42 villagers from the central highlands. It stands 19 meters high and requires a steep hike up notched logs to walk around inside.

In the interest of keeping my site from getting blocked by libraries, I’ll pass on posting another naughty photo of the Giarai people’s tomb, which is surrounded by sexually explicit carvings meant to be symbols of fertility. Here’s a corner that’s tame, follow this link for one that’s not.

Of course we went to see the water puppets show by the old quarter of Hanoi, but if you time it right, they sometimes run the shows here as well. This is how the water puppets were traditionally presented, with the puppeteers standing in the hut part (in the water) behind curtains, the puppets extending out on rods.

The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is one of the best screaming bargains I came across in my return to Southeast Asia this past summer. Admission is only $1.25 for adults and 25 cents for kids in the local currency. For more info, go to vme.org.vn. To get there, take a taxi to Nguyen Van Huyen Road, Cau Giay District. It’s about 10-20 minutes from most Hanoi hotels.

Note that another section is under construction that will cover ethnic groups in all of Southeast Asia, not just Vietnam. So by the time you visit, that may be open as well.

Sure, you can visit the ancient Thai capital of Ayutthaya on a day trip from Bangkok, but this doesn’t do the ruins justice. You end up spending just a few hours seeing the ruins, often during the hottest time of day. If you spend the night instead, you can time it better and also see the stupas all lit up at night, which is gorgeous.

What is Ayutthaya?

This was the capital of Thailand during one of its glory periods, from 1350 to 1767. It reached a population of around 300,000 and was one of the world’s most prosperous trading centers. It was sacked by the Burmese and the government figures who survived high-tailed it to what’s now Bangkok. The former capital of Sukothai is more serene and the monuments don’t have a modern city smack up next to them, but it’s much harder to get there. Ayutthaya is just a couple hours from Bangkok and you can explore the bulk of it on foot after arrival.

What you see are the remains of the former government headquarters and the monasteries, with the most famous image being the three large aligned stupas you see on one of the banknotes and the nearby Buddha head enclosed by roots that seems to show up in every magazine story about the place. It’s on an island surrounded by three rivers and follows much of the same grid pattern laid out originally. The actual archaeological park is broken up into multiple parts as the city grew up around the ruins over the years without much zoning or care. Sometimes you see ruins right in the back yard of a commercial business or house.  It’s bizarre, but at least it’s easy to hop a cab to the next spot if you’re getting tired of walking. Many of the sites are free; those that aren’t charge 50 baht (about $1.70), less for kids.

Getting to Ayutthaya

Ways to make the short trip from Bangkok include a direct minibus from Victoria Monument for a few dollars, a regular bus from the northern Mo Chit station for about $2, an expensive tourist boat tour, or the train. The last option is the best for most budget travelers as it’s quick and easy to get to the central Hua Lamphong railway station from wherever you’re staying and there’s no hassle bringing all your luggage. From Khao San Road it’s a short taxi or tuk-tuk ride, from many other hotel zones you can reach it on the city metro. Once there, an English-speaking helper will probably appear to help you buy an air-conditioned second class ticket for $8, but if you’re already accustomed to the Thai heat, a third-class ticket (no assigned seats) is a mere 15 baht—around 50 cents.

Once you arrive at your destination, you still have to get to where you’re staying. Ayutthaya is much larger than it looks on most maps, so you might have to suck it up and pay a few bucks for a taxi. Otherwise, from the train station you take a ferry across the river and start hoofing it.

Hotels and Hostels in Ayutthaya

The first time I visited I stayed in a cheap guesthouse a quick hop from some of the ruins. These run $6 to $12 for a fan-cooled double, with a single room or hostel bed as low as $4. Try Hostelbookers or Hostelworld to book ahead, or just head to the cheap hotel zone where they’re clustered in your guidebook or app and start looking around.

If you’re on a mid-range budget, hotels here are a great deal. We scored an air-conditioned  triple room in a large hotel with a swimming pool for less than $40, breakfast included. You can check a meta site like Hotels Combined, but honestly you’re usually going to find the best deals in Southeast Asia on one site: Agoda. They’ve got the deepest inventory and usually the best rates.

Getting Around in Ayutthaya

Again, this place is bigger than it looks on a map and getting from one set of ruins to another can be a long slog. Carry plenty of water or be prepared to pay up for it. You can get around faster on a bike, which you can rent from most hotels or a local shop for $1 to $2.50 a day. It’s easy to flag down a tuk-tuk or bicycle rickshaw, or a group can hire a tuk-tuk for $7 to $10 an hour depending on your bargaining skills. This is especially worthwhile at night to get a quick tour of the lit up ruins.

Want to get around in a unique fashion? You can take an elephant ride through a circuit past several sets of ruins. It’ll cost you $15 or so, but when else are you going to have the chance to ride past 15th-century buildings on…an elephant? I stayed behind, but my companions went for a lumber and loved it.

We were heading out to Cambodia shortly and had to get back to the capital. Otherwise, it would have been nice to spend two nights here. Much mellower than Bangkok and there are a lot of ruins off the island that we didn’t get to see. Another time…

For more info on Thailand’s former capital, visit the UNESCO World Heritage page for the site.

Until Burma reaches a point of real reform and starts getting the promised foreign investment coming in, Cambodia will hold the crown as the best travel value in Southeast Asia. What you get for your money is unbelievable sometimes, yet you don’t have to go way off the beaten path to find the bargains.

In Cambodia you can travel in a manner that feels way above your budget. If you spend $30 on a room it’ll come with air-con, maid service, a great breakfast, TV, fridge, and maybe even a pool. If you spend $5 on a meal it’ll be in a pretty nice restaurant and probably include a beer or two. If you have to break down and take a tuk-tuk or taxi across town, that’ll set you back two or three dollars. So naturally, if you’re used to doing everything on a shoestring and want to keep that going, you can really make your budget last by hanging out here for a month.

Without the vast distances you have to navigate in Indonesia or even Vietnam, you can get to most anywhere you need to go the same day.

Here are some sample prices for Cambodia, from my mid-range family trip this past summer, from my notes, and from articles and blog posts I bookmarked before and after. Almost everything is priced in U.S. dollars here—even in the supermarkets—so you rarely use local currency.

Hotel & Hostel Prices in Cambodia

This country has gone from being critically underserved on lodging to being in the midst of a building boom, so there’s plenty to choose from in every price range. You have to negotiate on the spot to get a private room without paying the two-person rate: couples or friends traveling together get a better deal. A triple or family suite is generally just 1/3 more than a double at cheapie places, even less at nicer ones. Some hostels have free laundry, almost all have free Wi-Fi.

Hostel bed: $4 -$7, usually including Wi-Fi, sometimes breakfast
Cheap double room, fan-cooled, shared bath: $5 – $12
Cheap double room, air-con, private bath: $8 – $18
Mid-range room with hotel amenities, maid service, breakfast: $16 – $50
Deluxe room with elevator, bellhops, pool: $40 – $200

(There are very few hotels where guests pay more than $200 per night for a standard room. When I searched Siem Reap hotels on Trivago for two weeks from now I only found 8.)

Food & Drink in Cambodia

This is where you really get the full benefit of local pricing. As long as you eat what’s grown in the region and don’t need a daily fix of imported items, this is a place where you can eat out three meals a day and spend less than $5 if you go where the locals go. Step up to a nicer restaurant with waiters and you can still get a meal for a few bucks. Often our family of three would completely chow down on multiple courses in Siem Reap and I’d have a few beers, my daughter would get a fruit shake. The bill would come and it would be $11 or $12.

Street or market stall meal: 50 cents to $1.50
Basic restaurant main dish: $1 – $3
Nicest non-hotel restaurant in town, meal for two: $35 – $60 with a bottle of wine
Draft/bottle beer: 50 cents/75 cents – $1.50/$2
Soda or coffee: 50 cents – $1.50
Fruit shake: 50 cents – $1.50
Cocktail: $1 – $4

Transportation Prices

Siem Reap to Phnom Penh by boat: $35
Same route by bus: $6 – $13 (working A/C and Wi-Fi).
Bus from Phnom Penh to the beaches: $4 – $6
Taxi from Phnom Penh to the beaches: $50 – $60 (up to 4 people)
Bus to Saigon, Vietnam: $6 – $14
Bus to Thai border from Siem Reap: $9
Taxi to/from Thai border to Siem Reap: $30 – $48 (up to 4 people)
Flight to Vietnam: $100 – $300
Tuk-tuk ride: $1 – $2 local, $10 – $16 for the day
Taxi: $1 – $4 local, $15 – $50 for the day depending on distance, negotiations. (If there’s a meter, $1 per 2kms)
Motorcycle taxi – $6 – $9 around Ankor Wat for the day.
Motorbike rental (not allowed in Siem Reap): $6 – $25 per day, weekly rates are cheaper.
Bike rentals: $1 – $3 per day

Other Traveler Prices:

Angkor Wat region admission: $20 one day, $40 three days, $60 one week
One-hour massage: $5 – $8
One-hour four-hand massage: $10 – $15
Manicure/pedicure: $3 – $5
Laundry service: $1 – $2 per kilo
Local tours: $15 – $35 per person
Mobile phone Sim card: starts at $5
(Illegal) MP3 albums/movies: $1/$2

If you want to move to Cambodia to live for a while, you can’t buy property without partnering up with a local, but you can get a 99-year lease, which works for most people. International Living says you can rent a 2BR beach house in Sihanoukville for as little as $150 a month and get by there on $525 a month total in living expenses.

Related post with pics: What $50 a night gets you for a hotel in Southeast Asia

When you spend some time in Singapore’s Changi Airport, it kind of makes you sorry for everyone else. Just as Singapore Air is so superior to most others (especially in economy class) that it’s not really a contest, the country’s airport has no real competition. It’s so much more passenger-friendly than any other that it makes most other international gateways look like amateur hour.

On the basics alone it puts sad places like LAX, Heathrow, and JFK to shame. Luggage carts are widely available and free. Information kiosks are in every terminal section, they’re always staffed, and the people in them actually know what they’re talking about. The whole place is impeccably clean, including the bathrooms. There are mall-type directories everywhere pointing out every shop, restaurant, and airline lounge, plus there’s a printed map you can pick up and carry with you. Luggage arrives in a time period that shows you there have been no staff cutbacks and it’s the same at immigration. Wi-Fi is free throughout the airport and the drinking water is purified.

All that would be commendable, but it’s just the baseline of what should be expected anywhere. On top of that comes cake and icing.

This is the kind of airport you can spend six hours in, as I did recently, and be glad about it. You can actually go outside here and enjoy one of several gardens. There’s a garden that features cacti, one with sunflowers, one with orchids, and another with ferns. Two koi ponds are inside and there are lots of real plants. It keeps getting better though. There’s a movie theater, an MTV zone, and areas with Xbox and Playstation games. If you aren’t carrying a laptop or tablet, no problem—there are large computer kiosks all over the place. And all of this is free! 

Bring your bathing suit in your carry-on if you’ve got a long layover because there’s a rooftop pool outside and a whirlpool. There are plenty of other welcome features for parents, like a huge play area that has slides and TVs.

But wait, there’s more!

Many airports have charging stations, but the ones here allow you to put your gadget inside, set it to charge, then lock it up and go have a beer. You don’t have to hang out there while it’s juicing up. Go watch some big-screen TV in a comfy chair that has built-in speakers. Postcard kiosks allow you to shoot a photo of yourself and mail it off right there.

There’s one cool option that should be prevalent in lots of cities, but isn’t: a free city tour. If you have a long layover and want a taste of Singapore, you can get on a two-hour bus tour that hits the highlights and gives you a sense of the city. It’s a smart strategy as surely some of those people will say, “Nice place” and return someday.

If you don’t mind spending some money, you can get a day pass for a lounge with showers and snacks and while you’re there can set up a massage or a pedicure. The shopping choices are extensive and prices are normal: if you find a lower one in the city itself and bring back the proof, they’re refund twice the difference.

The pleasant experience doesn’t end when it’s time to go to your gate. Here’s a shot of what the seats looked like at mine. No cramped rows of pleather seats separated by armrests. Here you have serpentine seating that’s more like sofas, colorful and clean, with a sense of whimsy and style. Aesthetic beauty shouldn’t be so surprising in an airport, but others have set the bar so low that it usually is.

See the Changi Airport site for ideas and details.

You’ll usually find the best hotel deals in Singapore through Agoda.com.