Vietnam

Which countries around the world have a super-stable exchange rate or even use dollars as currency? More than a few, including some of the world’s cheapest destinations. I’ve run this blog since 2003, so I’ve been through many currency fluctuations. Sometimes the U.S. dollar is worth a fortune for travelers going abroad, sometimes it’s worth …

The first time I went backpacking around the world, I spent much of that time traveling Southeast Asia. I moved slowly through Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and then Thailand again.  On two trips around the world after that, I ended up in the region again, adding Laos and Vietnam, plus a trip to different islands …

Another strange headline that will never make it to the top of the Google rankings means…a new issue of Perceptive Travel! We’re obviously not publishing articles written by a search engine optimization robot or someone in charge of clickbait at Buzzfeed. Instead, we’ve been bringing you deeper narrative stories from book authors since 2006.  Unlike …

What’s the cost of living like for expats in Ho Chi Minh City—Saigon—in Vietnam? I got on a call with James Clark of Nomadic Notes before the first edition of A Better Life for Half the Price came out. Now that I’m researching the second edition, I wanted to catch up and see how things …

  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. Thanks to a currency that has slowly declined against the dollar (23,360 dong to the US …