How I Scored a 10-Day Trip to Vietnam on a Budget (Hint: Flexibility is Key!)

My brain started spinning and I started thinking. Every day I get messages from people and I try to respond to all of them. One message slipped into my DM's after I shared a recent sale from the thrift shop. You see, I often thrift with one thing in mind...find one piece that I can flip that will cover all of my purchases. I often say I try to live frugally so that I can spend money on the things that matter to me. For me, what matters is travel! So why not combine both of those things and create a travel budget from nothing? And hence, the Trash to Travel Challenge was created! So many people tell me that they'd love to travel, but they don't have the extra money. Well friends, I feel like I showed you one way to overcome this issue! 
At the end of my challenge, where I traveled to was dependent on how much I made. You see, I would be ok with a staycation nearby, but in one month, I managed to make about $2500! I decided I'd see if I could maximize that travel budget and hit off one of those bucket list destinations. I wanted to show other people what was possible and honestly, I kind of surprised myself! But then after the trip was booked, I got a lot of questions about how I was able to get a trip "so cheap". Well friends, I'm going to tell you how I decided on my trip location {Vietnam} and how I was able to score a 10-day trip from the South to the North on what some people might feel like is a limited budget. 
Maybe you don't want to go to Vietnam, but you have another bucket list international destination in mind. This is how I managed to score a deal, and how you can too! 

How I Scored a 10-Day Trip to Vietnam on a Budget (Hint: Flexibility is Key!)

Setting a Budget

My budget was set for me based on the money I made from reselling. However, if reselling isn't your thing, and you do have a budget for travel, great! I think it's important to have a budget for travel. For our family, it's a line item. We plan for it every single year. In the case of this trip to Vietnam, I created the budget from nothing. Had I not done the challenge, I likely wouldn't have taken the trip! 
During the last few months I've landed on the budget travel side of the internet. I have seen creators sharing how they take international trips on a $1000 budget. I've seen other creators sharing how they make the most out of travel and still others sharing how they take a trip every single month. There are people sharing their experiences and showing you that it's possible to travel well on a budget.
And friends, budget travel doesn't mean that it has to be uncomfortable! I'm the queen of the free experience and take a lot of joy out finding experiences that cost little to nothing. 
My budget and your budget may be different. I will confess that $2500 seemed like a limited budget for an international trip, but it was still a decent budget to work with. Especially since I decided I was going to take a solo trip. My husband has a "real" job and we have already allocated his vacation time on other trips, and instead of waiting around on him, I decided I'd embrace doing things on my own.

Be Flexible

I had about six weeks of time in my schedule to work with. I don't have a traditional job {content creating is my full time job!} so no PTO or requesting time off. Flexibility is key to finding a good deal on travel. 
Being able to travel on weekdays versus weekends helps to greatly reduce the cost of flights. I also did a LOT of plug and chug with various dates and tried to look at low fare calculators on various websites. Google Flights is a great resource. Use the explore tab to look for deals.

Narrow it Down

When I was trying to decide on the location, I was looking at everything from Hawaii to Bali and everything in between. I felt like even on my limited budget that the possibilities were endless. Again, I wasn't married to a date, so if I could save $50 {or more!} on a flight by leaving a day later, then great!
Some locations would require more additional costs. For instance, if I decided on Hawaii, I would also need a rental car. If I chose a cruise I would have to factor in the cost for excursions in the port. 
Vietnam did have some extra expenses I had to factor in {a Visa and required trip insurance}, but they were nominal and still within budget.
I started taking VERY detailed notes on the costs of several different options. I started looking at the resort or tour costs as well as the airfare. Sometimes the resort or tour costs were right in line with my budget, but then once you added in the airfare, it got knocked right out of the realm of possibility. Or the opposite was true. The airfare was affordable but the accommodations were not. 

Decide Your Preferences

I don't do a lot of solo travel. I have only done solo travel for work, and then I'm generally meeting a team of people and they have created my itinerary, so I'm basically along for the ride.
I am kind of in a fragile mental state right now after the death of my brother, and while I found some killer deals for a week in Hawaii, I realized that I wasn't ready to be completely on my own in a place that held so many memories with my him. And honestly, on my own, was another thing that kept coming up. That's why I decided to try joining a travel group. 
I'm not against traveling with a group, but honestly, it doesn't sound like the most desirable option from what I've seen. You are only as fast as your slowest member and my husband and I know ourselves enough that we don't like crowds and with a group trip, you generally bring the crowd.
All that aside, I've made those assumptions and none of them are based on experience. Since I was going to be traveling solo, why not give group travel a try and since I know my husband so well, I can decide if it's something that would work for us as a couple in the future. 

Narrow it Down Again

After a few serious days of looking, I had it narrowed down again. I knew a few of the locations that kept rising to the top that would fit into my budget. I knew I wanted to take a group trip, and I knew I had a few open weeks during April and May to take this trip. After talking to my husband, we knocked a few locations off the list because they were places he wanted to travel with me in the near future and we knocked a few more off because while they were cheap destinations to travel to now, there was a reason for that {read into that, our government pissed some countries off so it's probably not the best time to go there.}. 
Having never taken a tour with a group, I started doing a deep dive into reviews of tour outfitters. There were several that had last minute deals {lucky for me!} and several that had prices that were too good to be true. I started digging into the pricing and that started narrowing down things even more. 
I don't mind sharing a room, but I'm not in college anymore, and I know that I didn't want to share a room on a trip with people I didn't know. So I was willing to pay the extra stipend for a single supplement room. I also know that I am fine staying in more budget accommodations. There are some tour groups that have different tiers {budget, basic and luxury} of travel. I decided at 46 years old I could be a basic traveler. I hear the budget trips get more single 20 somethings in them-so here's hoping I found the sweet spot. 
I also chose basic because if you select luxury, you tend to get an older group of individuals. I knew I wanted more people around my age, and less in the 70+ range. No offense, just what I was looking for. I also did some reading up on group travel and there was one outfitter that didn't have group minimums. That means, several of the reviews had solo people on it. And while a custom solo trip sounds kind of nice {heck, it's what we did in Africa!}, I was desiring people, so I didn't want to take the chance of being the only one on it! I mean, the trip hasn't happened yet, so I'll have to report back! Maybe I was overthinking it? Who knows.

Compare Dates

I finally had my trip narrowed down and knew the tour group I wanted to use and a few general dates they were running trips on. I then started taking those dates and plugging in airfare. I was looking into Morocco, Turkey and Vietnam. Because a tour has set dates, I could start getting a more accurate idea of what airfare would cost. Several of the tours had different arrival/departure cities. 
I found with a few of the locations, that the airfare was starting to knock me out of my budget based on the particular dates. I could add a date before and after the group trip to help decrease the airfare, but then I'd have to add in a hotel and expenses for another day or two. 
There were two options for Vietnam. There was a Southern and a Northern Route. Plugging in airfare again, the airfare going North to South cost a few hundred dollars more than going South to North. Again, flexibility is key! Then taking the South to North trip and plugging in the two different tour dates helped me narrow it down again. One of the dates required a LONG layover making the flight about the same time, but the travel time almost double. 
I found roundtrip airfare for $840 on a flight that was really reasonable with a layover that was convenient but not crunched. 

Be Open to the Off Season

The trip to Vietnam I booked is creeping into the off season. You know, the time of year that people say you should avoid travel to Vietnam. I'm hoping for the best, but planning for the possibility of monsoon season and hot humid days. 
Again, we traveled in the off season to Africa at a time when people said not to go, and we had the most delightful time with far fewer tourists, sometimes having the resorts virtually all to ourselves!
Maybe I'm jumping the gun writing this since I haven't actually taken the trip, but I am a generally optimistic person, so I'm hoping for the best! I spent a lot of time planning this trip. It felt a big overwhelming because the possibilities were endless, but it was also a lot of fun to start narrowing things down to. I got a chance to look into several different areas around the world and dreaming of visiting them one day. 

What Did I Spend for a 10-Day Trip to Vietnam?

Well, I can't give a final total since I haven't taken the trip yet, but the cost of the tour for 10 days was $1336.50. This includes 8 breakfast, 3 lunches, and 2 dinners, transport {via boat, plane, train and private minibus} as well as accommodations. There are included activities and tours {14 of them!}. 
I also paid a single supplement of $200 to get private rooms so I wouldn't have to share. I will however, have to share on the overnight sleeper train as well as the boat cruise, and I'm ok with that. 
I already mentioned that I paid $840 for round trip airfare, which honestly feels like a steal of a deal. I have paid more than that to go to middle of nowhere North Dakota before, so I feel good about it!
A visa is required and that cost an additional $25, and the tour group requires trip insurance, and I managed to purchase coverage for $58. 
There are several things that aren't covered and the tour suggests having an additional $200 for meals {food is cheap in Vietnam!} and there are additional activities that can be added, again, for a nominal fee. I could have purchased transfers to/from the airport to the hotels, but I am going to try to use Grab {their version of Uber} and save half of what they were charging me. 
I'll get a better idea of the grand total after my trip, but so far, my total spent is $2459.50. I have sold a few more items and I'm closing in on a Trash to Travel Budget of $3000, so it should more than cover my expenses. Even if I splurge on a few massages and spa treatments! 

Read this: What I Learned in a Month of Reselling to Create a Travel Budget From Nothing

I'm excited for this trip and I hope you'll join me as I travel to see what you can do on a budget! Don't forget to follow me over on social media. I'm @msrachelteodoro on all platforms. I'll be sharing my trip as I travel and I hope you'll join me!


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