November Budget: Cost for a Month in Vietnam and Thailand for a Family of Four

During our third calendar month of full-time travel, our spending normalized a bit over the previous month, mostly due to the facts that we moved around less than in October and that our accommodations were less expensive. We also made a conscious decision to eat out at restaurants less often, and typically limited ourselves to one restaurant meal per day.

This calendar month captures a significant portion of our time at our reasonably priced Airbnb in Koh Chang as well as our week at the very inexpensive Hoi An Hideaway hotel, which helped to push our accommodation spend way down from the previous month.

This month, we will once again break our spending down into three main categories: meals, goods, and services; accommodation; and transportation.

(You should note that for us the cost to get here in the first place from North America is excluded, as we incurred this expense in August 2023, so this is something to keep in mind for your budget planning.)

Meals, Good, and Services Costs

Our spending in this category for November tallied out to a very reasonable 978 USD, especially relative to last month, where our costs in this category were 2300 USD. Some of the hotels we stayed at included breakfasts (Hoi An Hideaway and White Lotus Hotel), which helped keep meal costs down, and we usually limited ourselves to one local restaurant for dinner each day. Our aim was to keep our food spending limited to 50 USD per day for the family, wherever possible.

In Koh Chang, we also found some very affordable and local restaurants where we could buy a fantastic Thai meal for two adults and two children for under 10 USD. These efforts have helped us bring our food spending down significantly over the previous month.

Accommodation Costs

The second pillar of our spending tripod is the roof over our heads. As referenced to above, we had some very inexpensive accommodations this month, including 18 of our 29 nights in Koh Chang for well under 2000 USD.

In total, between our stays at two hotels and two Airbnbs, our total accommodation cost for November was 1808 USD.

And we honestly did not feel that any of the places we stayed at were lacking. From our massive suite in the White Lotus Hotel in Huế, Vietnam, with astounding views over the Perfume River to our small hotel in Hoi An (less fancy, but still incredible value at 200 USD for the week and run by a very kind family) to our current oceanfront Airbnb with absolutely incredible views over mountains, mangroves, and an estuary, we have remained very comfortable during November.

Transportation Costs

This month we moved around a fair bit, going from Huế to Hoi An (via private car service), from Hoi An to Da Nang (again via private car service), from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh (flight), from Ho Chi Minh to Bangkok (flight), and from Bangkok to Koh Chang (private minibus service).

Thankfully, most of these trips were over fairly short distances and the prices reflected this. Overall, given the number of planes, trains, cars, and boats we travelled on, our total spend on transportation for the month for four persons clocked in at a very reasonable 712 USD.

Summary

Overall, we spent just under 3500 USD this month, which is well under what we used to spend on rent alone back in our hometown of Toronto.

So this month, we actually managed to save money as compared to our normal lives at home! How cool is that?!?

If you’re interested in seeing how this month’s spending compares to that of previous months, you can check out all of our monthly budgets here.

NOVEMBER SPENDING BREAKDOWN

TOTAL SPEND OVER 30 DAYS: 3498 USD