How Much Does a Month in Vietnam Cost for a Family? Our Real Figures

We spent 45 days in Vietnam between 22 March and 5 May 2026: a week on Phu Quoc, just over a week in Da Nang, most of April in Hoi An, and our last few days in Ho Chi Minh City. We logged every expense as we went, so every figure below is what we actually paid, not an estimate.

This is part of our destination cost series, alongside our Thailand breakdown and Cambodia breakdown. We are a family of four, two adults and two young children.

What We Actually Paid

Our total spend in Vietnam over 45 days came to £3,766.36. That is £83.70 a day, or roughly £2,511 for a 30-day month.

Not included above: two internal flights for the four of us, which came to £519.14 (more on those below), and the overland journey in from Cambodia, which cost £40.46. Include the flights and the daily figure rises to £95.23, or about £2,857 for a month. Insurance is also excluded, as it is in our other cost breakdowns.

Here is how it split by place:

The Ho Chi Minh City line only holds our accommodation there. The rest of our spending in those last few days was logged under Hoi An, so the Hoi An figure is slightly overstated and Ho Chi Minh City understated. The total is unaffected.

Accommodation

Accommodation was our biggest cost at £1,675.65 for 42 paid nights, an average of £39.90 a night. The 43rd night cost us nothing, for a reason we explain below.

Where booking direct saved us money

Two of those stays were booked directly with the owner and paid through Wise, rather than through Airbnb:

• The Phu Quoc villa cost 15% less than its Airbnb price, saving us about £40 over five nights.
• Our 18-night stay in Hoi An cost 10% less than its Airbnb price, saving about £93 over 18 nights.

That is around £133 saved on two bookings, and the longer the stay, the more the percentage is worth. Paying directly usually means sending money to a Vietnamese bank account in dong, which a UK bank makes expensive and Wise makes simple: you see the fee and exactly what the owner receives before you confirm. We explain how in how to pay a landlord abroad from a UK account.

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The night that cost nothing

On 29 March we arrived in Da Nang to find the apartment we had booked on Airbnb in poor condition and not liveable. Airbnb paid for a hotel that night while we found somewhere else, which we did the next day. That is one thing a platform booking gives you that a direct booking does not.

Food and Eating Out

Food came to £1,147.63 over 45 days, £25.50 a day for the four of us, across 153 logged purchases. That covers everything from supermarket shops and snacks to evening meals out.

A few real examples from our first week on Phu Quoc give a sense of the range: a family evening meal out for around 550,000 to 595,000 VND (£15.57 to £16.85), a pizza night at 624,000 VND (£17.67), and ice cream for 220,000 VND (£6.23).

Transport

Getting around locally cost £276.93 over 45 days, spread across 102 separate journeys. Taxis on Phu Quoc ran from 250,000 VND (£7.08) to 525,700 VND (£14.88), and a local bus fare was 40,000 VND (£1.13).

Internal flights were separate. We flew Phu Quoc to Da Nang for £284.74 and later flew on to Ho Chi Minh City for £234.40, both for the four of us.

The flight we did not take. Our original plan was to fly to Hanoi, and we had booked it for £120. We changed our minds and flew to Da Nang instead because friends were staying there, and lost the £120 because we had not paid for a flexible ticket. We never do: the flexi option usually costs around £15 a ticket, which is £60 a flight for a family of four. This is the only time skipping it has cost us, and skipping it on just two flights already covers that £120. On balance we would still skip it.

Getting in. We arrived overland from Kampot in Cambodia, via the Ha Tien border and a boat to Phu Quoc, in one day on a single ticket that cost £40.46 for the four of us. We wrote the whole journey up in Kampot to Phu Quoc via the Ha Tien border with kids.

Activities

Activities came to £425.59, or £9.46 a day, across 45 logged items. Most of what we did with the children was cheap. The two parks made up a quarter of the total.

VinWonders was the big one at £98 for the four of us. The park includes a water park, and tickets can be booked ahead on Booking.com.

Play cafes were the everyday one. There were plenty of them, at around £3 to £4 a visit.

Hoi An had a worldschooling pop-up hub, and a lot of our activities there came through it: a fishing display, plus sewing classes, painting and acrobatics for the kids.

Money, Cards and Cash

Vietnam uses the dong, and the numbers get large quickly: at the rates we had, £1 was roughly 35,000 VND, so a family dinner runs to hundreds of thousands.

ATM fees are charged by the machine. Two withdrawals on Phu Quoc carried ATM fees of 132,000 VND (£3.74) and 220,000 VND (£6.23). Fees like these are normally the local machine's charge, which every foreign card pays. What you control is whether your own card adds a second fee on top. We cover which UK cards do in how to avoid ATM fees in Southeast Asia.

QR payments. Many Vietnamese businesses display a VietQR code to pay by bank transfer. Wise can scan several Southeast Asian QR systems, but not VietQR, so in Vietnam we paid by card or cash. We explain which networks work where in can you pay by QR code with Wise.

Connectivity

We bought local VinaPhone SIM cards on Phu Quoc on our first day, which cost 700,000 VND (£19.82) in total. That is the cheapest way to get data in Vietnam. If you would rather arrive with data already working, we compare the eSIM options in our best eSIM for Vietnam guide.

Visas: 45 Days Visa-Free

British passport holders can visit Vietnam without a visa for up to 45 days, according to the UK government's travel advice, and your passport needs at least six months left from the date you arrive. We used every one of those days: we arrived on 22 March and left on 5 May, day 45. Count your arrival day as day one. For longer, Vietnam's e-visa allows 90 days.

Checked against gov.uk's Vietnam entry requirements on 23 September 2026. Visa rules change, so check the current page before you travel.

Our Honest Take: Is Vietnam Cheap for Families?

At £83.70 a day for four of us, Vietnam came out slightly cheaper per day than Cambodia, where 29 days cost us £2,600.78, or about £90 a day. Where the money went is the more useful lesson.

Accommodation is the lever. It was 44% of our spend, and it is also where our two biggest savings came from, both by booking directly and paying through Wise. On an 18-night stay, 10% was worth £93.

Flights change the picture. Two internal flights added £519.14, almost 14% on top of everything else. Vietnam is a long country, and how many times you fly will move your budget more than where you eat.

Day-to-day costs were modest. Food at £25.50 a day and local transport at £6.15 a day for a family of four is where Vietnam delivers on its reputation.

For how this fits into the cost of a longer trip, see our guide to long-term travel costs, and for the card setup we use across the region, our Starling vs Wise vs Revolut verdict.