As the weather started to get cooler in Otaru, Hokkaido, Japan in late October, I realized that the time when it would be best to not be at Satoshi Manor was probably November. The issue was primarily that the great weather and wonderful colors of Autumn had almost ended and the cold and snow wonder of winter were yet to begin. Instead of snow, there was rain and frankly – aside from jumping in puddles or dancing in a spring rain shower – I’m not a huge fan of grey skies, muddy ground, and wet weather.
I knew I would be taking a trip to Hawaii and California at the end of November but that left most of a month where I didn’t have anything planned. The things I’ve enjoyed most at Satoshi Manor have been working outside and being creative inside interspersed with long walks of 6-12 miles per day. The rain and cold made those much less appealing.
So I hopped on Google Flights to see where a cheap flight might take me for the least appealing month in Otaru. Vietnam popped out. I’d never been there, I’d always wanted to go, and I’d had a few friends take trips there that they raved about. The flight was cheap – about $250 round trip, but it would leave in a week and probably would go up if I hesitated. That didn’t leave much time for planning. I had no idea about what to see, where to go, how much money it would take, or anything else. I reached out to friends on social media and email – but life is busy and most weren’t able to get back to me in time.
First of all, I needed a visa for Vietnam (Link: https://evisa.xuatnhapcanh.gov.vn/web/guest/trang-chu-ttdt). Lots of nationalities don’t need one, but Americans definitely do. I filled out the form and waited the three days hoping it would get approved so that I could book my ticket. It took five days. I booked the ticket which had gone up about $50 during the wait. Not enough for me not to go.
I needed a plan while I waited so I did something I don’t usually do – I looked up “All Inclusive Packages Vietnam Hanoi” which is where the flight went to. I used yourVietnamTravel.com which I do not recommend. Their site said I could get an eight day package that included a couple of meals a day, hotel for seven nights, airport transfer, and transportation to various tours and activities as well as the tours themselves. Listed price – about $360. Ultra affordable.
The agency worked with me to customize it a little bit and encouraged me to book quickly, but I wasn’t willing to book the package or the flight without having the visa confirmed so I delayed them as much as I could. I was pretty amazed that I had been able to put together this trip so quickly.
The visa came through. I booked the flight, confirmed the tickets with China Eastern Air and then contacted the agency to send me the final itinerary and invoice. Of course, it wasn’t what had been promised. The standard tour had said I would be staying in a mixture of three and four star hotels, have choice transport, and some ‘private guided tours’. As a former private tour guide, I had a view of what that meant. I was way off.
They sent me the final itinerary which gave me the option of four star hotels and tours for $750 or three star hotels and tours for $600. This was nowhere near the $360 price that had been offered. After some back and forth, we settled on $590 because of the solo traveler tax, i.e. the $360 price was based on a group of three or more booking, not a single. Fine, $590 would do. I paid the deposit. Then they came back – ummm….sorry the well respected three star hotels and tours are fully booked and don’t have room for you but for an additional $60 they would get me into a tour just as good in Halong Bay and they were willing to put me in an alternate hotel in Hanoi for no additional fee. The alternate hotels was far cheaper and had much much much worse reviews. I declined on the tour upgrade but they said I had to pay $10 to get in the new tour which would be as good as the one I thought I had already paid for. I found a hotel cheaper than their shoddy alternate but with better reviews and they told me I would need to pay $40 to have them book that one. I got them down to $20, but my $360 package was now $620 plus tax.
By this point, it just felt too late to do anything else because I’d already paid the deposit but I’d started to get a few friend recommendations trickling in. The truth was it was still one hell of a value several nights in Hanoi, the famous water puppets show, two day trips in Hanoi, an overnight trip to Sapa and Cat Cat Village, two days and one night in a classic wooden junk in Halong Bay, and a trip to Ninh Binh plus kayaking and biking and other stuff along the way. Let me just say now – I don’t regret having done it this way because I met some great people along the way. In terms of the accommodations and transport and tours – well – if I were to do it over, I would book them all individually myself but the truth is that I didn’t know enough to be able to do that before. So, it was worth the cost, but it definitely could have been done better in many many ways.
The solo tax thing is real because think about it, with two people you pay the same price for one room. As a single traveler on a package tour, I was the first one to get bumped – and example is the classic wooden boat which filled up with people paying more – so I ended up on the ‘overflow’ boat with the emergency tour guide (who was very sweet) from the office, and in a room that sat right above the diesel engines and had all the exhaust to prove it. For the sleeper bus to Sapa, they filled my space with a full price guest and instead I rode in another vehicle that had exhaust leaks up the windy mountain roads. I made sure to get the sleeper bus on the way down and the difference was stark. I arrived in Sapa with exhaust sickness and left Halong Bay with the same. I also left Halong Bay with a couple of new friends who were also shifted to the overflow boat. So, no real regrets.
The best part of the package was the hotel that I had picked and insisted on. It was a clean, friendly hotel with an amazing staff and a great daily breakfast. All the other hotels and accommodation – meh. The package tours, like the transport were a mixed bag. I was thrown mid day into a full day bus tour – which was sort of strange but I met a great new friend on that tour. Another tour, the guide was sort of passive aggressive and I can’t blame him for it, but he took us to multiple of those. places that when your tourists spend money there, you get a kickback. I was a guide, remember. Anyway, I never blame guides for those places, but it’s one of the reasons I generally don’t book that kind of tour.
In terms of cash and other money I spent, I bought a number of meals, some coffee, a few t-shirts, and some gifts for friends. On my final day, I hired a driver and private guide recommended to me by my friend Derek Baron (aka Wandering Earl) to explore a bit of Hanoi and drop me off at the airport for my very late flight home. All told, those expenses were about $300. I used accumulated points from my IHG credit card to book a five star hotel the last two nights I was there. The Intercontinental Hanoi Westlake was super posh – but most importantly, it was free. I also spent $15 to have a sim and data on my phone while I was there, that was through Gigago – one issue was that there was no way to reap the data after I accidentally burned through the first bit ($7.50) and had to delete the eSim and then reinstall a new one.
Grand total for the entire trip was right around $1000 including visa, airfare, tours, transport, food, accommodation, souvenirs, gifts, and activities. Ten days and nine nights. I wasn’t living backpacker frugally by any means but this also wasn’t a super lux trip. So, I ended up spending about $100 a day for this trip which is on the high end for Vietnam but when you factor in the airfare that drops to about $70/day and if you also factor in the stuff I brought back with me it goes down to about $60 a day which is just slightly higher than this article says is spot on for a budget traveler. My trip was definitely not a backpacker trip since it included some five star hotel stays and a private driver/guide on the last day but the truth is that if I had avoided the package tour company, I could have probably dropped my total cost excluding airfare and souvenirs to around $35/day. Next time that is what I will do. There will definitely be a next time.
