Vietnam Eating/Drinking Costs

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I’m going to Hanoi & Hoi An in a couple of months’ time. I’ve heard it’s cheaper than the UK but trying to work out how much I should take with me. Please advise how much alcoholic/non alcoholic drinks are, how much it is to eat out in restaurants for these two locations and is it cheaper to book trips to Ninh Binh / Halong Bay or Lan Ha Bay once in Hanoi? There will be 3 adults going for 2 weeks. All accommodation paid for already, Thanks

It is cheaper. Stay away from wine. God knows how it’s been made. Beer definitely in beach bars.

I would research and book Halong Bay in advance so you know timings. Halong Bay is truly stunning.

Miles cheaper, depends on the standard of restaurant/bar that you want. One place in hoi an,outside the centre, was 70p for a beer and about £1.00 for a meal, whereas a top end place cost us about £80 for two people including drinks, then there’s pretty much everything in between. If you go to the cheaper places though, only drink bottled beer, counterfeit alcohol is a big thing there and it can be very dangerous.

Was going to say, we took £1000 with us to cover all food, drink, tips, entry fees taxis and shopping, and brought about £300 back, for two weeks travelling round Hanoi, hoi an, Ho Chi Minh, and mui ne. This did not include trips though, which we booked and paid for in advance.

You can eat very very cheaply (£4 for family of 4) if you eat street food like Banh Mi. In a nice tourist restaurant it’s more like £20-30
for a family meal plus drinks.

You don’t need to take money with you by the way - there are ATMs and many places take cards, use a debit card or a credit card like Revolut or Halifax Clarity that doesn’t charge fees for foreign currency transactions.

For Halong Bay my strong recommendation would be to choose a company that goes to Bai Tu Long Bay (there are only a handful) and book early as they get booked up. Indochina Junk and Renea (or Remea?) are two but there are a few others. Don’t wait till there, it’s no cheaper, and you can book direct online with the company itself rather than via an agent.

The main area of Halong Bay is very busy whereas the Bai Tu Long area (an offshoot of HaLong) is peaceful and much cleaner. Lan Ha Bay is also a good option although most boat tours that go there include a lengthy hike/bike ride on Cat Ba island & so less time on the boat - depends what you want.

Oh and for Ninh Binh I would recommend an overnight stay there, lovely place, wish we’d had 2 nights. A day trip alone would have been a shame. You can book it all when you get there or book ahead if you want a better choice of hotels. We got a private taxi from Hanoi to Ninh Binh as I recall, our Ninh Binh hotel arranged it. You can get Grab taxis (like uber) to all the sights, you don’t need to be on a tour. The day tours tend to create big crowds at the sights in the late morning/early afternoon, so if you stay overnight and do it all yourself you can choose different times (eg boat trip at 3pm) and avoid the crowds.

“is it cheaper to book trips to Ninh Binh / Halong Bay or Lan Ha Bay once in Hanoi? There will be 3 adults going for 2 weeks.”
You can book trips while staying in Hanoi, probably a bit cheaper and the same for Danang/ Hoian.
Make a back up plan in case of bad weather in North (Hanoi) at that time of the year.

Firstly the food is amazing. Street food is about £1-3 a dish, usually at the lower end and something like a bao bun is about 30p. Beers are about £1 and are abundant. The Vietnamese love their alcohol and they serve excellent cocktails all over the place too for about £4. Wine is fine, but it’s imported and expensive but still cheaper than here. A standard nice restaurant is about £4 for a main course and a really good restaurant is about £7 for a main and about £2-3 for a starter. You will eat amazingly

I can’t believe no one else has said this yet. It doesn’t matter what you eat because you will be running to the toilet asap after you’ve eaten. It’s all very very cheap, in UK terms, like others have said. But anything that has been washed or cooked with their water, is going to upset your stomach. I tried multiple plates the first few days and then only ordered chips for the rest of the 3 weeks. Good luck!

Completely not my fault experience. None of our family had any issues whatsoever with food poisoning either eating in the street or in restaurants. Neither did anyone on our tour. That’s probably why nobody said anything. My son was out there fo months with no issues

This wasn’t my experience at all-no issues whatsoever, eating in both hotels and street restaurants

We did get ill - NOT from any of the food we ate but from water that had been sitting around in a Chillys type bottle we brought with us (not tap water, transferred from a plastic bottle, but not changed for a few days). Recommend sticking to fresh bottled water. Food however was not an issue including eating street food.

Didnt get ill once, in fact, one of the few holidays where I didnt get ill actually

Wow I’m so surprised! But happy you didn’t go through what I did 😂

OP most 4/5 star hotels have a tourist kiosk to book excursion's (which will pick you up at the hotel) makes it abit easier than booking through Klook etc. honestly you could live off £10 a day for food and drinks. But as some one else said make sure to use bottle water to brush your teeth!

Also get my guide is good

not True, ive travelled all over the world and never had food poisoning.
OP you can eat very cheaply, can get noodles from a street vendor for £1, beer 50p. You can use credit card majority of places, I would just take a little cash. Also I thought Halong Bay was rubbish!

We had no stomach issues whatsoever.

Ate in many recommended but scruffy looking places, beach cafes etc.

OP - drink the Vietnamese bottled beer.

Noodles. Pho, really excellent and tasty. Healthy too.

I really liked the beach cafes by 'Hidden Beach' on the beach at Hoi An - Between hidden beach cafe and Hoi An Boutique Resort, 3 good beach cafes.

We booked excursions too, from the convenience store on the corner of the car park for that hotel - Hoi An Boutique Resort. The DH is a taxi driver - cheaper than excursions, he drove us to My Son, Ba Na Hills, Marble Mountain etc. And eventually over the Hai Van pass to Hue. And that shop did our laundry very cheaply.

Wherever you stay you will probably find similar service in a similar convenience store!

God, I loved Vietnam. (went to Hoi An and Hue)

Budget end you can be paying £2 p.person. for a bowl of pho or a baguette and a drink from a market stall or local shop.
Midrange, budget about £10-15 p. person for Vietnamese. Perhaps a main course, veg side and rice or noodle in a tourist area.
Hotels / Boats/ Ticketed tourist attractions £20 p .person. Dont buy from the boat people in Halong Bay - you'll get ripped off. Take snacks with you on board.

As always, bottled water for teeth brushing. For alcohol try the lager..Bai Saigon is excellent.

5 weeks. Bottled water, including cleaning teeth, never had an issue with food poisoning, ate out every night, but mainly noodle type dishes from popular restaurants (i.e. popular with the viet). Ate some funny things at times too. Beef Pho is brilliant. Bahn Me also good. You can pay a lot or a little depending where you want to eat @Aposterhasnoname is right, there are some high-end restaurants out there, and restaurants that cater for Western palates at a higher cost, but still generally a lot cheaper than the UK. I use Google lens to translate menus. As others say, you don't need loads of cash, just take it out of the cashpoints with a card that is good for this without charges. You get the occasional place that doesn't do cards but it is quite rare. It is a shame you have booked already in Hanoi as Ninh Binh is gorgeous, cheap to stay and about 2 hours from Hanoi (so busy once the tour buses get there, but much less so if you are there anyway) Halong similar. Hoi Ann is very touristy, with prices to match, but still cheap for UK travellers. IRO of prices, if you were paying much more than a tenner for a "normal" dinner, than you are in a very Western focused place. Drinks. I agree with others. Beer was cheap, came in a sealed bottle. The full array of drinks is on offer with no issue generally, and usually less than UK prices. If you don't want ice, then worth saying (although most is bought in and has a hole in it because made en-masse, it is no guarantee, but it helps) Cider is rare (bottled), but you can get it, and you will pay similar to UK prices for it. Have a great time xx