11-day Vietnam Travel Adventure + 6 Day Bali Beach Break
Why Vietnam & Bali?
When my brother Rob and I first discussed going travelling together, we hadn’t imagined we would pull together such an amazing Cheap Vietnam Travel Adventure AND a 6 Day Bali Beach Break!
Rob had long dreamed of visiting Asia. Personally, having previously visited the region, I’d already experienced the rich culture, beautiful scenery, and incredible sense of adventure.
But it’s a fabulous continent and large enough to keep returning to for different experiences.
So with this in mind, what better place to visit than Vietnam! Neither of us had been there but we knew that it would provide us with new experiences. With 11 days to play with and a goal to explore from top to bottom, we delved into how to create our Cheap Vietnam Travel Adventure with a Bali add-on.
One major reason we chose to go to Vietnam was to venture to one of the seven Natural Wonders of the World. A must-see was UNESCO protected Ha long Bay, which we recognised from childhood tales due to our mum’s (Ruby) love of travel.
But as well as Vietnam, Rob had always envisioned visiting Bali. Having been there when I first left university, I loved what Bali had to offer! With beautiful beaches, it was the perfect place to chill for a further 6 days at the end of our trip. Destinations chosen; it was time to plan!
How To Plan Cheap Vietnam Travel
One thing I would strongly recommend if you’re going to travel around a country, is to decide upon your route before you set off on your travels.
Because we were only travelling for around 11 days in Vietnam, this needed careful planning to ensure we could see the things we wanted to within this time. If you were going for, say 2-3 months to Asia, it’s fine to have more of a rough plan as you’ll have a lot more flexibility about what and where you want to be at certain times.
Rob and I got together and created a priority list of the places/activities we wanted to go/do. We then used this to try and create the best possible route if it was possible. Our planning kicked off 3-4 months in advance.
Stay flexible with your travel plan!
Vietnam, despite being a thin country on the map, is very long covering 1,650 km from most of the northern point to the most southern. Up front, we organised our long-haul flights from London, an internal flight from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh, and our flight from Ho Chi Minh to Bali. These were the main routes of transport we needed to lock in before adding more details.
We also arranged our first night stay in Hanoi, so we didn’t have to worry about finding a place on arrival. Other than that, we organised all internal travel and hotel stays whilst we were there which allowed great flexibility and proved to be very quick and easy.
We used Booking.com to book all our stays which was great as all our bookings/costs were kept in one place. This meant we could keep track of where we needed to be and how much we were spending up front on our Cheap Vietnam Travel Adventure.
🎒TPOP Tip: There were plenty of good accommodation and excursion options in every place we visited. So our advice is that there’s no need to panic book everything before you start your travels.
How To Get To Vietnam
Once we decided that Vietnam was our main destination, it was then a case of researching flights/dates. We knew roughly when we wanted to go so used Skyscanner App to investigate options.
As we are both in full-time jobs, we decided to fly on a Saturday and return on a Monday. Fortunately, in the UK in May 2023, there were 2 public holidays so despite being away for 17 days, we only had to use 9 days of annual leave! It’s worthwhile thinking about national holidays and using them to max out your travel days.
After searching several different flights/operators we chose to fly with Singapore Airlines. They have a great reputation, and the multi-city option was perfect as we could return from Bali rather than Hanoi!
We spent a premium of around £100-150 compared to other airlines, but this was definitely worth it. The flight crew were extremely accommodating, flights were smooth and more importantly they were on time! Total price was £1067.19pp.
17 Day Itinerary Vietnam & Bali Itinerary
Our 17-day travel itinerary was designed for 11 days in Vietnam followed by 5 days in Bali, Indonesia. We got some amazing deals on hotels and we’re listing them a little further below to make it easy to check them out via Tripadvisor! In total our accommodation cost just over £500 (620 USD) for both of us.
1 – London/Singapore/Hanoi. Flight from London Heathrow to Hanoi via Singapore International
2 – Singapore to Hanoi
3 – Hanoi
4 – Hanoi to Sapa
5 – Sapa, then taking a Night bus back to Hanoi (leaving at 10:30pm, arriving at 4:30am)
6 – Ha long Bay & Overnight Cruise
7/8 – Ninh Binh
9/10 – Da Nang
11 – Ho Chi Minh City
12 – Ho Chi Minh City to Bali, Indonesia
13/15 – Bali
16/17 – Return flight from Bali via Singapore to London.
How to Budget for A Vietnam and Bali Trip
Before you go, I’d recommend having a rough idea of how much you would like to spend whilst you are travelling.
The best way I find to do this is to do some research of the areas you are travelling to and gather information in relation to rough accommodation costs, any activities you would like to do. Most importantly the price of a beer! This way, you can gain some idea around costings. We decided not to stay in hostels but go to mid-range hotels which would allow for great comfort, but not blow the budget.
If you want to do this trip more cheaply, use hostels to reduce your accommodation costs. The breakdown below gives you some idea of how much this trip cost us which we felt was reasonable given where we were booking and what we were doing. For more tips on getting affordable travel, read how to snag a travel deal!
Flight costs (Return flights from London, Internal Vietnamese Flight & Flight to Bali) = £1286pp
Accommodation costs (not including Halong Bay overnight cruise) = £265pp
Total Cost of Night Buses (2 taken) = £35pp
Rough Cost of Food/Drink/Other Expenses = £450-600pp + £75pp for Halong Bay
Overall Cost = Roughly between £2100 – £2250
Tips for Getting Around Vietnam
I think there’s always some apprehension about arriving at certain places that are culturally different from our own. Questions on our mind included “how easy will it be to book sleeper buses, taxis, mopeds etc”. Don’t worry about this in Vietnam! When you get here you realise it’s not nearly as challenging as you thought. In fact, travelling around Vietnam proved to be much easier than expected.
We were so impressed with how agile Vietnamese people are on mopeds. They seem to effortlessly transport huge loads without a second thought! Amazing!
How to Plan Long DistanceTravel within Vietnam
As we were on a tight schedule, we knew we had to take 2 sleeper buses around the country during the night. This meant our days could be freed up to explore different areas without the need to do major travel! We used 12GO Asia which was a great app. I would highly recommend using this app when booking any longer domestic travel routes.
Another way you can book is through local agents. When 12GO Asia was showing no results, there were plenty of local agent shops in Hanoi. Thankfully one of them was able to arrange transport to Sapa. We’d have liked to experience a Vietnamese train journey but due to time constraints we were unable to fit this in. Definitely next time.
Shorter Distance Travel Tips Within Vietnam
When moving around cities or smaller distances, use buses which again you can book online or through local agents.
If you’re getting taxis around cities/places, download the app ‘Grab’. It seemed like every single Taxi operator was using. The App works just like Uber! You see the live location of your driver and it’s extremely user friendly. ‘Grab’ was available in both Vietnam and Bali which was great!
It was also very easy to rent mopeds. You likely will need to look into getting an international driver’s license just so you can legally drive in each country, but you can arrange this at most post offices before you go. Check out your local one online!
Where we stayed In Vietnam
Hanoi & Sapa Hotels, Northern Vietnam
Emerald Waters Hotel & Spa, Hanoi
Hanoi Elpis Grand Hotel, Hanoi
Ha long Bay and Ninh Binh
Da Nang & Ho Chi Minh City
Where We Stayed in Bali, Indonesia
Renaissance Bali Uluwatu Resort & Spa
Things You Must See and Do In Vietnam
Hanoi
HANOI – the capital of Vietnam was a brilliant visit! I think the fact that we arrived over the weekend made the experience even better. As well as the night market, there was lots of entertainment on in the city. Great fun.
We spent a lot of our time around the Old Quarter, where we went for an Egg Coffee at the PostIt Note Café. Egg coffee is a traditional drink in Vietnam so we thought we had to try it!
We spent time walking around the city taking in the local sites so be prepared for a high step count! This included the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which was impressive, and the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long.
A lovely memory was getting stopped on a few occasions by local teachers who were out with their students practicing English – of course we were happy to help when they asked. It was so nice to see their smiling faces when we were chatting! Hanoi really is a great place to start to soak in the Vietnamese culture.
Sapa Mountains
One place you might not have heard of in Vietnam is Sapa. It’s a beautiful town situated in the mountains to the north. It jumped out to us as a place to visit, because it’s in quite a remote area. It was a chance for us to be more in touch with the natural surroundings and the local people.
Despite it being quite foggy for most of the time we were there, there were some welcome outbreaks of sunshine. This gave us spectacular views of the mountains, the green rice fields, and rivers. At night, Sapa turns into a bright, vibrant town with lights in every direction and plenty of places to try the local cuisine. Whether settling down to some beef pho or tucking into a whole chicken there was an incredible choice of affordable foods.
We decided to hire mopeds whilst we were in Sapa – which was a must – as it meant we could explore the area with ease. We visited Cat Cat Village which is around 10mins on the mopeds or around 30mins walk away. This proved to be one of the highlights of our whole trip as the village was like something out of a Disney film, with a small stream, farm animals dotted around; wooden huts, all of this with the backdrop beautiful waterfalls.
It took us around 2 hours to walk around the area, but it really was impressive and a must-see if visiting Sapa.
Ha long Bay
HA LONG BAY – I would say if you were visiting Vietnam then go to Ha Long Bay. We contemplated before we went about booking onto a tour, but you can easily book something when you arrive. I would strongly recommend doing an overnight cruise if you can, as the overall experience of this was great.
A 2-day, 1 night cruise is more than enough to see the surrounding area. There are 1963 small islands dotted around in the Ha Long Bay area, so sleeping in the heart of these was surreal. Book on with a cruise that has activities such as kayaking, cave exploring or even a cooking class as this adds something else to the trip.
Ninh Binh
This isn’t necessarily a place you’d think of immediately but I’m so happy we included this destination. Known as the ‘Ha Long Bay’ on land, we were blown away by the stunning scenery. It was easy to rent mopeds which we used both days to tour the surrounding areas. We visited Hoa Lu – Ninh Xuan which was a small mountain climb. From the top we saw spectacular views far into the distance.
We also visited the Bai Dinh Temple which was a huge site with ancient temples and statues (would recommend visiting here for an afternoon). On one of the days, we did a 4-hour boat journey through the river (Truong Yen area) which was so much fun! We had our own lady who rowed the boat the entire time, travelling through caves and stopping off at temple sites. We’d strongly suggest doing a boat trip like this one!
Ho Chi Minh City
We literally just transited through this modern western feeling city. Not because we didn’t want to see it, but because we had to prioritize our time. If you have the time to spend a couple of days here, check out the Chi Chi Tunnel system which is an emotional reminder of the Vietnam War times. It’s pretty hard to believe that this was going on only a few decades ago. Here’s a couple of photos of our Auntie Jude visiting there.
Bali, Indonesia
After all our travelling in Vietnam, we wanted to have some time to relax and recharge before heading back to the UK.
The beauty of Bali is the fact that it provides you with so many different options depending on what you fancy doing for the day whether that be partying at night, chilling on the beach, or climbing Mount Batur, there are several options!
Now if you want a place for relaxation, look no further than Uluwatu in Bali. Uluwatu is known for its dramatic clifftop views, white sandy beaches, and its numerous beach clubs!
We stayed at the Renaissance Bali Uluwatu Resort & Spa (see link above to check it out) which is one of the nicest hotels I have stayed at. With an open lobby area for relaxation, to a huge infinity pool, it was the perfect place to chill out with some beers and soak in the sun!
The best thing about this hotel was the fact that it had its own beach club which hotel guests could use free of charge!
Every hour from around 10am, the hotel would provide a free shuttle bus which was a short 15minute drive down to the beach club. It is called Rooster’s and I would recommend if you’re looking for a chilled vibe.
The staff were extremely accommodating, the food was delicious, and you could settle the bill at the end of the day which was a nice touch.
With so many other areas in Bali to visit, (hopefully) I will be back and go to a new part of the island to see what that has to offer! Ubud and the rice paddies for sure!
It’s Possible! A Cheap Vietnam Travel Adventure
Looking back this trip was special not only because we organized it all ourselves, but because we did it as brothers. Since we were working and planning to save time, we also made good use of this amazing 14 Day Travel Countdown Checklist!
Having the freedom to decide day to day as we moved around the country was great fun and we could be a bit spontaneous rather than feeling we had to follow a pre-set timetable.
Wonderful destination Karen… let us know when go and share your highlights 🙂
Great post, so informative! I want to plan a trip!