Are you wondering “Should I move to Vietnam?” Well, I think you should! Vietnam is a haven for people like Jake and me who are always searching for a better quality of life at a cheaper price. If you’ve ever considered leaving your home country for some time abroad (or even as a retiree!), let me convince you why you should choose to move to Vietnam!
Should You Move to Vietnam? 10 Reasons Why You Should Consider Moving to Vietnam
1. Move to Vietnam for Cheaper Rent
Looking for more financial freedom? Spend less on rent!!
I’ve talked about this so much but the number one reason that we can afford to travel the world is that we are spending less than HALF of what we would be spending in the United States on rent.
Most of my friends are spending anywhere from $800-$1600 a month. When we were in the States we paid $800 a month with utilities to live in REXBURG, IDAHO! Seriously, in the middle of nowhere and it still costs that much.
Then we moved to Ogden, Utah, and paid $550 a month for a studio with just a mini-fridge, one stovetop, and brown water that came out of the faucet. And it was in the most dangerous area of downtown Ogden.
2. The Apartments Are High-Quality
Now, we’re two Americans who have spent about 6 months total in the past 2 years living in Vietnam. Our place in Da Nang was a studio about 15 minutes walk to the beach.
It was small but had great internet and it was serviced. Meaning we would come home from shopping and the whole apartment would be cleaned for us and our bed made!
The prices in Da Nang have gone up a little since it’s become a more popular destination, but you can still find a good price if you know where to look.
Check out this Facebook group to find more listings.
Now, like I mentioned before, you can find cheap places to rent in the USA or even Bali, Mexico, etc.
But is it a nice place? Do you feel comfortable there or does it make you feel a little sick whenever you have to go home?
Vietnam has so many apartments at really low prices that are modern and NICE! I love being at home (so much so that sometimes we don’t want to go on a trip lol).
That’s not easy to find in the USA, Bali or Mexico.
So how much is rent in Vietnam? Or how much should you expect to pay? For a one-bedroom with the main amenities like A/C, internet, hot water, etc. you should expect to pay about $300-$400.
In case you’re wondering other countries that are a great bang for your buck apartment-wise think Thailand & Turkey, but I’ll keep you posted as we keep traveling!
So saving on rent naturally leads to…
3. More Beautiful Savings from the Low Cost of Living
Yes. I am addicted to seeing that number in my High-Yield Savings account keep going up. And if you love traveling, I suggest you learn to love that high, too.
It pushes us to look for new ways to save as well as really assess what we need in our life.
Vietnam makes it easier though. We don’t have to penny-pinch as much here or really think about it that much. Like how our Halong Bay trip only cost us $100 TOTAL! Can you believe that?!
Living expenses are so cheap in Vietnam that we can save about 2/3 of what we make with VIPKid. For example, in June we spent $636.92 on EVERYTHING, including a hotel stay for Jake’s birthday and a trip to Ninh Binh and Halong Bay, our rent and amenities as well as food!
4. The Vietnamese People & Culture Are Amazing
If you love to people-watch, you’re gonna love Vietnam. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the people here are the friendliest, but they let you see exactly how they live.
The Vietnamese live outside. Either that or their doors are wide open and you can just walk by and see what their lives are like.
5. Cheap to Travel to Other Countries from Saigon or Hanoi
Traveling around Southeast Asia is relatively cheap. Not as cheap as Europe, but definitely cheaper than the States! We use these websites to find the cheapest flights.
Even though it is super cheap to fly around, we encourage you to get to know Vietnam first! That’s why we usually choose to get a single-entry visa (meaning that if we leave the country then we’d need to get a new visa).
It encourages us to save money while traveling more locally.
Which isn’t hard to do because there’s…
6. There are Plenty of Incredible Destinations to Visit In Vietnam
Vietnam has UNESCO World Heritage sites like Halong Bay, Hoi An, and Sapa Valley (which is on a tentative list)…
Bustling and chaotic cities like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, incredibly out-of-the-way National Parks that will make you feel like you’re visiting the past like Mai Chau and Pu Luong.
Or you can feel like you’ve just found California for a tenth of the price over in Da Nang (one of the only cities abroad with actually good Mexican food!)
Or hit up some of the most Instagrammable and breathtaking viewpoints in the world in Ninh Binh, Poem Mountain, or Monkey Island. All the best places to visit in Vietnam and they are easy to travel to!
7. The Tourist Visa Process is Quite Easy
If you’ve never gotten a visa before, you might think that the airport situation when you arrive in Vietnam is pretty complicated and terrible. Which it is, but this is a breeze compared to getting a visa in other countries.
In Vietnam, you can apply for your visa ahead of time online. The site we use is Vietnam E-visa, which costs $29 per person for the visa type we chose (the 1-month single entry visa).
They send you an email with a sponsor letter that you need in order to get your visa at the airport.
When you show up at the airport you pay another fee of $25 USD per person (they like it to be in US dollars, not dong) and you give them a passport photo. Then you’ll receive your official visas.
3-month visa versus 1-year visa
As a tourist, you can get a visa for 3 months without having to leave. If you’d like to stay longer (which we have never done so please research this more if that’s your plan!)
I believe that you get a multiple-entry visa that lasts a year but that requires you to leave once every 3 months and re-enter.
UPDATE: Visas for Vietnam have changed and now are a lot more expensive. You can still get a 3-month visa (multiple-entry) but it’s now $239 per person. They no longer offer the 1-year visa.
This also puts Vietnam above Thailand, which is a visa nightmare if you want to stay long-term. But that’s another post for another day.
Although I’ve never stayed longer than 3 months at a time, there are ways you can get a longer visa as an investor or by getting business visas. Work permits are hard to come by, but they’re also a possibility if you’d like to stay longer.
Read the full post on how to get a Visa for Vietnam here!
7. There’s Plenty of Good Internet (Perfect for Digital Nomads)
Make money online? Then you know how stressful it can be to not have internet that’s good enough. Jake and I have to have almost perfect internet for VIPKid to teach English online.
Vietnam has great internet in all of its main cities: Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, Hoi An, and Hanoi. We even found decent internet in a tiny village called Mai Chau.
Depending on what you’re looking for, any of the above cities could be the best place for expats to live in Vietnam. Although I have to say my favorites are Da Nang and Hanoi!
8. There’s Great Food (with Cheap Delivery)
If there’s one thing you should move to Vietnam for, it’s the Vietnamese dishes. Pho, Bun Cha, Bahn Mi…I think about them every day and they NEVER taste as good outside of Vietnam.
I think that every country has great food, but it’s all about what the locals eat every day. That’s what is going to be the cheapest and a good way to judge the food in a country.
Of course, I can find an expensive restaurant and the food might be good, but how good is the street food?
For example, in Bali, it’s Nasi Goreng which costs less than $0.75, but in all honesty, it’s pretty gross.
In Vietnam, the street food is fantastic. When I first moved here, I was so scared to try Pho that I didn’t eat it until the week we left.
Sometimes when there is a lot of “new” in your life, it takes time to open up. (As we travel more I am becoming way less picky with my food).
But wow, I am addicted. Pho and Bun Cha are the go-to’s and with the Grab App you can order in delivery for only 15,000 Vietnamese dong or about $0.65!
Along with cheap rent and groceries, this makes the cost of living in Vietnam very low!
9. You Can Ride a Scooter (Cheap Transportation)
You don’t need to worry about renting a car, just rent a motorbike for about $35-$45 a month and you’re set to drive (safely!) around the country.
Make sure to get expat health insurance if you plan to scooter around Vietnam (even if you wear a helmet lol)!
For the cheapest motorbike rental for when you inevitably move to Hanoi (you should be convinced by now, right?) read this post.
Also, if you are wondering if there is Uber in Vietnam then check out this post.
10. Lots of Expats But Not Too Many
Expats (short for expatriates) are people who no longer live in their native country. So, people like us, who are Americans, are expats because we are living in Vietnam!
There are enough foreigners in Vietnam to find friends, especially if you have a community that travels!
There are a lot of VIPKid teachers abroad that we could connect with in Vietnam, and the expat community in Hanoi and Saigon is great.
In Vietnam, it’s not over-run by expats like Thailand is. Thailand is amazing and there’s no reason you shouldn’t go there, but it’s a completely different feel in places like Phuket, Chiang Mai or Pai compared to Vietnam.
11. Vietnam is Just SO Beautiful
I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of coming back to this country. There are parts that are still so wild that you feel like you’re in a movie.
Then there are places to visit in Vietnam like Hanoi where you see Vietnamese culture thriving on literally every street corner with millions of fruit stands and raw meat laying on little tables (and yes, sometimes dog meat, though not pictured).
My “moving to Vietnam advice” would be to just do it! We’ve met a ton of families who have left their homes in America or Australia and just came here to spend a year. With their kids and everything!
Although they are all back home now, I follow them on social media and they still talk about how much they loved living here and how much they miss it!
12. Vietnam is Safe
Is Vietnam safe? I would say that yes, it is! After 6 months of living here, the only time I am ever worried about my safety is when we are driving our motorbike. However, you should always be careful and aware of your surroundings.
Ready for a year abroad in Vietnam? Pin this for later! (:
Dayna Brockbank is a travel and language-learning blogger who has lived around the world but has now settled in Nice, France. She speaks 3 languages at varying levels of fluency: Spanish, Italian, and French, and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Spanish Education. She and her husband focus on making travel part of life by living cheaply and traveling on a budget.
Pete
Sunday 14th of February 2021
Hi Dayna, a Scandinavian who has been living in London my entire adult life thinking of making a move to SEA. Early 40s, appreciate good food, being treated fairly, beach and city life is all on my like list. Where would you recommend to settle down? HCMC, Bali, KL?
admin
Wednesday 17th of February 2021
That's hard to say! It really depends on whether being near a beach or being in a big city is the priority for you. Bali is definitely the best of those options for beaches and it still has the fast-paced feel of a city in some areas, but definitely not the same as a real city. If you just want to live somewhere that is near a beach (like a bus or a short flight away) then I would recommend KL or Bangkok. HCMC is an awesome city for food, but the beaches in Vietnam are not as great as those in Indonesia, Malaysia, or Thailand. (I've been to the beaches near HCMC and wasn't impressed). I hope that helps! How exciting that you're moving to SEA, it's the best place in the world.