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A note on timing: we stayed in Ho Chi Minh City over Christmas and New Year 2025/2026, so while our experience and costs are genuine, prices and conditions may have shifted since. We always recommend checking a few different places to compare prices.

After spending only a couple of nights in Ho Chi Minh City a few years ago, we were keen to get back to Vietnam. We'd been keeping an eye on Trusted Housesitters for a while, and when a sit came up in the suburbs of HCMC at exactly the right time, it felt like a sign. We wanted to escape the wet season in Lombok, and Vietnam's weather offered the perfect alternative. HCMC gave us a great city break before heading north to Hội An.

We spent 21 days in the city over the Christmas and New Year period. We had a few nights in District 1 to get our bearings before settling into the housesit. We’ve extrapolated our costs out to give you an idea of what it would have been for a whole month. At USD $1,725 for two people for the month, it's one of the most affordable bases we've had, and the housesit had everything to do with that.

Some of our costs you can halve if you’re a solo traveller (like food or spending money) but others might not shift much, like rent. We just hope this gives you a baseline to start with. To see how this compares to other locations, you can see the rest of our Cost of Living series here.

Rent — $139/month

We spent three nights in an Airbnb in District 1 when we first arrived — a good base for getting oriented, eating well, and soaking up the city's energy before moving out to the suburbs. That came to USD $139 for the stay, and the rest of our time in HCMC was completely free thanks to our housesit.

Housesitting is one of the best tools in the slow traveller's kit, and HCMC was a brilliant example of why. In exchange for looking after someone's home and pets, you get a free place to stay — often in a neighbourhood you'd never have chosen yourself, which ends up being the whole point. Our sit was in a quiet residential suburb, a world away from the buzz of District 1, and we loved the change of pace. If you're curious about housesitting, Trusted Housesitters is the platform we use and genuinely recommend. And you can get 25% off your membership by using our link.

Dining Out — $636/month

Dining out was our biggest expense in HCMC, and a few factors pushed it higher than it otherwise would have been. We were in a major city over Christmas and New Year, which meant a special Christmas dinner and a few celebratory meals that wouldn't be part of a typical month. We also fell hard for Vietnam's café culture. Can you visit Vietnam without spending too much on coffee?

That said, HCMC is genuinely excellent value for food. The banh mi, the pho, the vegetarian restaurants. We ate very well for very little most days. We were based in District 7 for our housesit, which turned out to be a brilliant area for plant-based eating. We've written a full guide to vegetarian restaurants in District 7 if that's useful. The city has a brilliant food scene at every price point, and we took full advantage.

Spending — $522/month

Spending was higher than you might expect for what was largely a quiet suburban housesit, but context helps here. We were in a proper city for the first time in a while, which meant access to shops and things to do that simply don't exist in Lombok. We bought new sandals and shoes, which are much easier to find in a city than our island home, and we did a Tour With Locals, which we loved so much we wrote a whole post about it. Kie also caught up with a friend who happened to be in the city at the same time, which made for a fun and slightly spendy evening out.

Groceries — $246/month

Groceries were refreshingly low in HCMC, helped in no small part by the house sit. Having a full kitchen meant we could stock up properly and eat breakfast at home most mornings. The markets and supermarkets in the city are excellent. They’re well-stocked, easy to navigate, and very affordable. We did a big Christmas shop, which accounts for a chunk of this figure, so a more typical month would likely come in a little lower.

Transport — $91/month

Transport was straightforward in HCMC. Grab covered almost everything, whether bikes or taxis, depending on the distance and the time of day. The city is big, and the traffic is legendary, but Grab makes it manageable and remarkably cheap. We also used the public bus once, which at a few thousand dong is about as affordable as transport gets anywhere in the world.

Subscriptions & Insurance — $53/month

This covers Apple storage, Apple TV, and our New Zealand life insurance, fixed costs that follow us everywhere. If you're heading to Vietnam and want peace of mind on the health and travel insurance front, SafetyWing is the most popular option in the nomad community and well worth looking into before you go.

Visa — $17/month

The Vietnamese e-visa covers 90 days and is straightforward to arrange online before you arrive. We didn’t have to worry about an embassy visit or any other fuss. At $17/month for two people, it's one of the better value visas in Southeast Asia. If you're planning to stay longer than 90 days, you'll need to do a visa run. Popular options are the bus to Laos or Cambodia, or a few days in Bangkok. We have a guide to making the most of a quick stopover there if you need it.

Cellphone — $13/month

We picked up an eSIM on arrival to cover our first few days while we sorted out our local SIMs. This is exactly the kind of situation eSIMs are made for: landing in a new country, navigating an unfamiliar city, trying to find the keys to your Airbnb. Having an eSIM from Saily ready to go before you land takes one thing off the list at exactly the moment you don't want to be fussing with it. Once we were settled, we headed into a Viettel shop and got set up with a 90-day SIM each. It worked out to $13/month, so one of our cheapest phone costs across all our destinations.

Final Note

Ho Chi Minh City surprised us. We'd expected the chaos (the traffic, the noise, the sheer scale of it) but we hadn't quite anticipated how much we'd enjoy it. The food alone would be reason enough to go back, but it was the quieter rhythms of suburban life during the housesit that really stayed with us. Living like a local, even briefly, changes how you see a place.

At USD $1,725/month for two people (and a big reason for that is thanks to free accommodation) HCMC is one of the most affordable cities in Southeast Asia without feeling like you're sacrificing anything. If a housesit comes up, take it. And when it's time to move on, the overnight train north to Đà Nẵng is a brilliant way to do it.

I hope you found this breakdown helpful in your planning. Let us know in the comments if this aligns with what you expect to spend. And if you've already spent time in Ho Chi Minh City, we'd love to hear how your costs compared.