What a trip to Ho Chi Minh City costs
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam · SGN
Ho Chi Minh City has one of the lowest daily costs of any destination on this site, which means the airfare is very nearly the whole decision.
Cheapest fare we can see right now
$399
Round trip from San Francisco (SFO) to Ho Chi Minh City, 1 stop, airline code UA.
This fare is for Jan 3, 2027 to Jan 26, 2027 — 23 nights. Cached fares apply to their own dates, so this is not a price for dates you pick.
Fares by US origin
Cheapest cached round-trip fare per origin. Origins with no cached fare are left out entirely rather than estimated.
- San Francisco (SFO)Jan 3, 2027 · 23n · 1 stop$399
- Los Angeles (LAX)Mar 22, 2027 · 22n · 1 stop$414
- New York (JFK)Nov 2, 2026 · 9n · 2 stops$845
- Chicago (ORD)Nov 18, 2026 · 11n · 1 stop$971
The whole trip, 23 nights
Built on the $399 fare above, over the 23 nights that fare actually covers. Everything below the fare is a planning estimate, not a quote.
- Flightcached fare
- $399
- Stay, 23 nightshostel to mid hotel · estimate
- $184–$805
- Food, 23 daysestimate
- $230
- Transfers and local transportflat allowance
- $40
- All in
- $853–$1,474
The published rate for Ho Chi Minh City
The US Department of State publishes a per diem rate for Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It is public domain, city-level and dated — the only sourced cost figure on this page besides the fare.
- Lodging ceiling, per nightmost the government will reimburse for a room
- $222
- Meals and incidentals ceiling, per daymost the government will reimburse for food
- $117
- Combined daily ceiling
- $339
Read that as a ceiling, not a price. It is set so a US Government employee can book a safe, available, full-service hotel at short notice and eat on expenses — a class of trip almost nobody reading this page is taking. You should expect to spend well below it, which is why the planning bands above sit where they do. Rate effective 1 July 2026, from the 1 September 2026 edition of the US Department of State table.
What different budgets reach
Whole-trip budgets, not airfare. Each assumes a fare around the $399 above, then spends what is left on rooms and food at our planning bands for Ho Chi Minh City. A fare for different dates or a longer trip may cost more.
About $561 left after the fare — roughly 12 nights in a mid-range hotel, or 21+ nights hostel-style, food included either way.
About $1,061 left after the fare — roughly 21+ nights in a mid-range hotel, or 21+ nights hostel-style, food included either way.
About $1,761 left after the fare — roughly 21+ nights in a mid-range hotel, or 21+ nights hostel-style, food included either way.
Where the money actually goes
- The fare is the trip. With a daily cost this low, two weeks often costs only a little more than one — the extra nights are cheap, the seat is not.
- Eating well is not the expensive part here; it is one of the reasons the food band is set as low as it is.
- Ride-hailing is widespread and short hops are inexpensive, so local transport stays inside the transfer pad.
Price Ho Chi Minh City against your own budget
Set your number and your airport. We price flight, stay, food and transfers together, then show what is left per day.
Run Ho Chi Minh City on $1,500Free · no account · planning ranges, not quotes
Ho Chi Minh City sits in our US → Southeast Asia corridor — same pricing, whole region at once.
Ho Chi Minh City trip costs: common questions
How much does a trip to Ho Chi Minh City cost?
The cheapest cached round-trip fare we can currently see is $399 from San Francisco (SFO), for Jan 3, 2027 to Jan 26, 2027 — 23 nights. Adding TripByCost planning estimates for that trip length — $184 to $805 for a room, $230 for food and a $40 transfer allowance — puts the whole trip somewhere around $853 to $1,474. The fare is a real cached price; the stay, food and transfer figures are planning estimates, not quotes.
Which US airport has the cheapest flight to Ho Chi Minh City?
Of the origins priced on this page (SFO, LAX, JFK and ORD), the cheapest cached round-trip fare right now is $399 from San Francisco (SFO), followed by $414 from Los Angeles (LAX). These are cached fares that travellers found in the last few days, not a live search of every US airport, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a permanent ranking.
Can you do Ho Chi Minh City on $1,000?
About $561 left after the fare — roughly 12 nights in a mid-range hotel, or 21+ nights hostel-style, food included either way. That assumes the cheapest fare we can currently see ($399 round trip from SFO); a fare for your own dates may cost more. The room and food figures are TripByCost planning bands for Ho Chi Minh City, not quotes.
Is Ho Chi Minh City expensive?
For planning, TripByCost budgets Ho Chi Minh City at roughly $8 a night for a hostel bed and $35 a night for a mid-range hotel room, plus about $10 a day for food. Those are our own planning bands rather than surveyed or quoted prices, and real prices move with season, neighbourhood and how far ahead you book. The one published figure we can point at is the per diem rate the US Department of State publishes for Ho Chi Minh City, effective 1 July 2026: up to $222 a night for lodging and $117 a day for meals and incidentals. That is a reimbursement ceiling for US Government staff on business travel, not a typical price — expect to spend well under it.
Where these numbers come from
Fares are cached fares from the Travelpayouts / Aviasales data API — real prices travellers found in the last few days, shown with the dates they apply to. They are indicative, they expire, and they are not a live availability search, so always confirm with the airline or a booking site before you commit. Last refreshed 2026-09-22; refreshed at most every 6 hours.
The published rate comes from the US Department of State Foreign Per Diem Rates (DSSR 925). Public domain — a work of the US Government. We hold the 1 September 2026 edition, fetched 2026-09-01. Each city’s rate carries its own effective date, shown with it. These are government reimbursement ceilings for business travel, not prices. The lodging figure is the most the US Government will pay back for a hotel room, which is far above a hostel and above most mid-range tourist hotels; the meals figure is a per-day expenses cap. A budget traveller should expect to spend considerably less than both. We publish the rate because it is real, dated and checkable, not because it is what your trip will cost.
Stay, food and transfer figures in the trip stack are TripByCost planning bands, not surveyed prices and not quotes. No free public dataset publishes hostel or budget-hotel prices, and none can honestly be derived from a government hotel ceiling, so these remain our own estimates and we would rather say so than dress them up. They exist to answer “does this trip fit?” at planning stage. Real prices vary with season, neighbourhood, how far ahead you book and how you travel. Nothing on this page is an offer, and we do not sell flights or rooms.
TripByCost is free. We may earn a commission when you book stays, tours, eSIMs, or insurance via partner links — at no extra cost to you. We never earn anything on a flight. Rankings stay budget-first, not highest commission.