A tip for finding cheaper hotels when traveling to Vietnam during the New Year holidays: traveling alone is definitely cheaper.

Xin chào! We're Yuki, a Japanese husband, and Ngoc, his Vietnamese wife, living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. On this blog, we share information about moving to and living in Vietnam, as well as travel information from all over the country. If you come across an article that catches your interest, please go ahead and follow us first! ♪ This time, for those of you feeling discouraged and thinking "ugh, it really is expensive" about traveling to Vietnam during the year-end and New Year holidays, we're introducing tips for traveling there cheaply. The key point is "arranging everything yourself to travel overwhelmingly cheaper"! Year-end and New Year travel to Vietnam. Actually, the points that drive up the cost are pretty much fixed.

When it comes to the year-end and New Year holidays, it's normal for travel prices to soar, but that's really only true for trips departing from Japan. That's because Japan's New Year period is unique to Japan. Other countries with New Year traditions, such as China, Korea, and various Southeast Asian nations, celebrate the Lunar New Year, which falls at a different time (mid-February in 2026). Vietnam, of course, also celebrates the Lunar New Year, so during Japan's New Year season, only January 1st is a holiday there, and everything else runs as normal.   What gets expensive are round-trip airfares departing from Japan and hotels in urban areas. Because of this, the only things that spike in price are round-trip airfare to and from Japan and hotel rates in urban areas. By the way, the hotels in urban areas whose rates go up are limited to hotels affiliated with Japanese travel agencies or hotels with a lot of Japanese guests. Conversely, other hotels tend to stay at their normal price even during the New Year holidays, or rise only slightly.    How about a year-end and New Year trip to Vietnam: what if you visited the town next to a tourist city? It's cheap!

If you still think a Vietnam trip during the New Year holidays is too expensive, why not consider choosing tourist destinations that don't have many Japanese visitors? Hotels and restaurants are cheap there too. For example, Hanoi + Haiphong or Sapa, Da Nang + Hue or Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City + Vung Tau or Mui Ne. Also, if you're okay with taking a domestic flight, we also recommend the beach areas of Nha Trang, Phu Quoc Island, and Da Lat. All of these can be reached in just one hour by transferring to a domestic flight from Ho Chi Minh City. Why an individually arranged trip is recommended for a Vietnam trip during the New Year holidays

When it comes to Vietnam trips over the year-end and New Year holidays, there are cases where arranging everything yourself works out overwhelmingly cheaper than booking a package tour from a travel agency. For example, take H〇S, one of the relatively affordable major travel agencies, and their year-end/New Year package tour. For a fixed 5-day plan departing on December 30th, staying at 3-star hotels averages around 250,000 yen, and staying at 4-star hotels averages around 330,000 yen. ※The hotel stay is for 3 nights. This package only includes: ・Hotel costs ・Airfare ・Round-trip transfer costs That's right? So I looked into what would happen if you arranged this yourself, and here's what I found: ・Hotel costs… 3-star hotels are 6,000 yen, 4-star hotels are 8,000 to 15,000 yen per night ・Airfare… VietJet (80,000 yen), connecting flights (100,000 yen), Vietnam Airlines or JAL (130,000 to 160,000 yen) ・Airport-hotel transfer... if you go by Grab or taxi, it's within 1000 yen one way. If you can get discounted airfare with an LCC or a connecting flight, you can realize a year-end and New Year trip to Vietnam for roughly half the price. One thing to note is that connecting flights use Chinese airlines. Lately, due to that whole situation, Chinese airline flights seem to have been reduced, so the key point is whether you can manage to arrange it well.    Summary and preview... A trip to Vietnam for the year-end and New Year holidays is still possible, even if you're planning at the last minute. The appeal of travel agencies is that airfare tends to be cheaper than booking on your own, but during periods like the year-end and New Year holidays when airfare prices soar, arranging things yourself ends up being overwhelmingly cheaper. Also, if you book your hotel yourself, hotel rates are set per room.Unlike in Japan, pricing isn't per person — so if a hotel costs 10,000 yen per night, that same price covers up to 2 adults (and in most cases, children under 5 to 6 years old stay free). Coming up next... tips for booking local optional tours in Vietnam at a low price Next time, I'll introduce tips for booking local optional tours in Vietnam at a low price, and whether there are any differences in service quality or content between major booking sites and small ones when they offer local tours on the same schedule! Well then, Hẹn gặp lại! *This means "See you again!" in Vietnamese (^^)/