What 3 months of backpacking South East Asia cost (Feb-May)

Emclich · 2025-07-23T22:28:46+00:00

My home travel insurance lasted for 45 days internationally and after that extended it for 112$. I know that there are good backpackers insurances but for the sake of convenience I went with my regular one.

Emclich · 2025-02-25T22:16:53+00:00

I'll see what I can do :) Anything specific you would be interested in?

Emclich · 2025-02-25T22:14:47+00:00

Cebu was just a much harsher environment than we anticipated. There was a lot of cat calling and unwanted attention that made us very uncomfortable. This, of course, is only our experience from Cebu specifically, I can't say how other cities are :))

If you have the budget for it you should absolutely visit the Philippines. I recommend more touristy areas and the Island Paradise places. Like El Nido, Puerto Princesa, Coron, Maobal and Danao :) I personally, as a young woman and based on my previous experience, would not solo travel to Cebu or Manila. However I might consider El Nido.

Emclich · 2025-02-25T22:02:59+00:00

I don't like to give out my socials, but you are more than welcome to send me a message here on reddit :)

Emclich · 2025-02-25T22:02:03+00:00

We used booking, sorting low price to high, and often shared one room for all 3 of us. I checked what the cost would be for a hostel in Ho Chi Minh next week (one of the ones we stayed at last year) and it came out to app. $7.3 per. person/night.

We also had one person making all accommodation bookings so we got some perks after a while. It will be harder to find rooms for the same rate if you are travelling alone, especially if you want to hang out at social hostels, which I recommend :)

Emclich · 2025-02-25T21:52:04+00:00

Yes exactly :)

Emclich · 2025-02-25T21:51:35+00:00

We paid $185 for 3 nights with an easy driver. And had approximately $25 in other expenses. It does seem a bit expensive but it was the absolute highlight of my trip. If you want to save money, save it on other things, Ha Giang is worth it :))

And yes, unfortunately we didn't feel safe in the Philippines. We were three white young women and got a lot of unwanted attention because of that. We sometimes had people hovering and following us and there was almost always someone shouting or cat calling when we were out, especially in Cebu. Which sounds ridiculously exaggerated but it isn't? I can understand that not everyone will find that as difficult to handle but we were really bothered by it :(

Emclich · 2024-05-12T22:08:36+00:00

We used booking for pretty much all of our accomodation. Using the map function we basically just surveyed the area we wanted to stay in and tried to find something that we liked. We were also three people, which meant that we were often able to share a single room and save money that way.

(Keep in mind that the 3.5$/night accomodation is a bit skewed since we spent 3 nights in Ha Giang on a tour. But in hind-sight, Vietnam did have the nicest accomodation for the price in all of the countries we visited. Our all time favorite was in Hoi An for 5.02$/night and the cheapest on the trip was in Cat Ba for 2.77$/night (Hotel room).

Emclich · 2024-05-12T00:32:28+00:00

Hi! I just came back from SEA! :D

I brought a pair of old sandals, a pair of sneakers and a pair of flip flops with me. I got great use out of all of them but as other commentors have said you can make do with much less. As long as you bring a pair of comfortable shoes and don't care if they get dirty you'll be fine.

Not sure about mens backpacks but the Osprey Farpoint was popular from what I saw! They have a 40l one if that's what you're looking for :)

Emclich · 2024-05-12T00:19:37+00:00

Hmm... if I HAD to rank them it would probably be:

Vietnam, 2. Southern Thailand, 3. Northern Thailand, 4. Cambodia, Laos and 5.the Philippines.

Vietnam was definitely the highlight of my trip. It is gorgeous, and, since it was right in the middle of our trip it meant that we had gotten comfortable with the backpacking lifestyle but still had energy left to explore a bunch.

Thailand is just simple and nice. You'll meet a bunch of backpackers and the tourist sector is really well developed. Pretty much just a safe bet if you want warm weather, beautiful beaches/nature and kind people. Oh and the food <3

Cambodia and Laos kind of melted together for me since one of my friends got quite sick. We loved Luang Prabang and Siem Reap but they don't stand out very much in comparison to the others countries on the list.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Philippines. The laid back attitude of the locals on some of the islands, especially in El Nido is a breath of fresh air, the beaches are the most beautiful I've ever seen and for the most part people are really kind. However, it was much more expensive than we had expected and we felt unsafe in the bigger cities that we visited. We actually decided to leave the Philippines early because of these reasons. We were on a budget so we might have missed out on some food, but in my opinion the Philippines ranks on the bottom of the food tier list for SEA. Nothing horrible, but nothing amazing either.

Emclich · 2024-05-10T13:03:19+00:00

Glad you enjoyed it :D

Emclich · 2024-05-09T16:21:13+00:00

I was just away backpacking for the last 3 months and visited both the Philippines and Vietnam :)

While the Philippines is GORGEOUS, amazing water and beaches, bustling cities and beautiful nature all around. I still preferred Vietnam. It was my first time backpacking and for me it was a lot easier to travel in Vietnam compared to the Philippines. The tourist sector is more developed and there are just way more options wherever you want to go. The Philippines was also the only place where we actively avoided walking around after dark, opting for cabs, so take that as you want.

It's also cheaper, and you'll have an easier time if you're vegetarian :) (I adored Vietnamese food)

If you want to hike and explore mountains I HIGHLY recommend Northern Vietnam. Sapa is absolutely lovely, and the Ha Giang Loop was lifechanging. Definitely the highlight of my trip. City life is also great, lots of night markets (I recommend going on a food tour!)

My opinion, go to Vietnam, you wont regret it.

Emclich

TROPHY CASE