How much money do I need for Vietnam?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

Over at Travel Happy, Don Morgan has an exhaustive run-down of the costs of traveling around Vietnam. As someone who will be visiting the Southeast Asian country for the first time later this year, I’m pleased to see that Vietnam is even more affordable (read: cheap) than I had originally thought. One thing I’m not looking forward to, however, is the brain-busting exchange rate– 16,000 Vietnamese dong to 1 US dollar. Oh no, not math!

Discussing cheap accomodations, Morgan writes, “If you’re really want to save, look for signs that say ‘Nha Tro’ or ‘Nha Phong,’ which means ‘boarding house.’ Also, ‘Co Thue Phong’ means ‘we rent rooms.’… You can get a concrete room with nothing but a bed and a separate bathroom for less than 2 USD a night.”

Also be sure to check out the article for where to find ATMs, where to convert currency, and the cost of meals, booze, and cigarettes. And where else can you read a line like this: “Laos will dong you up if you’re headed east. Don’t change too much money at border crossings – the rates are horrible. But your first dong will probably spit out at you from an ATM anyway.”

For more from Travel Happy on the costs of traveling in Southeast Asia, read “How Much Money Do I Need for Thailand?”

Gadling’s favorite booking engines

by Grant Martin on

Running a travel website and all, you might say that we here at Gadling have broken all of the travel booking engines in and tested them to their limits. I’ve seen Orbitz, Sidestep, Mobissimo and Kayak born and grow into giants, watched as the grass roots, moccasin-wearing efforts turned into corporate, power-tie monoliths.

Throughout our years of booking, favorites have emerged. It used to be that I would go through several different search engines when I was looking for a ticket to compare multiple prices, vacillating between one and the next and the next. But now I, and most Gadlingers alike share a common engine.

The clearcut winner for Gadling’s favorite airline booking engine?

Kayak.

Kayak is a new breed of search engines called a metacrawler, a tool that searches multiple engines as well as private websites for the lowest published fare. But in addition to the ability to do this, Kayak has a clear, efficient engine that fluidly searches across a wide variety of parameters– all without overwhelming you with ads or useless chaff.

Keep it real, Kayak.

Leap-year-themed travel discounts

by Iva Skoch on

This year, we get an extra day of life to enjoy. It wouldn’t be the WSJ online, if they didn’t suggest how to spend February 29th wisely and cost-efficiently.

Here are some travel leap-year themed bargains from the WSJ:

  • 29 Kimpton Hotel & Restaurant properties are offering discounts and packages. At seven Kimpton hotels in Washington, D.C., for example, guests who book two nights during the last weekend of February (Feb. 28-March 1) get Feb. 29 free.
  • In Portland, Oregon, guests born on Feb. 29 can get a $29 room rate on Feb. 29, and all other guests can get 29% off at Hotel Monaco and Hotel Vintage Plaza.
  • The Westin Aruba Resort has a “Leap Into Spring” package, available Feb. 29 to June 29, which includes 29% off each night booked. At the Las Palomas Beach & Golf Resort, Puerto Penasco, Mexico, guests booking two or three consecutive nights this month can get a third or fourth night free through Feb. 29.

Don’t take this as a hint to have 29 drinks next Friday. (Only if you were born February 29th.)

What strange things have been found on planes?


Click the image to read the bizarre story…

Steal this Wiki

by Justin Glow on

A long time ago, my Dad gave me his raggedy old copy of Abbie Hoffman’s iconic book, Steal This Book, which was the yippie-activist’s guide to things like rolling joints, making pipe bombs, and getting a free, live buffalo from the U.S. Department of Interior, among other things.

As a teenager, I wore that book out even further until the spine was cracked so much that pages began to randomly fall out. It finally met its doom a few years back when, after several apartment moves, the last bunch of pages came unglued and blew away in the wind.

I used it for purely for research purposes of course, and not too long after it was gone, I was already wishing I had another copy. Unfortunately mint copies of the book were going for as much as $60 on eBay (at the time; the price seems to have drastically reduced these days), and I was a poor college student.

But now there’s something even better: Steal this Wiki. An updated, Wiki-version of the book! It’s still pretty bare on information, but with your help, it can be the Steal This Book of today.

It even has my favorite section from the 70s version: Free Cities, which will (eventually) list major cities and how to live and/or travel free in them. Abbie Hoffman: a true pioneer in budget travel.

I’m still trying to figure out where to put that buffalo…

[Via Boing Boing]

Alert! Dallas and Los Angeles to Hawaii for under $200!

by Grant Martin on

Doing anything March1? A secret/mistake fare on American Airlines and United just popped up where you can get a ticket from Dallas or Los Angeles to Hawaii from March 1st to the 3rd or 4th for just under $200.

Run a flex search on Kayak or Travelocity around those dates and it’ll come up, but you’ve got to hurry — this fare definitely won’t last long.

Both United and American have 24 hour cancellation policies, so if there’s any question, book now and ask questions later.

Aloha!