What a month in Nha Trang costs: rent, food, bike, bills

Rent is the number that decides the month, and everything else is small change beside it. Numbeo’s crowd-sourced index for Nha Trang, updated on 6 August 2026 from 250 entries, puts a one-bedroom flat at about 10.55 million VND a month in the centre and 7.16 million outside it. Add the electricity, a month of mobile data, a rented scooter and its petrol, and two meals a day from the noodle shops, and the published figures below are the whole of an ordinary month.

I am not going to tell you what I pay for any of it. What I can say is that my flat sits between the two one-bedroom figures, a few streets inland, and that the surprises in two years have all come from the bills, not the rent. Where I would rent, and why is its own post; this one is the arithmetic.

What rent looks like on the published index

Numbeo is crowd-sourced, so it is a rough instrument, but it is dated and it is the only Nha Trang rent figure I could cite. I never found a listing site whose studio and one-bedroom bands I could quote with a date, so the index is what there is.

What	VND a month (Numbeo, 6 August 2026)
One-bedroom flat, centre	10,552,606
One-bedroom flat, outside the centre	7,159,914
Three-bedroom flat, centre	19,500,000
Three-bedroom flat, outside the centre	16,645,109
Basic utilities, 85 m2 flat	1,994,792

The index draws on 250 entries from 26 contributors over the twelve months to 6 August 2026, which is a small sample for a city this size, so read each figure as the middle of a wide band rather than a price list. “Centre” here means the blocks behind the beach; “outside” starts a bridge or a ring road away. The gap between the two one-bedroom figures, about 3.4 million VND, is the price of the sea and the bar noise.

The electricity ladder, and the landlord’s version of it

Electricity is where my first lease surprised me. EVN’s household tariff, set by Decision 1279/QD-BCT of 9 May 2025 and in force from 10 May 2025, is a six-step ladder, and bills in June 2026 were still being calculated on it. Add 8 percent VAT to every step.

Monthly use	VND per kWh before VAT
First 50 kWh	1,984
51 to 100 kWh	2,050
101 to 200 kWh	2,380
201 to 300 kWh	2,998
301 to 400 kWh	3,350
Above 400 kWh	3,460
Prepaid meter, flat	2,909

That is the tariff EVN charges the account holder. A rented room or a flat on a sub-meter is often billed by the landlord at a single flat rate per kWh instead, above the top step, which is a private mark-up rather than the tariff. My first lease worked that way and the hot-season bill was the biggest number on the fridge that month. The one question I now ask before signing is how the electricity is metered and at what rate. Twelve things I wish I had known has that at number twelve for a reason.

Food and coffee at the prices the shops print

The noodle shops set the floor of a food budget. A bowl of bún chả cá, the fish-cake noodle soup that is the city’s breakfast, costs 35,000 to 45,000 VND in 2026, and bún cá dầm at Nguyên Loan on Ngô Gia Tự is 45,000. Numbeo’s inexpensive restaurant meal comes out at 69,000 VND on the same August 2026 index, which matches what a plate of rice and a drink cost inland.

Item	Published price (2026 unless stated)
Bun cha ca, a bowl	35,000 to 45,000 VND
Pho, a bowl	45,000 to 60,000 VND
Com ga Nha Trang, a plate	30,000 to 65,000 VND (2024 menus)
Banh mi	20,000 to 40,000 VND
Banh can, a portion	9,000 to 43,000 VND by topping
Ca phe sua da at a pavement stall	about 25,000 VND
Filter coffee	15,000 to 25,000 VND
Cappuccino	25,000 to 75,000 VND; Numbeo average 43,333
Bia Saigon, shop bottle	12,000 to 15,000 VND
Bia Saigon in a cafe	25,000 to 40,000 VND
Bottled water, 1.5 litres	8,000 to 13,000 VND
Seafood dinner for two	400,000 to 800,000 VND

Where you buy matters more than what. The markets that set these prices are inland: Xóm Mới at 49 Ngô Gia Tự, Chợ Đầm in the centre and Vĩnh Hải in the north, all with local-facing prices well below the beach strip. The markets I actually use covers which one for what. Cards are patchy at that level, so the Nha Trang Guide page on money and exchange is worth reading before the first market run; the mid-market rate was about 25,800 to 25,950 VND to the US dollar on 11 and 12 September 2026.

The bike, the petrol and the phone

A standard automatic scooter rents for 150,000 VND a day, 900,000 a week or 2,500,000 for 30 days at a central Nha Trang shop on its 2026 price list, with a helmet and civil liability insurance included and fuel on the rider. On terms of three months or more, one Russian-language guide to the city quotes 625,000 VND a month. Used Honda Waves were listed nationally from 8.5 million VND on 15 September 2026, with 2018 examples averaging about 12 million and 2024 to 2025 examples about 15.8 million; I never found a Nha Trang-specific listing to cite. The sums between the two are in renting or buying a bike for a long stay.

Petrol was 24,230 VND a litre for RON95-III at the 10 September 2026 national adjustment, and 23,740 for E5 RON92. A scooter tank is small enough that a month of city riding is a minor line; the day trips are what burn it.

The phone is the cheapest thing on the list. Viettel’s 5G150T tourist plan is 150,000 VND for 30 days at 5 GB a day when bought in the city, and Vinaphone’s official tourist SIM is 199,000 VND for 15 days at 1 GB a day. Airport kiosks run 15 to 30 percent higher for the same thing, and every SIM is registered against a passport. The Nha Trang Guide page on SIM cards and internet has the plan codes.

The smaller lines

A gym membership averages 572,000 VND a month on Numbeo’s August 2026 index. A Grab car costs about 20,000 VND a kilometre and 50,000 to 120,000 for a 5 km ride; a metered taxi flags at 10,000 to 20,000 and runs from 15,000 a kilometre. Bottled water is 5,000 to 6,000 VND for half a litre. None of these move the month; the rent and the electricity do.

Where the surprises were

Three, in two years. The electricity, as above. The beachfront supermarket, which I used for my first month and which made the city feel dear until I found the markets. And the airport SIM, which I bought on landing in September 2024 at the airport price because I did not know the city price existed.

Field note: the cheapest month I have had here was a wet one. October and November empty the beach strip, the cafes stay open, and the noodle shops do not notice the rain.

What I’d do

1. Budget the Numbeo centre figure for a one-bedroom, 10.55 million VND, and be pleased if a street or two inland brings it nearer the 7.16 million outside figure.
2. Ask how the electricity is metered and at what rate per kWh before signing, and compare the answer with the EVN ladder above.
3. Buy the SIM in town, not at Cam Ranh airport: the same Viettel plan is 15 to 30 percent cheaper in the city.
4. Rent the scooter by the month for the first three months at about 2.5 million VND, then ask for the long-term rate or look at a used Wave.
5. Eat breakfast at the noodle shops around Xom Moi from the first week, at 35,000 to 45,000 VND a bowl.
6. Keep one month of receipts, then decide which band you live in. Mine was the middle one, and it still is.