After three weeks of traveling through Vietnam on a shoestring budget, I'm starting to question if we've been romanticizing budget travel. I stayed in hostels for $5 a night, ate street food for under $2, and yet the constant moving, the lack of privacy, and the exhaustion made me wonder if I was actually enjoying the trip or just surviving it. Sure, I saved money, but I missed out on the deeper experiences that a bit more spending could have provided—like taking a cooking class with a local family or splurging on a private room when I was sick. Is budget travel really the best way to see a country, or are we just telling ourselves that to feel better about not having more money?