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Is Halong Bay Worth Visiting?
The remarkable Halong Bay in Northern Vietnam contains more than 1,600 islands, islets, and grottoes. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For many years, it’s been the most popular tourist destination in Vietnam; you’ll see plenty of other boats during a cruise here, amid stunning limestone karst towers rising above the water. Consider adding it and a short trip to Sapa to your itinerary while you’re in the Hanoi area.
Keep reading for a review and summary of what you can expect if you take this kind of cruise.
Halong Bay Planning and Cruise Options
You’ll have many options for cruising on Halong Bay, so shop around to find the best value cruise for your budget and time frame. Stick with an established company with good reviews and stay away from any offers that look too cheap to avoid a bad experience. Expect to pay around $200 per person for a good cruise if you’re traveling with another person, and more if you’re traveling solo.
Bhaya Cruises is one reputable cruise option and maintains a large fleet of boats and ships. It offers some of the best Halong Bay cruises.
The typical Halong Bay cruise boat is a wooden junk boat with up to 20 cabins. It should have a lobby area and reception, deck, kitchen, bar, and restaurant (that often serves authentic Vietnamese cuisine).
One day isn’t enough for most people to cruise the bay and get the full experience, so the 2-night option is the most popular among tourists, and some opt to take 3 or 4 days. Having done this cruise myself, I think 2 days is the perfect length of time. You also get to watch the sunrise and sunset.
When to Go on a Halong Bay Cruise
Right now might not be the best time to take a cruise in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s never too early to start planning your next adventure. When the public health situation permits it, a cruise on Halong Bay is well worth fitting into your Vietnam itinerary if you’ll be spending time in Hanoi.
When it comes to weather, the time frame between October and March is likely to be the most comfortable time to take this cruise. It’ll be cooler outside and with less humidity and rain than you’ll encounter during the summer. For some, January to March offers another plus because fog on the water and around the islands will add to the mysterious and spooky atmosphere.
Hotel Pick Up and Transportation
A shuttle from your cruise company should pick you up from your hotel at around 8 a.m. It should be fairly comfortable and air-conditioned. It’ll take about 4 hours for the shuttle to get to Halong Bay. They may give you a 30-minute stop/break at a tourist trop that sells refreshments and odds and ends.
You’ll arrive at a port like Tuan Chau a little after noon, and should have some time to kill in a comfortable lounge with additional refreshments before embarking at 12:30 p.m. or so. Look out at the port, and you’ll probably see a fleet of other ships of varying sizes.
Boarding
Board your vessel when they tell you to. Crew members may greet you and wave from the upper decks. One might even throw rose petals at you as you approach.
Take a look at your cabin to ensure everything is in order. Ours was small, with two beds practically next to each other. The cramped bathroom had no separating wall between the shower area, sink, and toilet, so showering meant getting the bathroom soaked.
Next you’ll probably gather in the dining room for an introductory briefing, then enjoy a nice lunch as the ship sets sail. To give you a sense of what may be on the menu, I had stuffed crab, rice, octopus, squid, fish in banana leaves, vegetables, and fruits including white dragonfruit and green-skinned oranges.
Potential Halong Bay Sights and Activities
You’ll see some interesting places during your cruise. Here are some of the possible attractions and stops, but itineraries vary. Your cruise may omit some of these and add others.
Day 1: Cua Van Fishing Village
Home to about 100 villagers, Cua Van is like a real-life miniature Waterworld, with lots of homes and even a mayor-equivalent’s office floating on the water. The village is built on a foundation of blue plastic barrels.
A smaller diesel boat may take you to the main docking point, where you can separate into different groups depending on whether you want to explore the village via a kayak or rowboat.
If you have a camera, you may want to select the rowboat, so someone else can row while you snap photos.
Around the village, you may see a temple built into the steep green slope of a big limestone karst.
Smaller boats may pull up alongside yours and attempt to sell you food items like bottled water, fresh fruit, chips, and soda.
Watch the villagers go about their day. You might see them preparing soup, or receiving fresh water that is transported in via big plastic containers.
After you’ve finished your fishing village tour, you can take a boat back to the main boat for activities like happy hour and a cooking demonstration. On my cruise, we watched a demo of how to prepare spring rolls, with the audience voting on the best rolls. At the end, everyone got to eat them.
Dinner will follow early in the evening. I dined on crab soup with white mushrooms, coconut milk steamed prawns, lotus stem chicken salad, grilled sea bass with green mashed potatoes, carrots, zucchini, and a fried banana fritter with ice cream.
Later that evening you may have the opportunity to fish for squid from the stern of the ship.
Day 2: Tai Chi and Cave Exploration
If you wake up early, you may see fishermen going through their catch from your cabin’s window. A tai chi session may take place on the desk at 6:30 a.m. or so.
A light breakfast of fruit, pastries, and other small snacks may follow.
Then prepare to board smaller boats to visit one of the Halong Bay caves, such as Tien Ong Cave (“Angel’s Cave”), which also goes by Ren Cave or Duc Cave.
You’ll listen to a presentation on stalagmites and stalactites. Then walk through a few cave chambers and a small museum displaying assorted bones from resident fauna and tools from ancient cave-dwelling inhabitants. Tien Ong Cave, discovered in 1938 by a Swedish archaeologist, is located in the middle of Cai Tai islet. It’s filled with mollusks and snails. Neolithic Viet people lived here in about 8,000-10,000 BC.
Return to the ship and enjoy a little free time before a big brunch. We had rice, fish, fruit, salad, seaweed jello (tastes better than it sounds), and pho soup.
As the ship sails back to port, spend some more time on the top deck watching the green limestone karsts and other ships go by. The bay is likely to be full of ships of varying sizes.
By 11 a.m., you should dock and assemble one last time as the crew bids you adieu and collects any gratuities you may be inclined to leave them. As you disembark, you may want to use the facilities on board one last time because it’ll be another 4-hour drive back to Hanoi. You’ll probably get another half-hour break en route at another rest stop though.
And there you have it. You can expect something similar if you take a 2-day Halong Bay cruise during your visit to Vietnam.
An Alternative to Halong Bay
For a less crowded alternative option to Halong Bay, you may also want to consider a cruise on Lan Ha Bay by Cat Ba Island.