How the trip came to be
Halong Bay and Han La Bay are the two beautiful bays studded with numerous limestone karsts which magically rise from the ocean while one is cruising through the waters. Halong is famous hence more crowded. I had seen it back in 2019 and it was indeed amazingly beautiful. Some pics of it are on my insta page. (Wish I had started blogging back then, could have narrated all those amazing experiences here.)
Naturally Han La Bay became my choice for this time. Han La Bay is best reached from Cat Ba island which is at 3 hours drive from Hanoi.
In Hanoi Old Quarter, one zillion travel agents would be selling ~85$ 2D1N trip to Cat Ba and Han La Bay. Almost similar prices are quoted for Halong Bay as well. For Han La Bay, it includes two way transfer to Cat Ba, stay at a decent 500k VND hotel on Cat Ba and a day trip of Han La Bay on Day2. My boat operator (Cat Ba Eco tourist) took us to Halong Bay as well.
2D1N Cruise (overnight on the ship) vs 2D1N with stay in hotel on Cat Ba island
While returning from Sapa, I had almost made up my mind to book 2D1N cruise for Han La bay – but not sure what happened when I went to buy the tickets. The travel agent convinced me to buy 2D1N Han La trip with overnight stay in a hotel on Cat Ba island citing reasons that cruise would be costly for 1 person plus staying in Cat Ba would let me have a feel of Cat Ba island as well.
After the trip, I realised my mistake and kicked myself several times for making the choice I made. There wasn’t much to do on Cat Ba, additionally, it didn’t have the exquisite tropical island feel akin to Phi Phi or Gili. To add salt to the injury, the day trip to Han La was very basic on the amenities – not even a water bottle came included with the trip. The saving grace was the decent lunch they served on the boat.
On putting it into perspective, it was not the day trip’s fault as they had charged only 20$ for the daylong boat trip (if booked in isolation from Cat Ba) to Han La bay with that lunch – which was fair. I had gotten a bad deal overall on my package trip costing 85$.
The transfer to Cat Ba island can be bought separately for 13$ one way and the hotel stay at the same hotel for 18$. As a conclusion, I paid 85$ for a deal worth 64$ (13*2 + 18 + 20). It’s not an extra 20$ dollars that I paid hurt me the most, it was the lack of time, due to which I couldn’t have redone the cruise experience even if I wanted. I had to fly back to India the next day after this trip.
On the contrary, if I had bought 2D1N cruise from catbaexpress.com, I would have paid 135$ for three extra things:
- Overnight stay on the ship
- Sunset in Han La bay – consequently amazing golden hour pics with the bay in the background, which would have added an amazing feel to this blog post 🥹🥹🥹 and my experience
- Day1 lunch+dinner and Day2 breakfast+lunch on the ship
Lesson learnt
Cheap is not always good. I would strongly recommend to book the cruise with an overnight stay on the ship. It definitely costs 50$ extra however, the experience would be much more memorable and luxurious – not to forget the amazing sunset views from the ship deck – with all those beautiful limestone karsts in the background.
These cruises are being sold around ~156$ by the travel agents. One can get a great deal by booking on catbaexpress.com (135$ when I checked.)
Tung Quang Hotel
The hotel that I got in my package deal was good – with nice views of the Cat Ba lake. No problems there. The manager kept me well informed on the itinerary. I got his message in the morning confirming my booking, when my transfer journey to Cat Ba island started. He had all the details about my next day boat trip as well. Great hospitality and a simple breakfast included in the price of the room. Bread omelette or pancake with tea/coffee.
Cat Ba Square – Over-construction in Cat Ba and lack of a beach
Nature has made Cat Ba beautiful indeed however over-tourism is fast destroying it. The numerous multi storey hotels stand a testimony to this. I read somewhere, Cat Ba is a town of 15000 residents but visited by 2.5million tourists every year.
I did not even find a beach in the downtown area. In the area which appeared like a beach, several ships were busy pouring sand on it. I learnt from a local that a beach is being constructed here which left me flabbergasted. My hopes of a beautiful sunset on a tropical island were dashed to the ground.
Bong Cat Ba Restuarant – Hit
I took a stroll around the lake and the walkway next to the sea for a good 60mins after which google reviews told me to have dinner at Bong Cat Ba. The dinner was really good which made me feel a little better for the day. The menu is creative and all the items are cooked neat and fresh – more of a home kitchen style than a restaurant. Chicken soup and vegetable curry rice were both awesome and my special orange juice was good too. Price was average as per Vietnamese restaurants and not too costly.
Beautiful lakeview evening pics from Tung Quang
Han La Bay tour – Breathtakingly Beautiful
Rains had been playing a spoilsport throughout my Vietnam sojourn and the boat trip started with overcast conditions with heavy rains around 11am for an hour. Luckily for me, it subsided and the sun came out.
Shots from the Cai Beo Cruise terminal
Han La Bay is breathtakingly beautiful with limestone karsts rising from the green ocean water. My only regret was not being able to capture the bay from a height which would have created stunning portraits (like the ones I got for Halong).
The sad part was – a lot of litter and trash can be in the ocean everywhere.
Right after departing from the harbour, we could see beautiful limestone karsts. The first stop was for swimming for about 45mins and the second stop was for kayaking into a cave. I loved the kayaking portion where we saw a beautiful white sea cave and crossed it with our kayak. Many bats were spotted at one point of the cave.
After kayaking, we were served a good lunch on the boat. The last stop was a small trip to Viet Hai village. Almost all the boats and ships follow the same route, so you would find a lot of company wherever you go 🥸
All in all – a memorable day with amazing seascapes.
Itinerary
Day 1 – Transfer to Cat Ba island – Three hour long bus ride to the Hai Phong ferry terminal. The ferry ride was hardly 10mins and then about 40mins bus ride from Cat Ba ferry terminal to Cat Ba downtown. Overnight stay in the hotel provided. No meals included on day 1 in the package.
Day 2 – A simple breakfast in the hotel followed by the day long boat trip to Han La Bay which ended at 4pm. Inclusion a good lunch but no drinks, not even a water bottle. Transfer back to the hotel in Hanoi by 8pm.
Cable car to Cat Ba from Cat Hai, Haiphong
There is an option to take a cable car in place of the ferry ride to Cat Ba. It is a 10mins long ride and costs 50k VND. It might be an interesting addition to your itinerary if thats your thing. I tried looking for Hanoi-Cat Ba transfer with cable car included. I wasn’t successful in finding it even when some blog posts claimed that catbaexpress.com provides it.
Cable cars have limited operation times, so research around it carefully before including it into your itinerary. It doesn’t give any view of Han La bay which I had presumed earlier.
Tales of a traveller 
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