Halong Bay Junk Cruise Recommendations?

I figured out that if I send the post, then edit it I can add sometimes add another picture - I’m not sure what changed - but I had no issues before.

We also were rowed around a fishing village and went to a pearl farm. I have no pictures as I left my ipad on the junk.

I actually did a live review on the NCL Forum of the entire cruise - I’m sorry I don’t know how to provide a link using my ipad but if you want to see more pictures/details. of our excursion at Halong Bay just click on my name to find the “threads that were started by deefer”.

The only thing I would have done differently is not use the car service through indochina junk - taxi from the pier where we docked to our junk would have been about $6, we paid $30.

Otherwise, would highly recommend this junk for a full day tour.

The sunset as we are returning.....around 5p.

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I forgot to add that drinks are not included in the price. Happy to answer any questions you may have!

Deefer, thank you so much for the review of your time in Ha Long Bay, and for making the time and effort to post your pics. I will be sailing there in February 2019, and hope very much to experience something similar to your excursion.

If all goes as planned, we will be there only from noon to about 8:00 pm. Do you have a sense of whether that is enough time for such an excursion?

We were there in March (luckily with overnight stay). We did a full day cruise the first day and a city tour (1/2 day) next day, all aboard 15:00. The cruise was fabulous (highlight), the city tour I would not recommend the only place worth visiting is the market. It would have been a lot cheaper and not so tiring if we had booked a taxi for 3 hours.

There are some boat operators that offer a 1/2 day cruise, also our ship (Millennium) also had cruise excursion on offer.

Deefer, thank you so much for the review of your time in Ha Long Bay, and for making the time and effort to post your pics. I will be sailing there in February 2019, and hope very much to experience something similar to your excursion.

 

If all goes as planned, we will be there only from noon to about 8:00 pm. Do you have a sense of whether that is enough time for such an excursion?

I believe most of the junks stop “cursing” around 5p when you run out of daylight so that would limit you to a half day cruise.

The junk we were on does do 1/2 day cruises - I’m not sure if you could charter it for a 1/2 day - but even if you joined a group (wether through your roll call or not) what I like is that there would only be 12 of you on this junk. I heard others on the ship complaining there were 40 people on their junks and they felt crowded.

Having said that, a half day cruise on a crowded junk in Halong Bay is better than no cruise at all!

I believe most of the junks stop “cursing” around 5p when you run out of daylight so that would limit you to a half day cruise.

 

The junk we were on does do 1/2 day cruises - I’m not sure if you could charter it for a 1/2 day - but even if you joined a group (wether through your roll call or not) what I like is that there would only be 12 of you on this junk. I heard others on the ship complaining there were 40 people on their junks and they felt crowded.

 

Having said that, a half day cruise on a crowded junk in Halong Bay is better than no cruise at all!

Very helpful, thank you Deefer. And ... to your last point .... agreed!

I believe most of the junks stop “cursing” around 5p when you run out of daylight so that would limit you to a half day cruise......Having said that, a half day cruise on a crowded junk in Halong Bay is better than no cruise at all!

Oops! A typo that is too late to edit .... I meant “cruising” not “cursing”.

Unibok ..... have an excellent time no matter what you decide to do!

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:) Go back to post 18 & 19 to see the itinerary we just did in March of 2018 while cruising on the Volendam. In fact, our cruise critic group booked three excursions for Vietnam with Travel Authentic Asia. (Phu My, DaNang and Halong Bay) :cool: