Halong Bay tender to what city?

[Dennis75]

We are visiting Halong Bay with the Volendam in december 2012 and we try to figure out if we can arrange an private tour when we go ashore. Can someone tell us to what city the tender will bring us and if we can arrange there a tour by ourselve?

[anandaindonesia]

Halong Bay is renowned for the beautiful quartz hills doting the ocean.

 

People take a small boat to tour the bay, including some stops to visit fishermen village and several beautiful caves. Maybe swimming or snorkeling, for some. Tasty, fresh, seafood is served on the boat for lunch.

Halong city itself is not a destination.

 

If you stay overnight, you may go Hanoi but the road trip is about 4 hours one way. Many interesting things to experience in Hanoi. The one that shouldn't be missed is the world only water puppet show.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

Michael

[CtheW0rld]

you're in for a real treat. ha long bay is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. so unusual. the main feature here is, of course, the bay itself. do not miss the sail-in/out.

 

i could not find a private operator, i took a ship's tours that included a cruise on the bay, lunch, dance show and a water puppet show.

[xander]

Hi ...

We too are looking for a day cruise in Halong Bay , non cruise ship tour . Has anyone found one ? We're there in April 2013 .

[sandancer]

Try Bhaya Day Cruises. They have a website and can arrange private charters for small groups.

[aussiekoala]

I looked at the Bhaya cruise site and so far can only find overnight cruises. Do you know if they just have a day cruise? If you find something Ian and Gus, can you let me know, maybe we can go together?

 

Aussiekoala

[John Bull]

Your ship will moor off Halong city.

Where you tender to will depend on where you moor but it won't be in the city. We had a pre-booked three-hour car tour of Halong City for just the two of us. But even at just 25USD it was a waste of time & money, the city has virtually nothing to offer. All I remember is a seriously grubby & smelly fish-market, a grubby indoor market, and a neon-lit (not kidding) temple.

 

Halong Bay is a port-of-call for two basic options:

 

Hanoi. Hanoi is about 3 hours by road. You need a ship's tour or a private tour or transfers booked with a well-recommended operator. Its not the sort of journey to fix up on-the-fly.

Because of the travelling time, its well worth booking an overnite hotel in Hanoi.

 

A junk cruise in Halong Bay. A beautiful & eerie experience, sailing amongst the limestone "karsts" (steep-sided rocky islets). The Bay is usually misty - far from spoiling the experience, it adds to the atmosphere.

(As a previous poster, do be on deck for your ship's sail in/out, though you don't get the sense of isolation from the ship).

 

You can hire a day-junk or an overniter.

Do insist on sole use of a junk. You don't want to be sharing with back-packers.

 

Overniters are awkward because they don't tie in well with ships' port times - overniters sail out about noon & return about 11am. This is because the bulk of their business is from visitors travelling from Hanoi. Yes, you can book an overniter to suit your times, but because that'd interfere with the junk's bookings before or after you'll be charged more - perhaps as much as an extra day.

Junks moor at night, they sail only daylight hours.

 

Day junks don't tend to be advertised on the web (a missed marketing opportunity?) but are available - thouigh it might take a lot of web-trawling or an e-mail or two to locate. They can be booked for anywhere between two & eight hours, with or without food. Pre-booked, the prices aren't a lot different to overniters.

 

We hired a day-junk on-the-fly from the pier. We fixed it up on our first half-day for the following full-day. Way way way cheaper than pre-booked, though I can understand folk paying a lot more for the reassurance that they're booked.

Day junks will carry up to about 25. On ship's excursions, they were pretty crowded.

There were about twenty of us negotiating with the junk tout on the pier - because the prices were so silly-cheap we split into two junks, one at 60USD for four hours & the other at 90USD for six hours, including transport for the very short hop from tender pier to junk pier. That's the price per junk, not per person !!

Price negotiated at the pier - in our case, on our first half-day for the next (full) day - paid to the tout in USD on our return, plus tip to captain. Tout spoke decent english, captain & crewman didn't but no problem.

About ten people on a junk is ideal, plenty of room for all inside or up-top, to wander or sunbathe. Canned drinks available, a dunnie (of sorts :D) at the back. On the cruise we visited a floating fishing-village - we could've selected live fish from a keep-net, & they'd have been cooked for us on-board - we chose not to, very expensive & the only thing in six days in Vietnam that wasn't ridiculously cheap.

Junk cruise really needs to be minimum four hours - a two hour cruise will get you across the Bay to/from the karsts, but not amongst them & perhaps a stop at just one karst (with a cave).

 

Because of ships' port times its difficult or impossible to visit Hanoi and take a decent junk cruise, though I've seen a post on this forum from someone who managed to do that.

 

Tourism is in its infancy, there's a lot of clueless wannabe's & some scamsters. If you have to pay something up-front, do so only to a recommended operator & only by credit card.

 

Just our experience

 

JB :)

[sandancer]

I looked at the Bhaya cruise site and so far can only find overnight cruises. Do you know if they just have a day cruise? If you find something Ian and Gus, can you let me know, maybe we can go together?

 

Aussiekoala

They definately do day cruises, I have a quote from them. I picked up the details from Trip Advisor and emailed them. Quick to respond but they only have a large junk which may not be suitable for a small group. We are only 6 but they are still willing to let us have the junk for sole use, that of course makes it more expensive. We have been offered an 8 hour cruise with lunch and entrance tickets etc. for around $85 pp.

[John Bull]

They definately do day cruises, I have a quote from them. I picked up the details from Trip Advisor and emailed them. Quick to respond but they only have a large junk which may not be suitable for a small group. We are only 6 but they are still willing to let us have the junk for sole use, that of course makes it more expensive. We have been offered an 8 hour cruise with lunch and entrance tickets etc. for around $85 pp.

 

Just a thought.

 

Is it worth asking the capacity of the junk, and (excl lunch) the hire fee for the junk regardless of numbers. And on top of that, ask the extra per person for lunch/transfer/admissions (not sure there are any admissions - if there are, eg cave, it'll be peanuts)

Tell them that you plan to recruit sharers from the ship, via the RollCall & on-board, up to half the junk's maximum capacity but you need to quote them a fixed price.

 

A quick bit of mental arithmetic on your quote. Allowing for say $15 lunch etc means you're paying about $70 x 6 = $420 for the junk.

Find sharers so that you can divide that $420 amongst, say 15, sharers makes $28 pp for the junk plus $15 pp for the extras = $43 per person.

Quite possibly they'll want to charge a bit more, but within reason that's OK.

 

That's still a lot more than we paid, but you have the comfort of knowing you have a junk waiting for you, it'll be a better junk than pot-luck, its eight hours instead of our six, & your lunch is included.

 

But don't add sharers to make the boat too crowded - about half-capacity is fine, but the savings by adding more will be out-weighed by the poorer experience.

 

Just MHO.

 

JB :)

[sandancer]

Thanks John. My problem is that most of the people on our rollcall want to go to Hanoi and I do not anticipate getting any more takers. I am pursuing the option of using a different operator with a smaller junk. Several people have shown an interest and then cancelled because they prefer to go to Hanoi.

[aussiekoala]

Hi Sandancer,

We would be interested in coming with you but my only concern is the 8 hours rather than the 6. I have done an overnight cruise in Halong Bay about 3.5 years ago and do remember it took a while to actually get to the 'good' karsts but I think 8 hours could be too much for my mum to handle but she is a feisty old stick and maybe this is the time we have to allocate for the trip. Please keep us in mind and when you have got final quotes (I would defs include lunch) please let us know and I can make a final decision. We certainly won't be going into Hanoi, unless you spend overnight it is just too much of a journey.

 

April is a long time away and you may find lots more people coming on the roll call wanting to join. In the meantime, keep us on the list.

Aussiekoala

[aussiekoala]

Sorry Sandancer, I am a dingbat, I thought this was on the roll call forum and you were on my cruise in April. Reading through the thread I can't work out when you are cruising.

 

Sorry....

 

AussieK

[xander]

Hi AussieK ,

 

We would be keen to join up with you and your mum , and maybe recruit a few more to make up 8 or 10 people max. We're not keen on an over night trip , or a long long boat trip but like you said , it might be worth making an exception in this case to get to see some good scenery !

Lets message that website that was mentioned and see if we can get a set fee for the whole junk ,like suggested .

We have four already so really just one or two other couples ? We can post on our roll call thread , and as people join we can see if they want to join us . We've always done our own thing in ports , so much better that ship tours !

Really looking forward to this trip , I've always wanted to go to Vietnam :-)

Gus

[xander]

Sundancer , John Bull :

thank you for you're advice , much appreciated !

[sandancer]

Sorry Sandancer, I am a dingbat, I thought this was on the roll call forum and you were on my cruise in April. Reading through the thread I can't work out when you are cruising.

 

Sorry....

 

AussieK

What a shame, I'll bet we would have had a ball but we are going in February. You wlll be able to determine the length of the cruise for yourself. If you feel 8 hours is too long then ask for a 6 hour trip. We went for 8 hours because I read that a 4 hour trip does not give you the chance to do the whole bay. As we are there for a day and a half and do not plan to go to either Halong City or Hanoi we decided to spend our time on the junk.

[John Bull]

Thanks John. My problem is that most of the people on our rollcall want to go to Hanoi and I do not anticipate getting any more takers. I am pursuing the option of using a different operator with a smaller junk. Several people have shown an interest and then cancelled because they prefer to go to Hanoi.

 

 

Yep, I can understand that Hanoi will appeal to a lot of folk, though some will be put off when they find it's a pretty arduous journey and with limited sights in the city.

 

 

It's worth bearing in mind that, as big & popular as this forum is, only a tiny proportion of your ship-mates will have even heard of Cruise Critic.

There'll be an awful lot aboard who will not have committed to anything at Halong Bay, and as other posts they'll realise on-board that there's nothing there for them there other than booking a long bus trip to Hanoi, or a junk cruise. And your junk cruise will be better than ship's offerings. I'm guessing that Halong Bay will not be in the first couple of days of your cruise, so there's opportunities to find new sharers on the ship. Table-mates & other folk that you (and your other recruits) meet aboard, & get the grapevine working.

 

 

You, & the sharers already lined-up, are ok with $85 if you don't find others, right? And that's not expensive for an excursion. Every new recruit brings the price down, & you can start by offering at the price for eight.

 

 

We found sharers aboard for a speedboat trip at Saigon. Capacity eight. The price for two was eye-watering but acceptable, so we booked. Small ship (550 pax), no CC roll-call, & no sharers before we boarded - but we booked-out our little trip & had to turn a lot of people away.:)

 

You also have the advantage of no defined limit on numbers. Best, as I posted, to max at half-capacity - but if say you need just four more to reach that & a group of six want to join that's not a problem.

 

 

Worth discussing with current sharers whether eight hours or six would be preferred (IMHO six is fine), and checking what difference it makes to the price.

 

I certainly wouldn't be down-hearted at this stage :)

 

JB :)

[aussiekoala]

Hi Ian and Gus

just posted on the roll call thread as well about the cruise in Halong Bay. We would love to join you on a 6-8 hour cruise. When you get a bit further with the research please let us know details.

 

thanks so much

aussiek

[muddypuds]

Hi Ian and Gus

just posted on the roll call thread as well about the cruise in Halong Bay. We would love to join you on a 6-8 hour cruise. When you get a bit further with the research please let us know details.

 

thanks so much

aussiek

 

We would be interested in joining you for the junk trip Gus, Ian and AussieK. Please keep me posted on details.

 

Cheers

[sandancer]

Thanks for your advice John. The difference in price between 6 and 8 hours was negligible but that is something that we can deal with later. Your comment about the arduous journey and limited sightseeing just confirms my take on going to Hanoi. We have a tour booked for every port up to then and as it is 28 nights, I think a day chilling on a junk will be just the ticket. It is going to be around $70 each so money well spent I think. Cheers.

[xander]

AussieK , Jan ,

I've posted on our cruise roll call . Will let you both know when I hear back from Bhaya .

[Patio Flowers]

Hi ...

We too are looking for a day cruise in Halong Bay , non cruise ship tour . Has anyone found one ? We're there in April 2013 .

 

Hi, we were visit Halong bay this Sep with BestPrice Vietnam. You can visit their website and find your interested tour. They had a very good price for Halong bay.

[33lp]

What a shame, I'll bet we would have had a ball but we are going in February. You wlll be able to determine the length of the cruise for yourself. If you feel 8 hours is too long then ask for a 6 hour trip. We went for 8 hours because I read that a 4 hour trip does not give you the chance to do the whole bay. As we are there for a day and a half and do not plan to go to either Halong City or Hanoi we decided to spend our time on the junk.

 

Hi Sandancer,

We are a group of 4 looking for a 6/8hr day trip at Halong Bay on Thu 14Feb.

We are on the Celebrity Millennium SE Asia N/bound cruise.

Is this the day you are there?

If so, we would be willing to share a junk.:)

Regards, Phil (UK)

[sandancer]

Hello Phil. We are also on the Millenium and yes, our junk cruise is on the 14th. Unfortunately the tour has been closed for a while now. I closed it when we had a group of 12. It took me some time to fill the tour as most people wanted to go to Hanoi. Final payment had to be paid 2 months in advance and all security information passed to the tour operator so adding more people in is not an option, I'm sorry. I suggest you post on the rollcall as I know there are still people looking for tours.