Halong Bay

[Peaofsweetness1]

Any suggestions for Halong Bay port.  We would like to do our own thing rather than be organised by the cruise ship tours. Thank uou

[John Bull]

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

A junk cruise amongst the limestone karsts of the bay.🙂

Make it a minimum of four hours & preferably 6 hours - shorter cruises won't get you into the surreal solitude away from the hordes.  Ship's offering will probably be just two hours, which means little more than going across the open bay & visiting a cave. Cruise ships also tend to load junks with maximum numbers. Start by checking out your cruise's RollCall to introduce yourselves to your ship-mates & see if anyone is looking for sharers for a junk cruise,

The RollCalls can be accessed from the menu page https://boards.cruisecritic.com/ 

If you can't figure it out, post with your cruise line, ship's name & date that the cruise starts & we can provide a link.

 

The main alternative is to visit Hanoi. It's a bus ride of 3+ hrs each way, so best done with an overnight stay in Hanoi if your ship overnites at Ha Long Bay.

Whether you choose a single long day or an overnite it's best to do that on a ship's over-priced excursion.  

 

JB 🙂

[Peaofsweetness1]

Thank you for your response.  Why do you feel it’s best to do a trip via the cruise?  We like doing our own thing. I wondered if you knew how far it was from the cruise port to where the boats leave for their trips.  Thank you

[John Bull]

8 hours ago, Peaofsweetness1 said:

Thank you for your response.  Why do you feel it’s best to do a trip via the cruise?  We like doing our own thing. I wondered if you knew how far it was from the cruise port to where the boats leave for their trips.  Thank you

 

 

We rarely take ships' excursions.

But Hanoi is about 100 miles, the standards of local drivers are very mixed, tourism is still in its early years and English is not well-spoken in north Vietnam. I'd rate it about the same as a drive from Port Sokhna to Cairo. 

That said, it's admittedly about 8 years since we were there - things may have improved.

 

Sorry, can't help with distance from the cruise berths, we were anchored in the bay & tendered to a pier just west of the city.

I very much doubt that any junks sail from within walking distance, but it'll only be a few miles by taxi

 

JB 🙂

 

 

[JohnCoffield]

19 hours ago, Peaofsweetness1 said:

Thank you for your response.  Why do you feel it’s best to do a trip via the cruise?  We like doing our own thing. I wondered if you knew how far it was from the cruise port to where the boats leave for their trips.  Thank you

We are booked on a trip 'round Halong Bay with Authentic Asia in November. The pick up is 500 metres from the ship & they provide very clear instructions & pictures to make it as easy as possible. The trip goes off the beaten track & we're picked up around 8:30 & back to the ship around 4:30. From our ship - HAL Noordam - there's 31 of us signed up & the communication has been excellent, & a good price.

[Peaofsweetness1]

That’s brilliant.  Unfortunately our cruise ship gang plank doesn’t go down until 11.30 am, so doesn’t appear to fit in with any of the trips I can find. 

[Miaminice]

Maybe you want to read our travelogue of our Southeast Asia cruise where we reported about Halong Bay and other Vietnamese ports. We planned all of our tours with Rose, a young lady from Hanoi, who organizes private tours all over Vietnam. 
 

 

We can HIGHLY HIGHLy recommend her. Her contact information is in our review. 
Rose and her team made us fall in love with Vietnam. So much that we had to return! I am writing this from our stateroom of a Mekong River cruise ship, the Victoria Mekong. We just embarked an hour ago.