Ha Long Bay is a gorgeous UNESCO world heritage site located in Northeastern Vietnam. Unsurprisingly, the limestone formations rising from emerald green water attract more and more tourists each year, and the boats all follow the same routes to make it easier for local authorities to keep an eye on them. But that doesn’t mean you can’t visit without being surrounded by tourists! Here’s how you can visit Ha Long Bay without the crowds.

Don’t go on a Ha Long Bay overnight cruise

Everyone wants to go to Ha Long Bay. Everyone who goes to Ha Long Bay goes with an overnight cruise. Here’s why I don’t recommend doing that:

On paper it sounds fantastic…

You’re picked up from your hotel in Hanoi and a minibus takes you to the pier where the crew awaits you with welcome drinks. You sail off into the sunset, surrounded by Ha Long Bay’s huge rock formations covered in greenery. In the morning you wake up surrounded by these limestones as far as you can see. You get on deck to take part in the cruise’s Tai Chi class and feel your entire body relax at the sight of these immense natural wonders. You can choose to stay one to three nights, after which you are transported back to your hotel in Hanoi, relaxed and at peace with nature.

… but that’s just on paper.

In reality, you will be constantly surrounded by the chuck-chuck-chuck of other cruise ships. They will follow exactly the same route as your ship and stop in the exact same places whether it is for kayaking or for swimming. You will also have some encounters with piles of garbage floating amidst the oily waters.

In addition most of these cruises come at a really high price : a low to middle-range, one night cruise can set you back 150USD per person. When you’re travelling on a budget that’s a LOT of money. In order to get something out of the cruise you also pretty much need to spend at least two nights on board – the trip by car from Hanoi takes four hours one way. You will not have a lot of time to enjoy the scenery. Finally, most backpackers will probably not be looking for cooking classes and Tai Chi and would much rather do something a little more adventurous.

Visit during the low season

This is kind of the obvious one. High season is especially in the summer when Vietnamese people are on holiday. Other seasons to avoid are the two or three weeks around Christmas and New years, which bring a lot of Western tourists, and the Chinese New Year. We went in the beginning of December and were fine (keep reading to know why) but a couple days earlier we overheard some tourists in Ninh Binh complain about the number of boats when they visited.

Stay on Cat Ba

However, there’s more. You need to be willing to compromise one thing: waking up in a boat surrounded by the limestones. The trick is to actually stay on the big island, Cat Ba, and book a day tour from there.

How to get there

You will need to go from the city you’re in to the pier, then take the ferry to Cat Ba island, and then finally take the minivan to Cat Ba Town.

1 – To the Pier by Bus

The easiest way to get there is booking a bus or a minivan leaving from Hanoi or wherever you’re staying. We used bookaway.com. If you can’t find anything suitable for you, 12GO is also a great option when traveling in Asia. Make sure your bus doesn’t arrive too late or you’ll miss the ferry (we had to ask our bus driver to stop early and grab an overpriced taxi so we didn’t miss it). The buses from Hanoi ususally go to Cau Dat terminal in Hai Phong.

2 – To Cat Ba by Ferry

You will then need to take a ferry. The last ferry leaves at 4PM so make sure you have enough time to walk / grab a taxi from Cau Dat or wherever your bus stops. The ferry takes roughly an hour to arrive to the island. For more detailed info on the ferry, I recommend this article by maptrotting.com

3 – To Cat Ba town by Van

You will probably be staying in Cat Ba town. Don’t go with the taxi drivers waiting at the pier as they are likely to overcharge you. Instead, take the van which costs less than a dollar per person. This trip should take from 45 minutes to an hour. Piece of advice: put your bags in the trunk.We didn’t and felt pretty squished!

Cat Ba town is full of hotels and unfortunately when we were there we saw a whole bunch of them rising from the ground, meaning that the place will probably not be very under-the-radar for very long anymore. However, these were thankfully all quite small hotels – nothing like the huge resorts you see on the mainland.

Book a tour from Cat Ba

So now you’re on the island! The last thing you need to do, unless you somehow have your own ship, is book a tour. We went with a company called Cat Ba Ventures. This post is not sponsored but I absolutely recommend you go with them. The thing about them is that they take you to lesser known places like Lan Ha Bay, which is exactly like Ha Long except for the fact that it’s on the other side of the island. Tour boats have a harder time going there with the time constraints of a simple 2 days + 1 night tour leaving from the mainland port. This tour was also waaaay more suitable for our budget – at about 30USD per person for a day trip. We were actually able to enjoy the tour rather than just feel guilty about spending money.

I have to admit that we felt pretty smug going past several big cruise ships and finally losing them out of sight – finally alone. It was also exactly what we, as self-proclaimed adventure backpackers, were looking for : two swim spots where you could swim to a secluded beach from the boat and one kayaking tour. I didn’t feel like I missed out on the Tai Chi session of my life. We also visited a fish farm at the beginning of the tour which was a fascinating experience, and had a delicious fresh seafood lunch on the boat.

  We watched the sunset and headed back to Cat Ba town, exhausted but very happy with our day. In hindsight I can’t imagine doing otherwise.

  Have you been to Ha Long Bay? Did you manage to avoid crowds or were you unlucky? I’d love to hear your thoughts and personal experience in the comments!  

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