Cat Ba Island

The tour to Halong Bay was in rainy weather but that did not hamper our enjoyment. The boat was comfortable and the catering generous. Our excursions to Monkey Island, Pearl Farm and Cat Ba Island were most enjoyable. A fascinating three days.

What a great trip, Annie was a wonderful guide who seemed to have impeccable timing and explanations for each activity in our itinerary. She was very sweet, and very friendly and professional. I'm a professional tour guide in the United State and I thought she managed everything flawlessly. We had a great group and we opted for the extended 3 day tour. Even though she wasn't with us for the extent of the whole 3 days, she passed us on to other individuals smoothly to continue our adventure to other locations in the area. This program was the highlight of our Vietnam trip.

Overall a good tour with really cool activities and a helpful tour guide, in the beautiful surroundings of Halong Bay. Only issue is the boat, which is quite dated. For example the windows wouldn’t shut fully in our cabin, which probably explained why we had unwelcome friends (cockroaches!) and the air con was leaking. So our first bedtime on the boat was a bit stressful. Tour guide was very helpful however and arranged for us to have a different room at the late hour, and the new room was completely fine. Food is quite average so if you’re a very fussy eater you may want to think twice about this trip. Day 2 involved a little waiting around at first to transfer onto the Cat Ba boat, but once we were transferred the activities were amazing!! So would really recommend the second day/night around Cat Ba if you’re torn between the 1 and 2 night tours. Hotel on Cat Ba Island was lovely too. Day 3 is pretty much just the long journey back to Hanoi, so pack a book and expect to have a chilled final day.