Rain and Shine in Cat Ba
Cat Ba Island sits to the east of Hanoi and is connected to the popular Ha Long and Lan Ha Bays (beautiful adjacent sister bays, Ha Long being the more popular tourist one and Lan Ha being the less busy but no less beautiful one). When we decided not to do a Ha Long Bay cruise (more on that below) we opted for a few nights on Cat Ba Island to visit the bay and get some nature and relaxation.
To get to Cat Ba we took the Cat Ba Express, a well known and highly regarded company that specializes in transport between Hanoi and Cat Ba Island. Our day started by boarding a large charter bus that drove us roughly 2 hours to the sea. From there we could choose between a cable car or speed boat to take us across the water (we took the cable car). From there we boarded another bus that took us the 30 min drive into Cat Ba town.
In Cat Ba we opted to stay at the one “fancy” resort (which was still cheaper than the Ha Long Bay Cruise would have been) complete with two beaches, three pools, and a nature trail. Day one there we thought we would come to regret this decision because the whole place was VERY crowded and chaotic. Fortunately, by day two things calmed down and we had an enjoyable rest of our visit. It rained a bit most days but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the pools and beaches.
The one thing we absolutely recommend doing while in Cat Ba is a day boat tour in Lan Ha bay. SInce we opted not to do the Ha Long cruise after all we wanted to get some time in the less touristed but equally beautiful Lan Ha Bay.
We booked a half day boat cruise with the Cat Ba Express company (who expertly ran our transport to and from Cat Ba). As we mentioned it rained every day we were there for at least a bit. We gambled and booked the tour even though it was raining at the time, with the hope that the rain would let up in the afternoon. This worked in our favor because the boat only had about 10 other people on it (with a capacity of 50+) since the rain deterred most people.
As we boarded the boat at 2:00pm the rain had not stopped but had least slowed to a drizzle. We had our rain jackets in hand and weren’t going to be stopped by some water. This beautiful boat floated us around Lan Ha bay for the afternoon and even anchored up for us to stop and enjoy some kayaking and swimming. Just as we were getting in our kayaks, the rain stopped.
Our solo kayak adventure through Lan Ha Bay was easily one of our top experiences of this trip. Words and even the pictures cannot begin to describe the peace and freedom we felt sitting on a kayak in this majestic place with civilization nowhere in sight.
Nobody else was really interested in kayaking so it was just the two of us wandering through the channels. For the others they set up a pool of sorts (a large frame with a net so the kids could splash around in a contained area. They also had a huge inflatable slide attached to the side of the ship that Viv went down at what appeared to be 50 mph and was launched into the water.
To Ha Long or not to Ha Long…
Ha Long Bay is a very popular UNESCO site about 2 hours east of Hanoi. We have long heard of the famous Ha Long Bay Cruises. This was initially one of those big bucket list items we were planning for. We went as far as narrowing down (from the hundreds of options) to 3 boats and even starting the booking process before one evening at dinner I (Viv) proclaimed I was having second thoughts…which Ryan immediately confirmed he was too.
We discussed it and for a variety of reasons ultimately decided this was not going to be one of our bucket list items after all and we were going to look at doing something else (how we wound up on Cat Ba Island). So what went into this thought process (in case it helps you save time in deciding your own journey).
The Instagram vs. Reality effect. What we initially had in our head was a very romanticized version of a Ha Long Bay cruise. And it MIGHT have been that way….But everything we were seeing and reading in our research gave us the impression it would be anything but that romanticized version. The reality seems to be one of more overcrowding, over-tourism, and massive pollution of the bay from the sheer volume of these tours. All things we are not on board with.
The two night dilemma. Most of these cruises operate on a single night itinerary. You leave from Hanoi in the AM and board the ship by noon. You have activities and lunch and dinner and stuff, then you sleep, eat breakfast and disembark by 11:00am the next day. That is a LOT to fit into basically less than 24 hours. As slow travel people we weren’t excited about that, so looked at 2 night options. Not a single operator we found actually ran a 2 night itinerary. If you wanted 2 nights basically you would disembark separately from the one night passengers but instead of leaving you would get on “the day boat” where you would spend the day doing various planned activities while they turned over the ship for the next batch of one-night passengers…. Then you would get back on the boat in the afternoon with the new one night passengers and do the same thing over again. We didn’t like the idea of being forced into these day activities that seemed touristy and crowded (since all boats had the same itinerary regardless of company).
We are just not cruise people. We can barely stand organized tours. We like to move at our own pace and do our own thing. Even the best tours we have been on leave us mentally exhausted because of the fast pace and endless herding. The idea of a cruise itinerary was not something we were on board with.
We will never “know” what the better option might have been, but we are happy with our decision.