Vietnam Ha Long Bay

“The scenery? Absolutely unreal—especially if you get lucky with the weather like we did. Waking up early to see the fog hanging over the bay felt like stepping into a movie set. Sunset swims, beers on the top deck, and early morning Tai Chi made it feel surreal in the best way.”

“There in November '22, 3D/2N. $770 couple/$490 single, USD. I wasn't in the cheapest cabin, but one class up. First, "cruise" is a misnomer. The boats only move to pick up/drop off passengers. I'd estimate we were actually underway less than 30 minutes for the entire three days. One ends up looking at the same scenery for hours. Secondly, OVERCROWDED! Everywhere we went, we were accompanied by no fewer than 17 other similarly-sized vessels. Further, probably because of oppressive afternoon heat, everyone does activities like kayaking, beach, village visits at the same time each day. I skipped activities on the second day because of the "Los Angeles freeway at rush hour" nature of this nonsense.”

“The views were spectacular, but any way you turned there was always at least a dozen ships in view. Matters only got worse when we arrived at the Sung Sot cave… along with at least a thousand other people. The Cave was chaotic, congested and at times frantic as we felt we were cows in a cattle mart being paraded around the one-way trail. [...] The skies turned amber, then pink with the haze of a thousand islands in the distance, it really did feel like we were on another planet. It was one of those moments you’ll talk about for the rest of your life.”

“We decided to do a one-night cruise just to see it, and really loved it, wished we'd done the two-night cruise. It was so beautiful. Yes, there was smog and other cruise ships. Yes, the water was a bit oily and had some trash floating along in it now and then. But the area is so incredibly gorgeous anyway. We used Genesis Regal for our cruise and it was fantastic. Relaxing downtime, interesting and fun excursions/activities, good food and great staff. We had been exploring Saigon and then Hanoi for a total of a week at that point, and it was very relaxing after the busy cities to be out on the water, enjoying the gorgeous landscapes (oceanscapes?).”

“On my first visit to Vietnam in 2022, I booked a cruise in Ha Long Bay from one of the many options available because it seemed like a must-do. I won’t name the company on that first visit because in all honesty, the experience was not much to write home about. The views were great, but the bay itself is littered with so much trash that the boat literally plows its way through, dispelling a wake of plastic and styrofoam in its path. The food was mediocre a best and after being in Vietnam for almost a month, paying far less for some of the best meals of my life, I was underwhelmed.”

“One of my favourite travel memories was visiting Ha Long Bay in late Feb 2020. It was literally weeks before the shit hit the fan with Covid, and tourists were cancelling or fleeing Vietnam. We got a last minute booking on a cruise ship that normally would have been booked out in advance, and upgraded to the Honeymoon suite since it was about 1/3 full. Our cruise guide told us typically the bay would be crowded with cruise ships and junks, but we saw maybe 2 or 3 other ships the entire time. It was beautiful, a little eerie, but an incredibly rare experience.”