Tour Halong Bay??

Maggie Moo

Hi All,

Anyone here done the tours of Halong Bay 2/3Days sleeping a night on a "Junk" will be there in a few days and i have heard some really bad stories about them and no good 1s yet can anyone recommend one to do.

Thanks alot

Ideo

Would also be interested in hearing the answer to this. I'm hoping to do a two night tour in late August too and have read mixed reviews, an interesting and seemingly better alternative seems to be Bai Tu Long??

Glowing

We went to Hanoi with the aim of going out on a boat, and to be honest we ended up not going in the end - the amount of horror stories we heard just put us off totally! There were touts everywhere, and they'd tell utter lies to try get you to sign up. We were too exhausted at that stage to deal with any crap that might have gone wrong, so we got the train to Sapa and spend 5 nights in the mountains instead - hassle free!!

Jugs82

We went to Hanoi with the aim of going out on a boat, and to be honest we ended up not going in the end

Thats a pity as Halong Bay is beautiful, a real highlight

We shopped around a bit one morning with a few agents around the old town in Hanoi and ended up booking with a cafe called Kangaroo cafe owned and run by an Australian couple - had no complaints and had a great time

Also heard good things about Sinh Cafe and Tropical Sails - beware though, there seemed to be lots of different Sinh Cafes in Hanoi :rolleyes: Tropical Sails are more expensive but seemingly own their own boat

The kayaking is great fun too as you get to see some amazing beaches so highly recommended if its an option

Enoy the trip and dont stress about touts or having a bad time, if your not comfortable with an agent, just walk away until you find one that you like - there are lots and lots of them in Hanoi so great choice but remember, you get what you pay for so dont opt for the bargain basement deals, they're cheap for a reason

breadmonkey

We got one of those boats just out to Cat Ba island so it wasn't part of a 3 day tour or anything. However, it was a bit of a nightmare to actually get a decent price. I'd say we were haggling for about 2 hours because they wanted some ridiculous prices.

Having said that, Halong Bay is magnificent and it was well worth it!

Soss

Depending on where you stay in Hanoi, the hotel will more than likely try to sell you a tour. We stayed at The Blue Sky, and we got lucky because the staff were so nice, if I recall rightly there was a lovely vietnamese woman called Helen behind the counter. Obviously they were making a comission on the tour, but we went along with it in the end because we couldn't be bothered with trapsing around town in the heat looking for a better deal. In the end we paid about US$35 each for a two night tour, although I think a couple of girls on the same boat managed to negotiate it down to $25 by staying in a different hotel on the second night. Aside from the horrible food (and really we weren't there for the food anyway) it was an amazing trip and a highlight of our time in Vietnam.

A few tips:

Maybe you should wait 'til you get there before booking then speak to other travellers staying in your hotel about their experiences, I'm sure the'd be happy to point you in the right direction and tell you who to steer clear of.

The first night on the boat your room will more than likely have airconditioning, but the remote control is probably going to be hidden somewhere - I'd suggest looking under the bed! Maybe ask when you're booking the trip, if you're paying for aircon then you might as well use it.

Do the kayaking trip, it's well worth the sweat and small amount of extra money. Our guide was brilliant and the beaches are wicked.

NEVER GET INTO AN UNMARKED TAXI! If it doesn't have a "taxi" lightbox on the top and a meter inside then it is not a real taxi, no matter what the nice man who's driving says. Trust your instincts, if you think that someone's trying to rip you off then there's a fair chance they are.

Get to know the currency well before you even get off the plane. Instead of a comma (,) they use full stops (.) on their bank notes, so 50.000 is 50,000. Just a heads up!

Larianne

Have a look at travelfish.org for info.

Don't pay anymore than $60. The less you pay the crappier the room /food etc. But beyond $50-$60 dollars it's not really worth it.

Great trip though.

KERPAL

Would 100 percent recomend it, its quality, 4 of us had a boat with captain to ourselves, food was the best ive ever had in my life, water was freakishly blue.

Not sure of price, it was part of a package holiday but was incredible

Spider_Baby

We booked ours through our hotel last year and had no problems.
Kangaroo Cafe seems to be the safest bet though, although they fill up fast.

There is a brilliant hostel in Hanoi owned by an Aussie and his Vietnamese wife. It would be worth asking them for recommendations of where to book, or they might even offer this trip themselves now (they didnt when I was there).

mac123

breadmonkey wrote: »

We got one of those boats just out to Cat Ba island so it wasn't part of a 3 day tour or anything. However, it was a bit of a nightmare to actually get a decent price. I'd say we were haggling for about 2 hours because they wanted some ridiculous prices.

Having said that, Halong Bay is magnificent and it was well worth it!

we made our own way to cat ba aswell and then we booked a tour from there. there was only 5 ppl on the boat, and it was fairly small but the food and staff were excellent and id say it was a far better experience than the trips from hanoi. we got a ride on one of the package tour boats over to cat ba and it didnt look like much fun, everything was on a strict schedule but in the tour we took we were able to stay in certain areas for as long as we wanted and we didnt see too many of the bigger boats when we were out in the bay. it cost us $60 i think.