How To Travel To Ha Long Bay
From Hanoi
Independently
You can take a minibus from Gia Lam bus terminal in Hanoi. The trip, which costs 90,000 dong and takes around four hours, will pick up people along the way. In the summer, the air conditioning is inadequate, so be prepared to perspire. It is not a pleasant voyage for larger tourists, but it is a real Vietnamese experience.
You can also rent a car from Noi Bai Airport or the city center of Hanoi to Halong Bay. There are numerous suppliers.
As a mass tourist bound for Cat Ba Island
The overwhelming majority of tourists go on tours. This involves taking a shuttle bus from their hotel or an agent in central Hanoi to a mafia-controlled port in Halong that mostly transports passengers to Cat Ba Island. This provides the fewest options, but is a convenient solution for travellers with limited time. If you choose this option, there is a wide range of quality: while comfortable (or even luxurious) boats, excellent food, and knowledgeable and enthusiastic guides may be available, the vast majority are characterized by long and crowded bus journeys, rip-off trips on boats so slow you could swim faster (to get you to buy more food and drink on board), and hard-sell add-ons such as brief stops for kayaking, water cave visits, and other shady practices. If you must travel to Cat Ba, you can completely avoid the tourist port by crossing from Haiphong.
Internationally
- From Nanning in China’s Guangxi province, the Nanning International Tourist Distribution Center (有爱南路10号(中华路口); Yǒuàinánlù shí hào (zhōnghuá lùkǒu); #10 You’ai Nanlu on the corner of Zhonghua Lu) provides daily buses to Halong City (170元, 8 hours) at 07:30.
- You can cross the border at Mong Cai and then take a taxi to Halong Bai from there. Check the Mong Cai border crossing operating pages.
