Ha Long Bay on $35 a Day: How to Skip the Cruise Ship and See the Karsts Anyway

The first thing every backpacker hears in Hanoi is the same sentence from a dozen different tour operators: Ha Long Bay, two days, one night, $180. The second thing they hear, if they walk into the wrong hostel, is an upsell to the "deluxe" package for $280. Neither price includes the beer you will need after discovering your "ocean-view" cabin has a porthole the size of a saucer and a bathroom that smells like the engine room.

I have been to Ha Long Bay seven times. The first was on one of those cruises. It was fine. The other six were better, cheaper, and gave me more time on the water than any overnight boat. The trick is simple: do not book a cruise in Hanoi. Go to Cat Ba Island, stay in a $7 hostel, and build your own trip from there.

Getting There Without the Markup

The bus-and-boat combo from Hanoi to Cat Ba Island takes four hours and costs between $10 and $20, depending on whether you book through your hostel or walk into a travel agent on Ma May Street and negotiate. Most hostels in Hanoi's Old Quarter sell tickets through operators like Cat Ba Express or Good Morning Cat Ba. The price includes the bus to Hai Phong, the ferry across to Cai Vieng, and a shuttle into Cat Ba town. If you buy the same service online from a cruise company, they charge $40 to $60 and call it a "transfer package."

The ferry from Dong Bai Terminal to Cai Vieng runs every thirty minutes from 5:30 AM to 6:30 PM in low season, and until 7:30 PM from May through September. The ticket costs 10,000 to 12,000 VND, about forty cents. The crossing takes twenty-five minutes. From Cai Vieng, a local bus or shared taxi into Cat Ba town costs another 30,000 VND. You can also rent a motorbike at the ferry terminal for 100,000 to 150,000 VND per day and ride the cross-island road yourself. It is forty minutes of curves through jungle and the occasional water buffalo.

If you are coming from Ha Long City instead of Hanoi, the Tuan Chau to Gia Luan ferry is the direct route. It runs three times a day in winter and five in summer. The ticket is 60,000 to 80,000 VND, roughly $2.50 to $3.30, and the crossing takes forty-five minutes through the karsts. The speedboat alternative costs 170,000 to 250,000 VND and saves twenty minutes. Spend the extra money on dinner instead.

Where to Sleep

Cat Ba town is a strip of hotels and hostels along the waterfront. The quality varies, but the prices do not. A dorm bed in a place like Catba Central Hostel or Luna's House Hostel costs $3 to $5 per night. A private room in a mid-range hotel runs $7 to $15. For $25 you get a room with a balcony facing the harbor and the fishing boats that leave at dawn.

Do not book more than two nights in advance unless you are arriving on a Vietnamese public holiday. The town has enough beds that you can walk in, inspect the room, and negotiate. Check that the air conditioning works and the hot water is actually hot. Cold showers feel better than they sound after a day of kayaking, but only for the first thirty seconds.

Food: Where the Locals Eat

The seafood restaurants along Cat Ba's main strip are built for tour groups. The menus have photographs and prices in dollars. The crab costs more than it should. Walk one street back from the waterfront and you will find the places where the ferry workers eat lunch.

A bowl of pho at a local spot costs 30,000 to 50,000 VND, about $1.20 to $2.00. A banh mi from a street cart is 25,000 VND. Com binh dan, the rice-and-curry canteens, serve a plate with rice, two dishes, and soup for 35,000 to 45,000 VND. For dinner, look for the grilled squid and clams at the small places on Ngu Lam Street. A seafood dinner for two with squid, clams, rice, and vegetables costs 150,000 to 200,000 VND, about $6 to $8. The squid was swimming that morning. The beer is 20,000 VND, about eighty cents.

Seeing the Bay Without the Cruise

The $16 day tour from Cat Ba is the best value in northern Vietnam. It includes a boat into Lan Ha Bay, kayaking through the karsts, swimming at a beach, and lunch. The boats are basic, the lunch is rice and fried fish, and you will share the trip with a mix of backpackers and Vietnamese families. The same itinerary booked from Hanoi as part of a cruise package costs $120 to $200.

Lan Ha Bay is technically separate from Ha Long Bay, but the limestone karsts, the emerald water, and the floating villages are the same. The difference is the number of boats. In Ha Long Bay proper, the cruise ships anchor side by side at every stop. In Lan Ha Bay, you can paddle a kayak through an archipelago and see no one for twenty minutes.

If you want to kayak on your own, rent one from the operators on Cat Co 3 beach for 100,000 to 150,000 VND per hour. Paddle south along the coast and around the small islands. The water is calm in the mornings and choppy by mid-afternoon when the wind picks up. Go early.

Cat Ba National Park is the other reason to stay on the island. The trek to Ngu Lam Peak takes about forty-five minutes on a stone path through thick forest. The view from the top looks out over the archipelago, the fishing boats, and the karsts fading into the haze. The park entrance fee is 40,000 VND, under $2. There is a longer trek to the park's interior that takes four to five hours and requires a guide or a good map. Most hostels sell a national park tour for $15 to $20 including transport and lunch.

Cannon Fort, on the hill above Cat Ba town, is a twenty-minute walk or a five-minute scooter ride. The entrance fee is 40,000 VND. The fort was built by the Japanese, used by the French, and then occupied by the Viet Cong who installed anti-aircraft guns. The tunnels and bunkers are still there. The view is better than the history.

The three Cat Co beaches are a ten-minute walk from town along a coastal path. Cat Co 1 is the biggest and busiest. Cat Co 2 is smaller and cleaner. Cat Co 3 has a beach bar and attracts the hostel crowd. All three are free. The water is warm from May through October and cold enough to shorten your swim the rest of the year.

What to Skip

Skip the overnight cruises. The rooms are cramped, the food is mediocre, and you spend most of the trip anchored in the same crowded bays as every other boat. The idea of sleeping on the water is romantic until you realize the air conditioning shuts off at midnight and the generator is three feet from your headboard.

Skip the "luxury" day tours from Hanoi that promise a "private" boat and a "gourmet" lunch. The boat is private because they charge four times the market rate. The lunch is the same fried fish everyone else gets.

Skip the floating village visits unless you have a genuine interest in aquaculture. Most are staged for tourists and involve a hard sell on pearl jewelry.

A Realistic Budget

Here is what a day on Cat Ba costs if you are doing it properly:

Hostel dorm bed: $4 Two meals at local restaurants: $4 Day tour into Lan Ha Bay: $16 Beer or two: $2 Scooter rental (split two ways): $3

That is $29. Add the national park entrance fee and a coffee and you are still under $35. The bus from Hanoi was $15 each way. For a three-day trip, you are looking at under $120 total, including transport. The cheapest two-day cruise from Hanoi starts at $160 and does not include the bus back.

The Honest Truth

Ha Long Bay is beautiful. The karsts rising from the water at dawn, the fishing boats with their lanterns at dusk, the silence inside a sea cave when you cut the kayak paddle and just drift. None of that requires a $200 cabin or a buffet lunch.

The bay has been a UNESCO site since 1994 and a tourist destination long before that. The cruise industry has built an entire economy around convincing travelers that the only way to see it is from the deck of a wooden junk ship with a sunset cocktail in hand. It is not true. The best views I have had of Ha Long Bay were from the ferry deck, crossing from Tuan Chau to Gia Luan on a clear morning, with a cup of instant coffee that cost nothing and a motorbike I had rented for the day.

Go to Cat Ba. Stay in a hostel. Eat squid from the morning catch. Paddle a kayak until your shoulders hurt. The bay does not care what you paid to see it.