Ha Long Bay

Check the forecast before you book a boat. A warning stops sailings outright. From December 2025 a ticket needs ID or passport details; refund rules differ by operator. Day boats work a fixed few stops; a night or two aboard is what reaches Bai Tu Long.

A long stair from the jetty opens into two chambers one after the other. The second is high enough to pass for a hall and a lit one-way path runs through it, and the French who came in 1901 called it the cave of surprises.

It is named for Gherman Titov, the Soviet cosmonaut who came with Ho Chi Minh in 1962. Some four hundred steps climb to the lookout, on a stair narrow enough that people passing have to turn sideways. A crescent of sand below is where boats let you swim.

You pass under a low arch into an enclosed lagoon, which only works when the tide is out. No engine goes through, so it is a kayak or a bamboo boat and someone rowing, and rhesus macaques sit on the cliffs inside on some days.

Pens and plank houses tied together made a fishing village that floated on the bay. The residents were moved ashore in 2014, and a few families stay on to row visitors round. The rowing boats go between the pens, where fish and dogs live side by side.

The Cat Ba langur lives here and nowhere else; it fell to about forty in the early 2000s and every survey since has counted more. Ngu Lam is a short climb but wants hands on rock, after rain leeches find you, and crossing the island means a bike or the bus.

It belongs to Hai Phong, and for a long time Cat Ba was the only way in. Boats from Tuan Chau run here now, though hulls are still few and a small beach on island after island is why kayaks go in. The rock and the colour are the same formation.

Two-deck cabins cross the Cua Luc strait, and the upper deck takes in bay and bridge at once. The Bai Chay pylon is a landmark from anywhere in town. It does not run all day: from 2pm on weekdays, 9am at weekends, and it stops at 8pm, so time the trip.

A black glass box stands facing the water, opened in 2013. One floor is given to coal, with a mine gallery rebuilt at full size, and another has models of the three-sail boats this bay used. It fills a gap when a sailing time does not work out.

Six years off the throne, Tran Nhan Tong took vows here in 1299 and founded Truc Lam Zen, listed by UNESCO in 2025. A bronze pagoda tops the 1,068m summit, two cable stages or a stair up. Pilgrims come three months from the tenth of the first lunar month.

Northeast of Ha Long the bay carries on, same limestone islands, far fewer boats. Many overnight cruises sail from the Van Don side, spending their time on kayaks and small beaches instead of caves. Pick it to dodge the crowded Ha Long piers.

A cave found by a fisherman in 1993, its name meaning heavenly palace. Coloured lights play over the stalactites, which divides opinion. A steep stair climbs to the mouth, and Ha Long day cruises stop here often.

Two rocks face each other out of the sea, which people liken to a rooster and hen about to kiss. They are the rocks printed on the back of Vietnam's 200,000 dong note. Boats slow as they pass close, so hold up a note and take the shot together.