Welcome Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha Bay is located in the east of Cat Ba Island. It’s overlooking the Van Gate, adjacent to Ha Long Bay. with over 7,000ha, of which 5,400ha is the management area of ​​Cat Ba National Park. This is a very gulf-shaped bay about 400 large islands creating a huge picture depicting the scene.

Situated in the south of Halong Bay, Lan Ha Bay would have been so popular if it is not located adjacent to the “tourist giant” neighbor. This arc-shape bay possesses about a hundred large and small islands, creating majestic and fairy landscapes.

The administrative boundary defines that Lan Ha Bay is a territory of Hai Phong province while Halong Bay belongs to Quang Ninh province but with similar landscape formed from islands and islets scattered all over the water surface, locals and tourists mutually acknowledge it as a part of the vast Halong Bay zone.

Hiding in the peaceful gulf, separated from the rest of the world, many small fishing villages show a relaxed pace of life raising their regional specialties such as mussels and oysters. They will be, eventually, turned into fresh, savory, nutritious meals or pearl souvenirs for the guests. The calm and clear waters in some islands such as Sen Island, Cu Island, Khi Island (Monkey Island) offer favorable conditions for diving and coral-sightseeing; you won’t be able to do this in the core Halong Bay because the quality of water here is better.

Lan Ha Bay is the home of Cat Ba Island. The bay itself and Cat Ba National Park are included in the biosphere reserve of the world. Therefore, European travelers and American backpackers often hire their own boats for a self adventure, selecting from the bay’s 139 beaches for one pleasant sandy beach to camp overnight. They also enjoy a trip through the Cat Ba National Forest, home of many precious animals, including rare white-headed langur. Overcoming Ngu Lam peak, at the end of the journey, Viet Hai fishing village, the most unspoiled fishing village of Cat Ba Island, is where the visitors can discover many interesting characters of the local people of the island.

You should know before your trip to Lan Ha Bay

Best time to visit Lan Ha Bay
The best time to go to Lan Ha Bay is summer, the weather is always sunny, suitable for both bathing and boating on the bay. If you want to combine to travel Cat Ba can also go in the autumn of the North, but sometimes there are still storms and the weather is not very sunny for the beach.
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Why Lan Ha Bay is unique?
Other than Ha Long Bay, all 400 big and small islands in Lan Ha Bay are covered with trees or vegetation, even small islands. A peaceful sea with small fishing villages as separate from the rest of the world. Under the peaceful island clusters. There are many species of local specialties. Such as. Blue mussel, snakehead, crab, abalone, grouper. fish, fresh shrimp live according to the daily needs of visitors.

Is a good idea to go to Lan Ha Bay?
Absolutely Yes. The density of limestone islands here is quite thick and still very primitive. It’s divided sea surface into small, bays. Lots of lagoon and caves have not yet been discovered. There are hundreds of islands with many shapes depending on the imagination of tourists such as Guo island (like a clog). Doi cave (like bats)… The stalactite caves, the characteristic features of the Ha Long populations are also present in Lan Ha, which is Ham Rong, Dau Ca, Ca cave…

Different from Ha Long Bay. Lan Ha Bay has 139 small golden sand beaches, lovely and desolate as the “blue water” invite visitors to explore. Many sandy beaches stretch between two rocky mountains, quiet with no big waves. It’s really the ideal beach lover. In the blue water is the colorful coral reefs such as Van Boi Beach, Van Ha… The calm sea as the island, island Cu, Monkey Island… where visitors can dive into the coral.

Cruise Lan Ha Bay, tourists can go through the ravine excursions in the bay, visit the caves, resting on the beach in the middle of the sea. Such as Tung Gau cave, Cat Dua beach. Cat Dua beach now also called monkeys island. There is a resort for overnight on the island. Especially, visitors can visit the growing pearl farms in this beautiful bay.

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You are looking for a cruise trip for 1 day or 2 days 1 night to enjoy some good activities during the trip and stay overnight on cruise. Please review on this website: http://www.halongbooking.net/

Top 10 The Best Cruises In Lan Ha Bay

1, Stellar of The Sea
2, Heritage Cruises
3, Letheatre Cruises
4, Mon Cheri Cruises
5, La Regina Legend Cruises 5*
6, Serenity Cruises
7, Scarlet Pearl Cruise
8, Era Cruises In Lan Ha Bay
9, Orchid Cruises Halong
10, Dora Cruises

Getting from Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha Bay is about 134 kilometers from Hanoi but costs you only ~2 hours thanks to the new Hanoi – Hai Phong Expressway.

Route: Hanoi – Hai Phong (by land transport) – Cat Ba island (by speedboat or ferry) – Lan Ha Bay. Unlike Halong bay where you can visit right from Halong City, in order to visit Lan Ha Bay you need to go to Cat Ba island by speedboat or ferry. Cat Ba is the access point, from there you can continue your Lan Ha Bay trip.

The transportation to Lan Ha is not much varied. The most popular and easiest way is to take a bus from Hanoi (it is easily booked with some transport companies:

Route:

Hoang Long (~225.000vnd/way)
Cat Ba Express (340.000vnd)
Inter Bus Lines (150.000vnd)
Local tour operators) to Dinh Vu port. Then get on a speedboat (hydrofoil) to Cai Vieng port on Cat Ba Island (~30 minutes).
If you find this route too complicated and looking for something easier to visit Lan Ha Bay, you can book a Lan Ha Bay package tour. In the past, for a long time, Lan Ha Bay is only accessible for a day cruise from the port in Cat Ba island, you could only visit the bay through the above route then rent a small boat to go around the bay. This option is no longer an ideal choice now because it points out some disadvantages that you cannot explore the farther area of the bay on a small boat. In addition, the boat has low quality which is unable to ensure your safety. You also have to pay more fee for renting a boat, entrance fee to the bay.

Therefore, there is another option that is visiting Lan Ha Bay on an overnight cruise. Most overnight cruises in Lan Ha Bay are luxury boats with comfortable facilities. Among them, Perla Dawn Sails offer a luxurious service on a 5* boat in Lan Ha Bay, unique cruise routes to the farthest points of the bay. Instead of getting on a crowded bus, Perla Dawn Sails provide guests a Limousine Dcar with transferring time from Hanoi to Cat Hai port is about 1.5 hours. Shorter traveling time in comparison with a 4-hour transfer of the normal Hanoi-Halong route will reduce the tiredness for the guests.

What should we expect about Lan Ha Bay

PROs:
Lan Ha Bay is at the southern part of Halong Bay, far away from the boat crash in the north then coming to Lan Ha Bay, you will have chance to get closer to local fishing life, and are less likely to see as many tour boats and ships passing, never need to worry about the crowd.

Unlike its famous twin, Lan Ha Bay reserves a more pristine scenery with an intense concentration of limestone mountains which the sea surface has partitioned into smaller bays and gulfs. Many lagoons, bays, and caves still remain untouched.

The bay has up to 139 golden sandy beaches, small but pretty and isolated as “blue straits” inviting tourists to explore. Many sandy beaches stretching between two rocky mountains, quiet with no big waves, are really the ideal beaches.

Lan Ha is a peaceful sea with small fishing villages existing isolated from the rest of the world. There are wooden floats raising different species such as the green mussel, geoduck, cobia, crab, abalone, grouper, which can serve visitors according to their needs. By small boat, visitors can glide through the ravine, lagoons to visit the caves, resting on the beach.

Unlike Halong, the Lan Ha Bay itinerary is quite flexible, which means you can do any water activities that you can imagine, jumping down from the boat, going fishing with local, doing kayaking to anywhere you desire to explore, diving or surfing or even rafting. Your passion for water is only limited by your own imagination.

Tour price for the package and even backpacker travel is lower than in Halong since the fee in Lan Ha Bay is lower than in Halong.

CONs:
This is actually not a real CON: The number of islands in Lan Ha Bay is less than that in Halong Bay, you don’t see “thousands of limestone islands” but about 400 small and large islands. Dissimilar to Halong, all islands in Lan Ha Bay are covered with green trees or vegetation, even if it is a little island like a peninsula.

You can see that what is considered to be the negative point of one bay turns out to be the positive point of the other one and vice versa. From that, you can look back to your desire, what do you need from a Bay cruise: a beautiful scenery but full of other tourists or a peaceful atmosphere with quiet alone space? A trip to explore hidden untouched corners to be the very first step in or visiting places that are already famous to the world? It is not hard to choose, right? Consider carefully and you will have your best experience ever.

One more, not least: March – June, and October – November is the best time to visit Halong and Lan Ha Bay when the sun mostly shines. In December and January, it’s regularly cloudy or rainy and some days may get extreme cold, while in February even drizzly and foggy. From July to September, the temperature reaches its highest point, the weather might be very uncomfortable. Moreover, this is the high season of domestic tourism, so just expect locals around you.