B NOTES OF INSPIRATION: travel

California Dreaming

Wednesday, October 14, 2015
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Vietnam Travel Tips Part 1 - Halong Bay

Last year I traveled through Vietnam for 4 weeks, it were 4 amazing weeks and I have seen so much. Before I went there I searched the internet for tips and travel advice in Vietnam, where to go, what to see, what to do and also what not to do. I will write my experiences and tips about Vietnam here in four parts. First one up: Halong Bay (the place you really want to read reviews about, trust me).

I found a lot of good travel advice about Vietnam, but still I feel that I could add a bit more to the information that is already out there. Especially when it comes to Halong Bay. A lot of people have written about it. But when I searched the internet for reviews I really couldn't decide what to do. The reviews went from: "the worst tourist trap ever to the most beautiful place in the world." I even came upon an entry about a sunken tourist boat! After a while I reached a point where I wanted to skip the entire Halong Bay trip and leave it for what it was.

BUT, I am glad I didn't and I want to share my experiences with you and I will be honest.

Halong Bay is beautiful, truly, and when you have time it is really worth it to pay a visit. But honestly it is also filled with tourists. So here I will describe how you can make a different experience for yourself and enjoy a magnificent natural wonder (with as little tourists as possible surrounding you).

I traveled with my boyfriend and we really don't like organized tours, so we tried to organize our own trip to Halong Bay. I can tell you it is almost impossible and they probably created it that way. If you know people who live there, they will probably know how to organize it. But if you don't know the place or where to go exactly, it will be quite a hassle to organize it. Our plan was to travel to Halong City ourselves and take a dayboat to Cat Ba island and stay there. The bus from Hanoi stops in Halong City, but the boats leave from an other part, so you have to organize an other ride to that part (walking will take a day). When we saw the dayboat (when we went there with a tour, yes we did :)), that boat didn't look very comfortable to be on. So I have to say, we were happy we choose a tour boat after all.

In Hanoi we stayed at an excellent hotel (Hanoi Essence Hotel) and the staff helped us organizing our tour to Halong Bay. After a lot, a lot (a lot) of research we decided to go with the Aphrodite Tour to Halong Bay. We took the mid range boat tour (price wise). And, really we were so happy that we decided to take this tour. After reading many blogs, the Lonely Planet forum and other websites, I decided that the mid range boat would be the best for us. You will pay a bit more, but you really get what you pay for. Good food, great service, friendly staff and a very nice and safe boat to stay on. As I understood from the many, many reviews that are written about the tours to Halong Bay, the cheaper boats are indeed very cheap: Bad food, crappy boats, usually not very clean rooms on the boat, etc. Also for the high priced boats it wouldn't necessarily mean: The more expensive, the better. True, I cannot tell from my own experience. But what I've read and seen you will pay a lot more for the high priced boat tours. And the thing is, price/quality wise it usually isn't much better than the mid range tours. Therefore we chose the mid range tour.

The staff on the boat was very friendly and entertaining and the food was very good. True, there is a program and it is tightly scheduled, but for a 1 night, 2 day stay, it is manageable. Even if you're not into organized tours, this one is really nice. Our boat had 20 tourists. We've met some very cool people and the group vibe was really good, which also adds to the experience of course.

We had the opportunity to kayak, swim, visit caves and visit the floating villages. All in all, we have paid 350,- EUR for this tour and that includes the transfer Hanoi-Halong Bay and back, 1 night, 2 days on the boat, all the meals, water bottles, trips to the cave and floating villages. The only thing you will need to pay extra for are your drinks.

We had a lovely and very clean room with private bathroom on the boat, good beds and very well sized for a room on a boat. The best part of this particular company is that the boat anchors in a deserted bay. So you really can enjoy the beauty and stillness of the bay. All the other boat companies are lined up next to each other in crowded bays. We woke up to a beautiful view that morning, with nobody surrounding us. Highlight of this trip: Tai Chi on the deck at 6 in the morning, trust me on this one. It is well worth it to wake up early for this one.

So there, I hope this review will help you plan your Halong Bay trip. I can highly recommend the Aphrodite Mid Range Tour, but please feel free to email with questions or put them in the comments. I am happy to answer them.