Halong Bay is a beautiful natural wonder in northern Vietnam near the Chinese border. The Bay is dotted with 1,600 limestone islands and islets and covers an area of over 1,500 sqkm. This extraordinary area was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. For many tourists, this place is like something right out of a movie. The fact is that Halong Bay features a wide range of biodiversity, while the surrealistic scenery has indeed featured in endless movies.
The best time for a Halong Bay tour is in spring and autumn, to be more specific, in March, April, September, and October. In these months, the weather is often delightful, the temperature is mild, the sky is clear and bright, and the activity level is high.
How to get to Halong Bay?
About 156km away from Hanoi capital with 3 – 4 hours go by car
About 60km away from Van Don International airport with 1-1.5 hours with free shuttle bus
What to do in Halong Bay?
Explore the city.
Ha Long City is not where the fun is at; however, you are in the area, so you might as well explore it. Bai Chay market is a fun option that sells everything from fresh produce to cheap clothing. There are also various restaurants worth eating at, such as Tuan Huong and Linh Dan Restaurant. Both local restaurants serve the most authentic dishes. The world’s biggest aerial tramway also opened here in 2016, with cars that can carry up to a staggering 230 people at a time. The cars run between Bai Chay district and Ba Deo Hill, which has a large observation wheel that gives visitors a nice first view of the bay.
Visit the beach.
Sunbathing on the sand with the beautiful view of the bay in front of you is an absolute must when you are in Ha Long Bay. Some notable beaches include Tuan Chau, Tiptop, Ba Trai Dao, Ngoc Vung, and Soi Sim. The beaches are found in their respective islands, scattered around the bay. Since you cannot visit most of these on your own, you will have to find either a one-day or multi-day tour that includes beach time and other activities such as kayaking, scuba diving, and visiting caves and floating villages.
Visit Lan Ha Bay or Bai Tu Long Bay.
Lan Ha Bay is located in the southwest, and Bai Tu Long Bay is in the northeast, yet they both have similar geological, geographical and cultural characteristics. Small and popular tourist cruises will only take you around the well-known parts of Ha Long Bay, but if you want to check these locations out, you need to look into big cruise operators such as Indochina Junk and Bhaya.
Discover grottoes.
Vietnam’s Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park is known for hiding the world’s largest cave, Hang Son Doong Cave, among many other majestic cave systems, such as Hang En—the world’s third largest cave—and Paradise Cave. However, Phong Nha isn’t the only location in Vietnam that has caves. Hidden in the thousands of jungle-covered peaks of Ha Long Bay are picturesque grottoes and caves of all shapes and sizes. Check out Thien Cung Cave (Heavenly Palace Cave) and Dau Go Cave, which are easily accessed from Tuan Chau Port. Plenty of boats and cruises anchor here, offering cave visits.
Tour the floating villages.
It’s exciting to take a two- or three-day-long cruise on the water, travelling from one place to another, but imagine living on a little house built on a boat. Someone who lives on a floating village cooks, washes, hangs out with friends, and even learns or works in this environment. Visiting these villages is a fascinating and humbling experience. Take your time visiting one or more of the four main floating villages in Ha Long Bay: Cua Van, Vung Vieng, Cong Dam and Ba Hang.
Take an excursion to Cat Ba Island.
The Cat Ba Archipelago, with 367 islands, makes up most of the south of the bay. Within these islands, you’ll find Cat Ba island, the biggest of all, which has some impressive natural beauty. It’s also home to the Cat Ba National Park, which is perfect for trekking and climbing. The island is best explored by bicycle or foot, and if you want to partake in the more adventurous activities, reach out to Asia Outdoors, the only company that is legally allowed to provide adventure packages on the island—and more!
Cat Ba Island is also popular for its party scene, and many backpacker tours include overnight packages. Check out Central Backpackers to see what they offer.
Kayak and scuba dive.
With clean blue water and calm tides, Ha Long Bay is ideal for paddling around from one limestone outcrop to the other, and sometimes even through caves. The most common areas for kayaking are part of 3 Peaches islets, Dark and Light Cave. You’ll find that most tour packages offer kayaking as part of their price.
The scenes underwater are just as beautiful as what you get above. Scuba diving and snorkeling are recent additions to the activities you can do in Ha Long Bay, and you can check out DNQ Travel for more information about the packages they offer.
View Ha Long Bay from a seaplane.
Despite being rather costly, jumping on a seaplane and flying over Ha Long Bay is one of the most thrilling and scenic activities you can do. The plane departs from Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, so you won’t get stuck in traffic on your way to Ha Long Bay. You will be rewarded with a beautiful birds-eye view of the bay and of all the peaks in their entirety, rather than of one peak after the other, like at sea level. Hai Au Aviation provides this service.
Shopping and price in Halong
Shopping is an essential part for any tourists. From shopping, you can learn more about local culture and society, as well as bring home some nice souvenirs for your friends and family.
Ha Long Market
Ha Long market, located on Bach Dang Street, in the Ha Long city center, is the largest market in Quang Ninh province. Built in 2003, Ha Long market has become a popular shopping place for locals and tourists alike. There are a variety of goods sold here.
First floor: pearl, jewelry, embroidered paintings, mother-of-pearl mosaic paintings and electronics. Second floor: footwear, clothing, seafood and marine products. Food and drinks are also sold in small restaurants in the market.
Ha Long market opens every day from 6.00 a.m and 6.30 p.m. The market is often crowded on the weekend.
Ha Long Night Market
Night market is near Bai Chay Beach, open every day from 6.00 pm until late night. The market is a group of more than a hundred stalls which sell diverse types of products, such as handicrafts, handmade accessories, clothes, and other dispensable items such as swimwear, lotion, or hat. Tourists tend to come to this place for purchasing unique products of the beach city like necklaces made from seashells, snails, wooden small boats, or T-shirt with images of Ha Long Bay. Price range is higher than other markets in the city.
Bai Chay Commercial Center
Located on Vuon Dao Street in Bai Chay Beach area. Bai Chay Commercial Center is one of the largest and most modern shopping center in Halong City. Products here are diverse from regular to deluxe goods.
Like Ha Long Market, Bai Chay Commercial Center opens every day from 6.00 a.m and 6.30 p.m
Besides that, there are many shop opened daily along the Bai Chay Road with various type of special high-quality products such as Halong Pearl shop, crocodile leather shop, wooden souvenir shop, coal souvenir shop...
In general, shopping price in Halong is not too expensive for famous destination. You can buy clothes, souvenirs with just a little bit expensive more than other local places in Vietnam. Eating at Halong restaurants is also quite affordable price. However, like many other destinations, you also need to ask about the price before deciding to buy or rent something.
Must to try¨ food
One of the memorable experiences is enjoy the local food. Halong is famous for variety cuisines with seafood that tourist not to be missed when travelling here.
Squid Sausages
Firstly, we cannot fail to mention Squid Sausages. This famous specialty is processed with fresh squid. What made special flavor to fried squid is the hands pounding technique, instead of grinding as many other places. After tasting spices, the patties are fried on a pan with boiling oil. It makes the squid sausage more crunchy and charming. Despite the relatively high price, 300.000 – 450.000 VND per kg, but tourists are still looking to buy in the market when they come here.
Ngán
You also should to try ¨Ngán¨. You will be surprised with its name that means ¨boring¨ in Vietnamese. However it is considered as the most delicious dish in Halong. ¨Ngán¨ is a mollusk with bivalve like clams, it can be processed in various ways: grilled, steamed, cooked soup, fried with noodles or vegetables. ¨Ngán¨ can also be used to make wine. The wine which is processed by ¨Ngán¨ has its own scent from the sea. If you would like to buy fresh ¨Ngán¨ or wine, you can go to Cai Ram market, Vuon Dao market.
Sá Sùng
It is very strange when you are heard about Sa Sung – a kind of sea worn. It lives deeply in the sand and only in Quan Lan island (Quang Ninh Province). So this is a quite expensive dish in Halong Bay. Fresh ¨Sa Sung¨ can be stir-fried with garlic or dried, grilled, roasted to eat with drinking alcohol. In addition, it is also used to make spices for noodle soup.
Snail
Another famous seafood dish in Halong is Snail. Halong has a variety of snail so that if you hear about it, you have to ask to repeat or need a pen and paper to record because it is hard for you to remember: hương snail (Flavor), đĩa snail (plate), vặn snail (twisted), Gai snail (prickle), ... Served with snail is the special sauces to make that dish more tasty.
Tu Hài
It is a pity when you travel to Halong without enjoying Tu Hai. If you have once enjoyed, surely that you will not forget the typical taste of this seafood. Tu Hai can be steamed, make salad, cooked soup, grilled….. The appetizer with steamed Tu Hai has cool and sweet taste and it can be said that this is the most delicious, nutritious dish.
It can be said that Halong is the place where nourish variety type of rare and precious seafood. When choosing Halong is the destination for your wonderful trip, so why not to enjoy many special seafood that has bestowed for Halong by the nature.
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