Halong Bay Resort

... panning out either we looked closer to home. We plan to spend 3 weeks traveling from Hanoi in the north through to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon) in the south. We'll then head over to Phuket in Thailand and spend a week putting our feet up in a lovely resort.

... just enough time. After checking in for our tour, it was straight onto the bus headed for the UNESCO World Natural Heritage listed Halong Bay – this was one part of our trip that I was really looking forward to. The traffic leaving Hanoi was insane ...

... . Before ending our trip we got to sail around Halong bay for a bit longer and take a few more photos. I'm happy to say that Halong Bay really didn't disappoint, and I'm glad we have been there now as with the number of tourists who go there I suspect it ...

... place called Halong Bay and we're not pushed for time so we decide that we'll check it out too.  Good decision! Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site about 3 hours drive from Hanoi.  We decided to take an escorted tour there as there are ...

James and I left early on Friday morning to catch a bus to Halong Bay harbour, which took about 3.5 hours to get too. Once we got to the harbour we got onto our junk boat called the Asia Cruise. It had three floors and looked like the pirate ship out of ...

... good tour company & guide to go to Halong Bay. ODC and Bien were great. Whoever is reading this and planning on going to Halong Bay, we highly recommend going with ODC and asking for a guide called Bien. He is great. So thanks guys! What can you ...

... was a bit disorganised at that stage in that there was no obvious Handspan presence, though there were already a few travellers ready for the Halong Bay journey. Some had no ticket and some were for the one day cruise. Check-in was a bit busy when it ...

17th October Before I begin, I must say to anyone reading this who is considering travel in Vietnam, You MUST go to Halong Bay and Monkey Island Resort. Our trip was one of the best things we have done so far and great value for money. $155 per ...

... Halong Bay. Halong City is not a great introduction to Halong Bay, as it is in the middle of a huge resort development, which is a shame because Halong Bay has a prehistoric feel to it. Tourism didn't really start up until the year 2000 when they improved ...

... skanky laundry that we didn't have time to wash before we left.  Ghetto fabulous, that's how we roll. Closing thoughts on Halong Bay, group tours, and jellyfish cynics: I was wary of doing a big packagy group tour thing, as I never have before and ...

... see a local cave.  The cave was interesting and packed with other tourists, but we would have preferred to have been outside exploring Halong Bay.  After our cave tour we were brought over to a little village to get some (beat-up) kayaks so we ...

... are also several caves around of which a few are frequented by tours. In Hanoi every hotel and tour agency sells excursions to the Halong Bay area. After shopping around we found Ocean Tours to be the best for us; not only was the agent very nice and ...

... 6 cabins, a large dining area, and a top sundeck. It was probably 50 feet long or so. KELI -- Going into this Halong Bay tour, I was nervous because I get seasick just looking at a boat. But, the tour was fantastic, one of my favorite ...

... were excited that the boat was only three quarters full.  Since China, we have had a fear of overcrowding.   Halong Bay is breathtaking.  A perfect blue ocean supports enormous limestone karsts which protrude from deep beneath it.  We ...

... living on the island in a shack 24/7 to protect it from tourists and other companies.  Like many islands all over Halong Bay, it's been transformed into a recreational playground.  The inside of the island is the Dong Thien Cung (Heaven cave), ...

One of the 'must do' things when in Hanoi is to do a cruise on a ‘traditional junk’ in Halong Bay.   There are two type of trips normally promoted:  2 days/1 night, or 3 days/2 nights when an option to spend 1 night at a resort on ...

There aren't enough superlatives to describe Halong Bay - for a place that's so hyped up it lived up to our expectations. We chose a 3 day tour that involved spending 2 nights in the bay itself - one on Cat Ba island, in the middle of Halong Bay, and ...

... exactly what we would experience.  This was not the case with many of the other travelers we spoke to about their Halong Bay trips.  Horror stories of rotting boats and cut rate accomodations were common from those who booked through the ...