Three days gives you one night on the water and one night on shore, which is the combination most travelers end up wishing they had booked. Here is the trip hour by hour, with rough costs and the mistakes worth avoiding.
Three days and two nights is the version of Ha Long Bay that does not feel rushed. You get a full day and night out among the limestone islands, plus enough shore time in Bai Chay to eat properly, ride the cable car and see the bay from land. The plan below assumes you are starting in Hanoi, which nearly everyone is, and that you have booked one night on a boat and one night in a hotel.
Day 1: Hanoi to Bai Chay, cable car and seafood
Leave Hanoi in the morning. The expressway covers the roughly 165km (about 100 miles) in around 2.5 to 3 hours, and the easiest way to do it is a limousine bus: a converted van with nine to eleven wide reclining seats that picks you up near your hotel and drops you in Ha Long. Expect around 150,000-280,000d per person each way, roughly US$6-11, as an estimate. Check into a hotel in Bai Chay, the tourist strip on the shore, then spend the afternoon at Sun World, riding the Queen Cable Car across the harbor and going up the Sun Wheel for the wide view. In the evening walk the night market and have your first seafood dinner.
- Morning: limousine bus or private car from Hanoi, roughly 2.5 to 3 hours
- Afternoon: Sun World Ha Long, Queen Cable Car, Sun Wheel
- Evening: Bai Chay night market and a seafood dinner, ask the price per kilo first
- Try chả mực, the local fried squid cake, ngán, a strong-tasting mud clam, and small crabs
Day 2: the full day on the bay
This is the day the trip is built around. Overnight boats usually board around the middle of the day and sail out through the islands, stopping at Sung Sot Cave, the largest and most theatrical of the show caves, and at Ti Top Island, where a staircase climbs to a viewpoint over the water. Somewhere in the afternoon there is kayaking or a small bamboo rowboat through a low arch into a hidden lagoon, and you pass the Trong Mai islets, the two rocks leaning together that turn up on every poster of the bay. Then the day boats leave, the anchorage goes quiet and you watch the sun drop behind the karsts from the deck.
- Board around midday, lunch is usually served as the boat leaves the harbor
- Sung Sot Cave and the climb up Ti Top Island, take proper shoes for the steps
- Kayaking or a bamboo rowboat through the lagoons between the islands
- Sunset from the deck, then dinner on board and a very early night for most people
- A day boat instead of an overnight runs around 500,000-900,000d per person, roughly US$20-36, as an estimate
Day 3: sunrise, then back to shore and Hanoi
Overnight boats start early. There is usually a sunrise session on the top deck, sometimes with tai chi, then breakfast and one more stop, often a cave or a quiet cove, before docking again late morning. From there you have a choice: head straight back to Hanoi, or use the afternoon for Tuan Chau island or Quang Ninh Museum, the striking black glass building on the waterfront. Buy chả mực or dried sá sùng to take home, then take the afternoon bus and be back in Hanoi for dinner.
- Early morning: sunrise on deck, the best light of the whole trip
- Late morning: dock, then Tuan Chau or Quang Ninh Museum if you are not in a hurry
- Afternoon: bus back to Hanoi, arriving in time for dinner in the Old Quarter
What three days costs, roughly
All figures below are estimates per person and move with the season and the class of boat you pick. Vietnamese dong run to a lot of zeros; a useful shortcut is that 100,000d is roughly US$4.
- Transport both ways from Hanoi: around 300,000-560,000d, roughly US$12-22
- Two nights in a shore hotel: around 700,000-2,000,000d, roughly US$28-80
- Day boat on the bay: around 500,000-900,000d, roughly US$20-36
- Food and attraction tickets: around 800,000-1,500,000d, roughly US$32-60
- Total, shore-based version: around 2,500,000-5,000,000d, roughly US$100-200
- Swapping the day boat for an overnight cruise raises the total substantially, and rates vary widely by boat class
Put the cruise on the middle night, not the first. Travelers who fly into Hanoi and board a boat the next morning spend their one night on the bay fighting jet lag, and the sunrise they paid for happens while they are asleep.
Practical notes for this itinerary
- Book the boat and the hotel in advance in summer and around Vietnamese holidays
- Keep the bay day flexible if the forecast is unsettled, sailings stop when the harbor closes
- Pack swimwear, shoes with grip for the Ti Top steps and a light jacket for the deck at night
- Carry cash, small restaurants and market stalls often do not take foreign cards
- Ask what your cruise fare includes, drinks and some activities are usually charged separately
- For a quieter version of the same landscape, look at a boat operating in Lan Ha Bay or Bai Tu Long instead