Ha Long Travel Forum

hi, we are going to cat ba/halong bay in may. Normally, I like to go to this type of place for about a week, to chill and not have to rush to see everything. I'm wondering whether its worth spending this long in the area? Does cat ba have nice beaches/bars? Is it worth going round Halong Bay a couple of times? Is there snorkelling/kayaking/trips? thanks for any help

In May, weather is very nice, sunshine and not rainning like weather rite now. Halong bay is very wonderful place for summer vacation. Yes you could do boat tour, see caves, swimming, do kayaking, canoeing. Im just not sure about snorkelling in Halong bay, just know you could go that in Nha Trang. Cat Ba is nice island too with national park, there are so many kinds of animal to see in the Cat ba N park if you are natual lovers. I think 5 days to 1 week is enough. Last time I was there, not so many bar or club either discotheque. But you could split sometimes to go to Tuan Chau island, just near there. It's nice place also:)

Enjoy yourself.

Is it worth going round Halong Bay a couple of times?
Yes, it is.

thanks for the info, 5 days to a week sounds ideal for us

We did a three day tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island - and while Halong Bay is quite spectacular, we found that three days was plenty. There's an interesting (short) hiking trip you can do to remote a village on Cat Ba and there's lots of wildlife to be seen - but not much night life. There was a Disco, but it wasn't open the two nights we were there and the hotel bars closed quite early.

There's lots to see in the rest of Vietnam - so if you are pressed for time on your trip three days would be enough.

On the other hand if you have heaps of time and you want to laze about in a beautiful area for a few days you could find worse places!

Yup, that's the right spirit, a lot of folks go on a 2d1n package to Halong Bay and that's just like scratching the surface. I did spend some time in the places you mentioned and went trekking in catba national park and kayaking in halong bay. Not too sure about snorkelling though, the visibility there seems quite bad because of excess plankton but I suppose you can give it a shot. As for Catba, I think it's a sleazy little island full of karaoke bars and hotels . Beaches there are only so-so . The whole place is a tourist trap.
If you're keen to see pictures of this place, pop by my halong pages.

Cheers
bpacker