Ha Long Travel Forum

Does anyone know why the Kayaking Trips to Ha Long Bay are so much more expensive than other Ha Long Bay Tours? The prices I got quoted are $249 / person for a private tour (we are two people), and $152 / person for joining a group tour.

Please see my itinerary below:

At 08.30, you will start your 2 day trip to Halong bay by 3 and half hour drive through the rich farm land of the Red River Delta. Upon arrival in Halong, we board on the traditional junk. Enjoy a fresh seafood lunch and feast your eyes on one of Southeast Asia’s premier tourist destinations as we head for the first kayaking point. When we arrive, the guides will teach you basic kayaking techniques and rescue procedures. Take your kayak where few tourists have ever gone before, paddling through fishermen floating village, islands, hidden beaches, giant cave and arrive on small sandy beach. Time for swimming. Dinner and overnight on the boat. If conditions are favorable, slip out under the stars for a moonlight paddle.
(-,L,D)

You will rise up early to wait for the sunrise after a good sleep. After breakfast, you will have 2 hour paddling to explore the hidden lagoons and secret lake before getting on the junk again and may be for the last swim. You will have lunch on board then disembark for the drive back to Hanoi. You will arrive in Hanoi at 16.00. (B,L,-)

Hi Annie,

Kayak are imported. So it's easy to understand why they are so expensive to rent.

supply and demand.

kayaks are cheap

$249 does sound a little pricey but the bulk of your $ will go to the professional training for kayaking ( i see they mention rescue techniques) and you'll probably sit on a real kayak as opposed to the silly sit-on-tops or inflatables that most tourists over there do. You need traiing for a real kayak as it's more unstable compared to the inflatables and more diff to escape if the kayak goes under the water . The cost might also include insurance.

Honestly, if you're into fun and relaxation and are not too serious a sports person, you might want to consider signing up for a cheaper package and have fun on an inflatable. I paid something like $56 for a 3d2n package and had fun( you can see my halong page if you like ) I didn't see any point signing up for a kayaking training package as I was trained before.

Cheers
bpacker

Hi...

We spent 3 days 2 nights in Halong on a beautiful boat and then at a beach base camp - did kayaking on the second day (on proper kayaks) and it cost us 119$ - an amazing trip - we booked through Handspan - highly recommended

we went on the three day/two night kayaking trip on Dragon Pearl boat and paid $205 each (two people). It is a lot more, you can do one kayaking trip for less, as someone else has replied, but we wanted more kyaking so paid the extra. I think its so much more because not many people do it. We had a guide just for the two of us (guy called Duc, was a very good guide) and a large boat was needed to take just us to the place where we kayaked. It was really nice, completely on our own kayaking around people's boat houses as described. No other tourists at all while we were there.

oh, and there was no training for the kayaking beyond the basics (its not very hard!) and the keyaks were proper solid ones, not the inflatable cave ones