Ha Long Travel Forum

Hi,
My wife and I are planning a visit to Vietnam end February/March 2008. With all the junks plying their trade on Halong Bay, I was wondering if members could post their personal experiences of the following options:
Emeraude, Huong Hai, Bai Tho, Halong Dream, Lagoon Explorer, Bien Ngoc, Halong Ginger, Jewel of the Bay, Bhaya, Annam, Santa Maria and Dragon Pearl (which may still be unavailable at that time).
I have done research (including these forums) and have already compiled a list of features and recommendations. However, I would appreciate any first-hand comments (both good and bad) on the above selection.
Thanks so much.

My opnion:
- Halong Ginger: best in services & most expensive in price (still, you get what you paid for).
- Bhaya: good price with surprising good services , new junk, just started this summer. The only complain is their shuttle bus price is higher than the others, and the cruise is a little but shorter than other junk. Check out time at 10.30.
- Emeraude: if you prefer to be on big ship, then it's your choice..i still think Chinese style junks are nicer. Cruise is short, check out at 10.30 and they dont cruise far out of the bay.
- Huong Hai: some of their new boats are cool. But remember, new boats.
- Bai Tho , Hai Long Dream, Annam, Santa Maria, Bien Ngoc: very much reasonable price with OK service. Cant ask for more if you pay at this amount in standard of services.
- Tropicals-sails: Dragon Pearl and Lagoon Explorer: cool experiences, good prices.

All depends on your budget to choose, though i think you can stay cheap in cities but should pay a little bit more for nicer services rather than choosing bad one and had bad experience.

Hope this help,

Hien

Hi! I was in Halong BAY before. I took a day trip there. It was arraged by my hotel in HANOI. I paid USD$27 for 10 hours.(Included food, kayak, ferry). It was cool. I even had a chance to "kayak" in HALONG BAY. It was splendid.
I met people that experienced boat house in HalonG bay, mostly people enjoyed it. Have fun!

Hi! I was in Halong BAY before. I took a day trip there. It was arraged by my hotel in HANOI. I paid USD$27 for 10 hours.(Included food, kayak, ferry). It was cool. I even had a chance to "kayak" in HALONG BAY. It was splendid.
I met people that experienced boat house in HalonG bay, mostly people enjoyed it. Have fun!

Hi Johan

I am planning on going to Ha Long Bay in mid April 08 and was just wondering what Junk did you end up going with? I have also read if its raining in the region none of the operators will proceed with the tour. is this correct?

Thanks in advance

Sorry, reply is a bit late, but my answer may assist other members: we ended up going with the Bhaya. One of the more expensive options, but going luxury on Halong Bay was really worth it! Having sundowners during happy hour on deck with the magnificent scenery all around is something dreams are made of.
Lots of little side tours during the day, night fishing for squid, on-board cooking demonstrations, attentive staff all makes for a wonderful experience.

Glad you enjoyed Bhaya, I heard a lot of good comments about it too. Will try it some days soon!!

I never got on the Santa Maria cruise but if it's useful i can tell you about our experience with Columbus. Me and my fiance got atrocious service, fed with a bunch of lies, and got bumped off the boat on our honeymoon. All this before we even got on the boat.

We booked the santa maria for a 2d1n trip on 8 aug, paid the deposit and confirmed the same with Columbus directly at their Hang Bac office in Hanoi. At that time, only 2 of the other rooms were booked on the boat.

On the morning of 8 aug, we waited until 845 am for the pickup which never came. When we called up the office, Ms Pham told us that the cruise had been cancelled due to the typhoon (this turned out to be a lie). When asked why they couldn't even bother to give us a call to inform us about this, they couldn't reply.

Because of this, we had to cancel our Sapa tour and forfeited 100 usd. We also had to book another cruise to Halong and extra hotel nights in Hanoi to fit our schedule.

Now here comes the clincher.

When we asked at ocean tours (also along Hang Bac) if our friend who had booked a cruise with them on 8 aug managed to leave for the cruise, they looked puzzled and said the all clear was given for the cruises on 8 aug and my friend was well on her way to Halong bay. Went back to Columbus to ask about what the heck happened, were they being cautious or their boat just happened to be more flimsy than the rest, they couldn't answer, and just kept insisting that the cruise was cancelled.

Met my friend today who confirmed that the weather was good on Halong bay, and that the Santa Maria was sailing on 8 aug.

1. A deposit and confirmation means nothing to Columbus. They were perfectly remorseless bumping a honeymooning couple off the boat, I can only guess because a bigger dollar bill walked by.

2. They had the nerve not to inform us about it. If they had only called us earlier in the morning of 8 aug about bumping us off, we might have been able to get onto another cruise that day and would probably have had a better time. By the time we found out about the deed at 9 am, it was too late to get onto another cruise on the same day. With the 100 usd we forfeited in sapa, we could have gotten a luxury cruise.

So yes thank you Columbus for ruining our honeymoon. For all travellers reading this review, if you value confirmations, good luck with Columbus and their complete lack of respect for people's time. May you not be as unlucky as us.

P.s. Should you require further details, please feel free to pm me, we have email correspondences that we can provide.

That's a very sad story... Thanks for sharing it with us and highlighting the atrocious service. Consumer opinion is a powerful way of dissuading unethical behaviour. Just a note, it will be good to see you start building your home and other pages, just so there's no doubt as to your bona fides.
We were very happy with the service we received from Tonkin Travel.

Sorry to know about that !!! People seems to not understand when they are advised how the operators in the old quarter working, but this is the fact. And thanks for letting people know and avoid the next time.
Hien