Luxury Life Afloat in Halong Bay

As I mentioned in my earlier post, aside from the Ha Giang Loop motorbike adventure our whole Vietnam trip was planned via Google and Chatgpt brainstorming! Which was how we ended up on a Halong Bay cruise. This was a 2 day, 1 night cruise and in my 48 years I had never been on a cruise. So this was quite special.

I had browsed boats on the website Halong Bay Tours and eventually selected the Calista cruise. I'd mainly chosen it as it was big, had a little soft play in it and I thought she might have a chance of meeting other kids. I was wrong, as we were all adults, but it was still lots of fun. The cruise cost 9,094,800 VND (343 USD) so wasn't cheap but was utterly luxurious and we really enjoyed ourselves despite it being very touristy indeed.

There was a bus which picked us up from our hotel at 8am - these are buses which pick people up in Hanoi and deposit them at various cruise pick up points. We arrived at the Calista cruise at 11am and embarked on the boat at midday! First up we had a delicious lunch, enjoyed the views and checked out the soft play!!

Our first jump off the boat was at Titop Island where we saw with about a million people and cruise ships all around. Absolutely mental!!

The next stop just after 4pm was kayacking in Luon Cave which was brilliant fun and considerably less crowded!

In the evening back on board, we had our first taste of the really quite incredible swimming pool!

We watched the sunset, had an credible dinner and and had a little look at cray fishing from the boat. I then put Tiger to bed, and sat on my balcony, drinking wine I had brought with me for this very important moment!! (and to save money).

Day 2 of our cruise, Thursday 30th October, started bright and early with Tai Chi at 06:30 on the top deck! Hilarious!

We headed straight off to the Hang Sung Sot (Sung Sot Cave) with a minimal breakfast at 07:45. Now if we'd thought the beach was crowded this was mental and on reflection I think I'd rather have stayed on board relaxing! But hey... nice caves.

We were back on board for 9am and, with the clock ticking (there was a brunch at 09:30 and we were due to disembark at 11am!) we made the most of one last dip in the swimming pool!

Before we knew it we were off and back to Hanoi! Would I recommend the Halong Bay cruise? The answer is maybe. We really loved the luxury, we did make the most of it and managed to eke every minute out of the experience but it is uber touristy. So go. Be prepared for crazy tourists everywhere. Or maybe one of the alternatives to Halong Bay for a quieter life!