Most people have heard of Ha Long Bay, with its epic limestone karsts and emerald waters. The bay has become incredibly famous due in large part to movies like Kong: Skull Island and Tomorrow Never Dies. It’s a must-see on anyone’s Vietnam itinerary. However, it’s quite an expensive endeavour and the costly cruise options put us off in terms of how little time we would get to spend in the bay compared to how much money we would pay. And so, we looked into a less touristy option.
In our research, we came across Ca Ba Island, the largest island in Ha Long Bay and the most popular destination for independent tourists. It’s next to Lan Ha Bay, another bay in the area, located to the south of Ha Long Bay. From what we could tell, both bays are incredibly beautiful. We read that the main differences are that Ha Long Bay is much larger, but also more touristy and expensive. We easily chose to go to Cat Ba Island for Lan Ha Bay.
While it was a great option, it’s not the easiest place to get to from Ninh Binh. We first had a car pick us up from our accommodation and take us to the bus station in town. We then took the bus for two to three hours to Hai Phong City. From there, we took a ferry to Cat Ba Island. And then finally, we took a bus from the ferry terminal to downtown Cat Ba. Altogether, the journey took around five hours.
Of course, the other downside was our bad luck with the weather. I think Cat Ba was the only truly unfortunate part of our trip. I mentioned in my last post that the weather started to get cooler and rainier in Ninh Binh, which in the end was not too bad there as the scenery was still very beautiful and we were doing a lot of active stuff, meaning we stayed warm. Cat Ba was considerably colder. The day we arrived, it was a high of 13 degrees Celsius, and the following two days were each a high of 10 degrees. And because Cat Ba is an island, we were very much exposed to the elements. It was so cold that we were told by the locals that the schools even had to close. We quickly had to purchase some hats and mittens!
Nonetheless, we made the most out of it. Fortunately, while we were planning this part of our trip a month before the organisers of our bay boat tour emailed us stating that the same group owned a hotel and offered great rates. While it was a bit more expensive than other accommodations in the area, the deal was too good to pass up. Well, we ended up being so incredibly happy that we upgraded to a nicer hotel because we spent more time in it than we thought we would.
We stayed at The Moon Boutique Hotel, a brand-new hotel in the centre of Cat Ba and very close to the water. It was our only ‘luxurious’ stay during our trip and, by this point, it was much needed.
After settling in, we ventured into town for a coastal beach walk. Cat Ba Town is the central hub of the island, essentially a short wall of hotels sitting along the bay. There are plenty of restaurants too, although most of them had limited hours as we were obviously on the island during the low season. Although the town has all your basic needs, the island is largely untouched and wild. More on that later!
From Cat Ba Town there are several cove beaches to visit within walking distance. The beaches are called ‘Cat Co’s’ and then 1, 2 and 3. Cat Co 3 is the closest. From there a walking trail cuts into the cliff and offers wonderful views of the sea and coast ahead. It eventually leads to Cat Co 1 and 2.
I highly recommend this walk for the very little effort in exchange for amazing views.
By the early evening, we were quite tired from the travel day and also a bit cold! The town appeared to be quite sleepy so we didn’t feel confident in finding a good restaurant for dinner. Therefore, we decided to have dinner at our hotel. The hotel doesn’t actually have a restaurant, so we had to source food elsewhere. We stopped by a Chinese/Vietnamese 7-11-type store to pick up some provisions. I absolutely love going to these types of stores in Asia in general as they’re so much fun to browse. I ended up getting Omachi Potato Noodles with shrimp, cheese, and salted egg. Let me tell you, this was incredible! I have yet to find this anywhere in the UK. Victor got a self-heating rice bowl. The self-heating technology blew my mind. There’s a heat pack that’s activated by cold water, which then heats the entire meal without electricity or fire. Genius!
We spent the rest of the evening hanging out in bed and watching Vietnamese Netflix, a perfect end to a busy day.
The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel before going on our boat tour. As I mentioned above, the boat tour company is part of the same group as the hotel, so one of the boat tour company’s offices is actually just downstairs from where we were sleeping! The company is called Cat Ba Ventures, and we chose to go on their one-day boat tour. We were escorted to their other office near the port to meet with the rest of the tour group and then took a 5-minute bus to our boat.
Once we boarded the boat we made our way through the Cai Beo floating fishing village. It’s widely credited to be the oldest fishing village in Vietnam. The village is home to over 300 families! They live in mostly one-bedroom houses built on wooden rafts, or even actual fishing boats. A water taxi still transports the children to and from school during the week, an increasingly rare sight in Vietnam.
We then made a pitstop at a fish farm, where we learned about how fish farming works, what kinds of fish are raised in the bay, which are local or not, and the kind of work involved day to day. We were sad to learn that all the wild fish in the bay had pretty much been fished completely, which is why the people here have to farm fish. Nonetheless, it was really interesting to learn another way of life.
We then cruised around Lan Ha Bay, enjoying the hundreds of limestone islands with very few other boats on the water. Compared to Ha Long Bay, the karsts are a bit smaller and closer together, but actually, I liked how it felt being immersed in the landscape.
The other cool thing about Lan Hay Bay is that because it’s governed by a different local government to Ha Long Bay, the rules are a bit more relaxed. And so, when you go on a boat tour you’re more free to kayak or swim wherever you like. This is also great because Lan Hay Bay is home to plenty of white, sandy beaches. After an amazing seafood lunch onboard the boat, we were offered the chance to swim and/or snorkel near the beaches. I was way too cold to even try, but some guests did indeed jump into the water!
After cruising around Lan Hay Bay we dipped into Ha Long Bay briefly. We could see a few cruise ships out in the distance, a stark contrast to the empty bay we had been exploring all morning.
We returned back to Cat Ba Town around 6:00pm. Once again I was a bit too frigid to be out and about any longer, so we went back to the hotel and Victor kindly ordered pizzas for us. While I’m sure the pizza wasn’t that good, I wanted nothing more than something warm, comforting and somewhat familiar!
On our final day in Cat Ba we decided to check out Cat Ba National Park. It’s a World Heritage Site designated as a biosphere reserve. The park has tons of types of flora and fauna, and plenty of hiking trails to fill a day.
We went for the two-hour hike up to Ngu Lam peak. It’s a short but strenuous hike to the top. We were met with spectacular views of the jungle. Very satisfying indeed!
Once we hiked back down we headed back into town for lunch. We went to an adorable Korean restaurant in Cat Ba Town. We then walked around the town for a bit, before heading back to our accommodation to take a bus to our next stop: Hanoi! All in all I’m happy we visited Cat Ba Island, though I will definitely try to come back in the future during a better time of year. The karsts of the bays are absolutely stunning, there’s no doubt about that.
Have you been to this alternative to Ha Long Bay?
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