First let me say, this story is meant to be informative for
other travelers not so much a pleaser for friends and family.
We were interested in visiting Halong Bay, a World Heritage
site boasting thousands of islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. It’s a beautiful
place and worth seeing, but we were disturbed by the numerous inconsistencies
we came across in order to “tour” the area.
First off, it is worth the time and money to compare the
prices of many travel agencies. While on the boat tour, we spoke with a few
other groups about the prices they were quoted and what was included in their
trip. The prices ranged from $50-$110 per person for a two day tour of the bay.
This included the bus to Halong City, the boat tour around Halong Bay, a kayak
rental, meals, a night on the junk boat, and a night in a hotel on Cat Ba
Island and also the boat and bus transport back to Hanoi. Why the prices ranged
for the exact same tour is up for debate. Same goes for the one and three day
tours.
Secondly, I am pretty positive the majority of the images
you will see of the junk boats, rooms, and meals, are nowhere near the reality.
Keep in mind, you get what you pay for, i.e., if you pay $50 for two nights
lodging and tours and meals, you are not getting a 5 star luxury boat. We did
not stay a night on the boat, but some of the details they won’t tell you in
the travel agency that were included in some of the stories from those who did
include: roaches joining you in your room, water leaking through the ceiling
onto your bed to the point where you bed is “soaked”, which then leads to
roaches discovering luxury lodging for themselves underneath your damp, dark
pillow.
We try to avoid taking all-inclusive tours whenever
possible. However, certain sites you just have to see, and unfortunately these
tend to be the ones that have been capitalized upon. Although it is extremely
convenient to have all the decisions and scheduling already laid our for you, this
leads to the major downfall of the tour itself. You are essentially on someone
else’s time, for better or for worse. For example, during our tour of the bay,
our guide often said something like “You have 40 minutes to see the cave.”
Well, after following in a single-file line through the “most beautifulest cave
in Vietnam”, we then waited for our boat to reach the dock for another 40
minutes. This conflict of time then led to only having 15 minutes to kayak.
Which was supposed to be included for us, but turns out it was not.
Almost everything during our tour continued on this way. The
bus, shuttle, boat, guide, was always running a little late, eating up the
actual tour time. I can’t say I would recommend taking a tour, but its just
about the only way to see the bay. We only reserved the one day tour with
return service whenever we wanted it. We stayed in a hotel on Cat Ba Island on
our own. The hotel was nice enough, air-conditioned, clean, and overlooked the
harbor for $12 a night for two people.
