Which Ha Long Bay boat cruise is best?

Last year, I was lucky enough to go on a two-week trip around Vietnam, travelling from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, and one of the first things we did after we arrived was take a boat cruise to Ha Long Bay. Of all the excursions we’d booked before arriving in Vietnam, this was undoubtedly the one I was most anticipating. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime trip for most people and, being very aware that I may never go there again, I actually felt a lot of pressure to have the best experience possible.

How long should I spend in Ha Long Bay?

The only way to really experience Ha Long Bay is to take a boat trip. You can opt for a day trip, but most people will recommend spending at least one night on a boat in the bay, as it’s less rushed and you get to experience the bay at quieter times when the day-trippers have gone home. The evening and very early morning were definitely my favourite times being on the boat, so I’d 100% recommend doing this.

We opted for a two-day, one-night cruise in Ha Long Bay, which is mostly because this was combined with another trip for us (more on that later). However, once we got on the boat, we really didn’t want to leave and I found myself very jealous of the passengers staying on for another night. We were short on time during this whole trip and staying another night wasn’t really feasible for us, but if you have the time and prefer a more luxurious and relaxing travel style than us, I’d really recommend doing two nights on the boat.

Trying to cram in all of the available activities into a two-day stay means there’s not much downtime to simple enjoy the views and staying the extra day means you could spread these out a bit more. Note that all the activities are optional so you could have a totally different experience from us if you just wanted to enjoy the views and not do everything (we are bad at trying to pack everything in!)

How to choose a Ha Long Bay boat cruise

I found that when it came to choosing which boat to stay on, there were so many options that it was quite overwhelming. Firstly, it’s best to decide what type of trip to Ha Long you’re looking for. Some things you may want to consider include:

Do you want a traditional boat or luxury trip?

There are two main types of boats for Ha Long Bay – junk boats and steel vessels.

Wooden junk boats

The wooden junk boats are traditional style boats, which have been used by Vietnamese fishermen for centuries. These boats are much smaller and offer a more authentic and intimate experience of Ha Long Bay. They usually don’t have as many amenities and offer smaller cabins than the steel boats, but if you’re looking for a quieter time in Ha Long, these are probably the way to go. Due to our usual travel style, I fully anticipated we’d opt for one of these boats, and therefore did a lot of research into them. I found Indochina Junk to be highly recommended, if you’re looking for this style of Ha Long Bay boat cruise.

Luxury cruise ships

Modern steel vessels are more akin to a luxury cruise ship. These boats are much bigger and have spacious cabins, offer luxury dining experiences and, often, have swimming pools, jacuzzis and spas. If you’re looking for comfort and a luxury experience, then these are the way to go, although be warned that they usually hold a lot of people so you’ll lose the intimacy of being with a smaller group.

Our experience

Despite being almost certain we would end up on a junk boat, we ended up booking an amazing three night tour that combined a trip  to Ninh Binh with our Ha Long Bay visit. There was no choice of boat in the trip, so we ended up on one of the 5* luxury cruises – Aspira.

The verdict? I couldn’t recommend this boat enough. Initially, I had reservations about the amount of people and losing the authenticity of the experience but everything was so incredibly well organised that the number of people had virtually no impact on anything. There were no long wait times to get on the passenger boat, or for getting out to activities, it was all seamless.

Plus, our cabin was incredible. It was amazing to have our own balcony, where we could sit and enjoy the views as the sun went down and in the morning before breakfast… and yes, this is the best view from a bath I’ve ever had.

Excursions and activities

Another consideration you’ll want to make when choosing a Ha Long Bay boat cruise, is what types of activities it offers. Most of the trips have a list of optional activities you can do throughout your trip, and these are included in the price so you may as well make the most of them.

From my research, many of the itineraries for different boats were pretty similar, but it’s important to check if there’s something you specifically wanted to do. For example, I wanted a swim stop and not all the boats factor this in. Aspira offers the following activities on the two-day, one-night trip. We actually did everything except for the Tai Chi class, as we got up so early every day on this trip, we decided to skip the 6am wake up call:

• Bamboo boat through dark and lights cave
• Swimming
• Traditional cooking class
• Squid fishing
• Tai Chi class
• Kayaking around Lan Ha Bay

Details

You can book with Aspira Cruise directly, or if like us you fancy combining it with another trip, I highly recommend doing a three-day, two-night trip, which combines Ninh Binh and Ha Long Bay. There are a number of different options and none of them specify which boat you’ll end up on, so I’m not sure if it’s guaranteed to be Aspira even for the same trip, or they just see what has availability on the day. Either way they are all 5* and I would think most of the boats are pretty similar. It’s definitely worth it for the Ninh Binh trip (if you’re not already planning a trip there) as this actually ended up being our favourite part of the whole of Vietnam!