Two October days aboard the Mon Chéri, Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay

What the two-day boat is

The operator has two sister yachts, 42 cabins between them, white-hulled modern steel. Every cabin opens onto a private teak balcony. On the top deck there is an infinity-edge pool ringed by cream sun loungers and a green mini-golf putting strip, karst towers standing behind it.

The restaurant seats 55. The kitchen is halal, certified by the Halal Vietnam Association. The Hanoi office takes private birthday and charter-style bookings, as does the Halong office at No. 34 Tuan Chau port.

Fares are ₫₫₫₫. The two-day, one-night sailing starts at 5,000,000₫ per person, quoted per cabin. Cards add a 4.5% fee, so cash in ₫ or USD costs less.

Boarding at Tuan Chau

Tuan Chau International Marina (Port 2, International Passenger Port) is Vietnam's largest artificial cruise harbour, with berthing capacity in the thousands of vessels. A man-made marina arm runs kilometres along the shore, rows of white overnight junks moored stern-in, glass check-in pavilions and wheeled luggage trolleys under a wide concrete apron. Almost every overnight and multi-day cruise in the bay leaves from here.

Check-in runs desk by desk, one per operator, and staff process arrivals cruise by cruise. That makes the 11:30 window the worst queue of the trip. Arrive by 11:00 and go straight to your operator's desk, past the central hall.

Entry to the port is free. Bay sightseeing and overnight fees are collected through your cruise, at 400,000₫ for one night on Lan Ha. The Ha Long routes run 500,000₫ to 750,000₫. The transfer out from Hanoi is an extra and must be booked in advance.

Tra Bau on the first afternoon

Tra Bau Lagoon area (Lan Ha Bay) is the afternoon stop most people book the itinerary for. Double kayaks thread a narrow dark cave mouth into an enclosed emerald lagoon walled by sheer jungle-topped limestone 50m high. A few floating fish-farm pontoons sit inside with blue barrels and drying nets. The few remaining Tra Bau families now mostly tend the kayaks.

Cruises run their own kayak fleets here in waves of 10 to 20 paddlers. The tunnel through the rock is single-file, so big parties go through in batches.

Paddling is included in the cruise fare. Day-trippers arriving independently from Cat Ba pay 300,000₫ to 600,000₫ for a half-day kayak trip.

Trung Trang Cave on the second morning

Trung Trang Cave (Cat Ba National Park) is a 300m lit limestone tunnel with steel handrails and low concrete steps, coloured floodlights thrown across the stalactite curtains. You walk it one way, 30 to 60 minutes inside. A low section about a kilometre from the national-park gate has everyone ducking.

The floor is wet and the roof is low. Wear flat shoes and watch your head. Entry is 80,000₫ per adult on the Cat Ba National Park ticket.

The tidal beach at Ba Trai Dao

Ba Trai Dao (Three Peaches) Islets are three near-identical 23m peach-shaped humps of limestone enclosing a crescent of white sand. The water stays knee-deep for ten metres out and turns pale jade. At high water the sand vanishes.

The beach exists for two to three hours a day at low tide. Overnight boats can reach it inside that window, and day trips usually cannot. It is the first stop dropped when the tide or the weather is wrong. There is no separate charge: the Lan Ha Bay sightseeing fee paid through your cruise covers the stop.

What the two-day route skips

Sung Sot (Surprise) Cave is on Ha Long route 2, open 08:00 to 18:00. It has two chambers the size of a theatre, floodlit stalagmite columns above a broad paved stepped path, the bay framed in the exit mouth. Steps climb from the jetty into a one-way circuit under constant coach-and-junk traffic. The route is quoted at 250,000₫ to 310,000₫ per person per day and normally sits inside a cruise fare. It is the most crowded sight in Ha Long Bay, and a Lan Ha itinerary like this one skips it by design. Add it as a pre- or post-cruise day trip if you specifically want the big cave.

Viet Hai Village is on the three-day programme. The two-day run does not call there. The lane through the valley tunnels under an acacia canopy for 4 to 5km on the flat, rice paddies hemmed in by a complete ring of karst walls, a mud-and-thatch heritage house preserved beside the newer homestays. Bicycle hire is 100,000₫ a day and an e-bike 250,000₫. To reach it on your own, take a boat from Beo Pier, 45 to 60 minutes. Family-run kitchens are set up for cruise parties, and lunch needs booking ahead for more than a dozen people.

Staying on after the cruise

Cat Ba National Park, Kim Giao Forest and Ngu Lam Peak opens 07:00 to 17:00 daily. A stone-and-concrete staircase climbs through rare Kim Giao conifers to a small square concrete observation tower on a bare karst summit, waves of green limestone ridges running to the sea in every direction. It is the best legal viewpoint on the island now that Cannon Fort is shut. The round trip is 3km in 90 minutes to two hours, which fits a post-cruise afternoon. The combined Kim Giao and Ngu Lam route costs 120,000₫, with motorbike parking at 10,000₫ to 20,000₫. The summit platform is tiny, so a large party should stagger the final climb.

Cat Co 1, 2 and 3 Beaches (Cat Ba Town) are three sand coves separated by headlands, 15 to 20 minutes on foot from town. A wooden walkway bolted into the cliff a few metres above the sea links them, with hotel blocks stacked up the slope behind Cat Co 3. Walk that boardwalk at sunset. Loungers rent at 30,000₫ to 50,000₫ and a shower is 10,000₫.

Cai Beo Floating Village is a five-minute hop from Beo Pier, roughly 400 brightly painted houseboats on blue plastic-barrel rafts tethered to the karst walls. Square net pens of grouper sit between the walkways, dogs on the decking, laundry strung over the water. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited fishing settlements in the region. Go before 09:00 or after 15:00; between 10:00 and 13:00 the Halong day boats pile in. There is no village entry fee in 2026, and the Lan Ha Bay sightseeing fee at Beo Pier is quoted between 80,000₫ and 120,000₫ per adult. A private boat of four to six seats costs 800,000₫ to 1,200,000₫ round trip and gets further into the narrow channels between the houses than a large one.

Monkey Island (Cat Dua) has two small sand beaches either side of a low rocky spine, a scrubby limestone slope above and a wooden pier with day boats tied alongside. Landing and lounger fees run to tens of thousands of ₫, usually bundled into a Lan Ha boat trip. Boats work 07:00 to 17:00 in line with the Beo Pier schedules. The troop of more than 20 macaques bites and opens unattended bags, and rabies exists in Vietnam. Do not feed them and do not pose with them. Keep your bag zipped and on you.

Ha Long City before a noon sailing

Quang Ninh Museum (coach parking on Tran Quoc Nghien) is a cube of black mirror-glass on the waterfront, the bay in its face. Three themed floors hold a coal mine tunnel reconstruction with real pit equipment and a whale skeleton hung in the atrium. Adults pay 40,000₫, students 20,000₫ and children 10,000₫. It opens 08:00 to 12:00 and again 13:00 to 17:00, closed the last Monday of the month.

Sun World Ha Long, Queen Cable Car and Sun Wheel runs two-storey double-decker cabins across the Cua Luc strait between two tall pylons, a giant Ferris wheel on the bald hilltop above and Zen garden terraces below. Cabins carry around 200 people each. Monday to Thursday it runs 14:00 to 20:00 only, which rules it out before a noon sailing. Weekends it opens at 09:00. A round trip is 380,000₫ for an adult. Children 1.0m to 1.4m pay 280,000₫, and under 1m goes free.

Boats to compare on the same port

Heritage Cruise Binh Chuan (No. 28B Tuan Chau) boards at 11:30 to 11:45 with 20 suites, all sea-facing balconies. The period pitch comes from dark timber, brass fittings, an art-deco lounge and a cigar room. An outdoor sauna and a mini-golf strip sit on the open top deck. Fares start at 4,500,000₫ per person for the overnight, with two-, three- and four-day programmes. Twenty suites suit a small party or a full charter.

Capella Cruise (Pier 20B, Tuan Chau) has 30 cabins with floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies, a heated infinity pool and jacuzzi on the sundeck, and an inflatable slide dropping from the upper deck straight into the bay. The charter programme adds a karaoke room and a mobile cinema. The two-day, one-night sailing starts at 12,500,000₫ per cabin for two.

Orchid Cruises has four white steel-hulled junks of five to 20 suites, a timber-decked jacuzzi at the stern and an open bar under a canvas awning. Overnight fares across this tier run 4,000,000₫ to 10,000,000₫ per person depending on vessel, cabin and date. All four hulls are steel, which matters under the 2026 safety rules. The small Orchid Premium has one of the best staff-to-guest ratios on the bay.

Whether the two days are worth it

The trip suits a visitor who wants the Lan Ha lagoon and a short cave walk inside 24 hours on the water. It asks for one early start at a crowded port, a kayak through a dark tunnel and sure footing on a wet cave floor.

Timing an October sailing

The season runs from 4 May 2026 to 30 April 2027. Sailings go seven days a week inside that window, so an October date is a question of cabins and not of calendar.

Trung Trang Cave reopened to visitors in September 2026 after a closed spell. Confirm with your operator that day two still includes it before you pay.

Quang Ninh Museum closes on the last Monday of the month, and the cable car stays shut until 14:00 from Monday to Thursday. Book the cabin and the transfer out of Hanoi before you travel. See the Hanoi guide and the Hanoi hotel search.