Basically, the Ha Long Bay 2 day trips are 24 hours spent on a ship. There are dozens, probably hundreds of them, in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. They don’t really go anywhere either, Cat Ba Island is vast so they cruise a few miles along it’s coast and that is it. All the tours do roughly the same itinerary and we discovered that you actually do a lot more activities if you do a 1 day trip rather than an overnight. All that said, 1 or 2 day Ha Long Bay is an essential element of any trip to Hanoi. Basically, you get what you pay for with the cruise ships, the cheaper the trip the older and rougher the ship.

This was probably our most anticipated trip. I had really wanted to make this our first adventure but the schedule didn’t work that well so it ended up as our penultimate trip in North Vietnam.

Ha Giang Loop planning had been a bit of a distraction and there was little internet coverage out on the roads to book our trip. When I came to book the trip 3 days ahead a lot of the options were fully booked, so if you are planning a trip then give yourself 7 days ahead. We were using Tripadvisor and plenty of options were offered, until you tried to actually book the trip, so we booked with Getmyguide in the end.

As a result, we ended up booking on a 5 star trip on the ship Celina, which I have to say, was a fabulous luxury, the only regret was we only had one night to enjoy it. We chose the 2 day trip and it was the equivalent to booking 1 night at a luxury hotel, you board about midday and checked out at 1030 the next morning, before being dropped at the quay for the bus back to Hanoi.

We were picked up at our hotel in the old town in Hanoi, very efficiently and in a very nice mini coach. We were joined on the bus by a mother and daughter who said they were Portuguese, but they had very distinct Russian accents. They explained they were from Porto, where we happened to go last year and we seemed to know more about it than they did. We then realised that there are not many countries in the world that welcome Russian tourists nowadays so we let the matter slide and enjoyed their company as they were fun people, it was their idea to do the Jeep Tour of Hanoi

We arrived in Ha Long, and after trying extremely hard to board the wrong cruise ship we discovered we had a 1 hour transfer on a tender, our boat was too big to get into the harbour apparently. So, after a trip through the bay, we spotted our ship and boy did it look aexpensive. We were advised it is the biggest and most expensive ship in the area.

We were helped aboard by attentive staff and found our way to our fabulous cabin with its own balcony; this is the life. The schedule quickly kicked in and we were sent up to the lounge for our 5 star lunch, which was excellent.

I don’t know why, but 5 star is full of snobby guests. On this trip, there were no friendly people to have a chat with, they all seemed to want to live inside their own shells, except the crazy South Koreans who lived in a much bigger shell, and created a lot of noise and karaoke, now who’s being snobby!

We did have a kayak but it was very dull, we had full stomachs and paddling around a flat calm bay wasn’t any fun. So, we went back to the ship to enjoy our luxury surroundings, we sat on the balcony and were immediately inundated with little boats selling beer and sweets, these Vietnamese know how to make a quick buck, the ocean version of Lidl.

Eventually, the engines started and the ship set off for our cruise, we took up residence on the top deck and ordered cocktails to help enjoy the sunset. 30 minutes later the engines stopped, we’d reached our destination, this came as a bit of a surprise but to be fair, the view was very nice and we concluded that pretty much all the scenery was the same so why waste fuel. The limestone peaks stretch about 50 miles out to the ocean, so it was all going to be the same.

The scenery is absolutely stunning, it is basically the same landscape as the mountains of the Ha Gaing loop further inland, but the deep valleys are flooded so we are just seeing the peaks. Below the ship the water is hundreds of metres deep.

We discovered that the Vietnamese don’t really know how to pour measures into the cocktails, so after a particular weak cocktail, we had to advise them on the size of their measures and we got drunk a lot quicker than we would have done, and spent less money as well.

So, after a smashing lunch it was time for kayaking. Wooksie didn’t want to join me so I boarded the transfer boat. The guide started to pair people off as the canoes were doubles, to my complete alarm I was paired with a  crazy South Korean woman who couldn’t apparently swim. I was sat there in shock and decided I wasn’t having any of this nonsense and told the guide I’d forgotten my swimmies and would skip kayaking or go and kidnap Wooksie to ensure I had a sensible partner.

Dinner was very pleasant with fine food, none of the guests talked to each other and the crazy South Koreans continued to make a lot of noise in their part of the ship. Basically, the rest of the day was spent waiting for the sunset, which was very nice, but not as nice as the sunrise that we had to wake up at 4am to see, but it was worth it and was the highlight of the trip.

After sunrise we had a fine breakfast before heading for the coconut boat rides, I think they call it day and night tour, basically a local woman rows you through a cave into an inland stretch of sea which is very pleasant but not particularly exciting.

Once you get back from the coconut boats, the ship cruises very slowly back to its anchorage. I would estimate that you ship moves less that 10 miles at the most, and when they come to sell the cruise ship, it will be categorised as very low mileage.

You can tell that I think we should have gone further than we did. We had a nice time, probably a bit of an anticlimax if I was honest, but you don’t get to spend 24 hours on a luxury yacht very often and I’m sure there were plenty of worst options looking at the state of some of the other ships racing us back to port.

Basically, the Ha Long Bay 2 day trips are 24 hours spent on a ship. There are dozens, probably hundreds of them, in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. They don’t really go anywhere either, Cat Ba Island is vast so they cruise a few miles along it’s coast and that is it. All the tours do roughly the same itinerary and we discovered that you actually do a lot more activities if you do a 1 day trip rather than an overnight. All that said, 1 or 2 day Ha Long Bay is an essential element of any trip to Hanoi. Basically, you get what you pay for with the cruise ships, the cheaper the trip the older and rougher the ship.