Cat Ba Island Guide

Cat Ba is the largest island in the Ha Long Bay archipelago and the only one with a substantial permanent population. It has a town, a national park, beaches, and direct access to Lan Ha Bay — the southern section of the same karst seascape, with far fewer boats on it.

Why it exists as an option

Most visitors see Ha Long Bay from an overnight cruise booked out of Hanoi. Cat Ba is the alternative: you base yourself on the island, sleep on land, and go out on the water by day boat or kayak from there. (This article contains affiliate links — if you book through them we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.)

What you gain is flexibility, lower cost, a national park, and Lan Ha Bay, which is the same limestone landscape with a fraction of the cruise traffic. What a land-based stay gives up is the thing the cruises sell — waking up anchored among the karsts.

Getting there

From Hanoi, the usual routes are a direct bus-and-ferry combination ticket, or a bus to Hai Phong and a ferry from there. Allow most of a morning either way. A number of operators sell the whole journey as one ticket, which puts the connection on them rather than on you.

Once on the island, the town is small enough to walk and the rest is reached by taxi, rented bicycle or the local bus towards the national park.

Lan Ha Bay

The reason to come. Day boats run from Cat Ba town and from Beo pier into Lan Ha, usually combining a cruise through the karsts with kayaking, a swim, a floating fishing village and sometimes a cave. A full day on the water costs a fraction of an overnight cruise out of Hanoi.

Kayaking is the part people remember, because the scale of the limestone only registers at water level. Boats will drop kayaks in the quieter inlets.

Choosing a boat

Ask how many people are on the boat, what the route is, whether kayaking is included or extra, and whether the price covers the national park and bay fees. Smaller boats get into places the large ones cannot.

Overnight on the water

Operators out of Cat Ba also run one-night and two-night cruises into Lan Ha, which is the middle option between a day boat and a Hanoi cruise. The boats are generally smaller and the routes less crowded, and the price sits between the two.

Cat Ba National Park

Most of the island's interior is protected forest, with hiking trails of varying difficulty. The short climb to the Ngu Lam viewpoint takes an hour or so and gives the view out over the forested karst interior; the longer traverse to Viet Hai village is a half-day walk and can be combined with a boat back to town.

The park is home to the Cat Ba langur, a critically endangered primate found nowhere else. Sightings are a matter of luck and are not something to plan a day around.

The town and the beaches

Cat Ba town is a working harbour with a strip of hotels along the waterfront, restaurants, and a floating fishing village offshore. It is not a pretty town, and the high-rise hotel development along the front has changed it considerably in recent years.

Cat Co 1, 2 and 3 are small beaches cut into the cliffs a short walk or ride from town, connected by a cliff path. They are pleasant rather than remarkable; the water is the point, not the sand.

Getting around the island

The island is bigger than it looks and the road from the ferry to the town crosses the park. Taxis and the local bus cover the main route. Bicycles are available in town and are fine for the beaches and the coast road, less so for the park road, which climbs.

Renting a motorbike yourself is not a practical option for most visitors, because a US licence and an International Driving Permit are both invalid in Vietnam.

When to go

The northern coast has a cool, often grey and drizzly winter and a hot summer. The clearest water and best boat weather is generally in the shoulder months. Summer is also when the domestic holiday market fills the island, and the town is at its busiest.

Typhoon season affects the north through the late summer and autumn, and boats do not sail when the bay is closed. If the water is the whole reason for the trip, build in a spare day.

Booking

Accommodation on the island ranges from hostels in town to resorts on the quieter side, and outside the summer peak it is usually available at short notice. Day boats are booked through hotels and agencies in town the day before, and that is also where to confirm what the price includes.

Which of the north's big excursions — the bay, Sapa, Ninh Binh — actually fit into the days you have is a question Vietnam, End to End works through.