Cat Ba- a natural wonder can outweigh Halong Bay

Cat Ba National Park in Vietnam

Normally, travelers only find places with beaches or mountains separately. But when it comes to Cat Ba, Hai Phong, it gives you the chance to explore a variety of activities hardly imagined before that many foreign tourists think Halong Bay could not be compared with Cat Ba Island. Here you can enjoy a unique journey ever in both mountains and beaches !
 

How to have the best relaxed journey in Cat Ba?

A 3-day and  2-night trip can be the best choice for you if you like a comfortable trip but still ensuring enough time to explore the amazing place. It must be your first action to read reviews of visitors about Cat Ba and you can also read a really useful articals about this sites written by Vietnam Original Travel.
 

Preparation

You should definitely book hotels or homestays before arriving Cat Ba due to a great number of tourists at weekends. It is actually better to come here in week days because every price including staying, moving ... is half lower that that in weekend time. There are many kinds of staying houses for you to choose that meet your requirement about finance. More and more modern cheap and nice homestays are built which have been increasingly prefered.
 

Where to stay ?

Here is one highly recommended hotel for foreign tourists. Its cool design as well as uinque location make “Dolphin hotel” outstanding. While most of people come here choose posh hotel near center of Cat Ba town with lively activities around, Dolphin hotel is exactly the right place for you to have a great sea view and peaceful moments next to Cai Beo Port.  Motorbikes are always available for you to hire in the hotel and spend whole day crossing every space of the town with only 100.000 VND.

It is a truth that the town is incredibly small, just like a small part of suburb of Hanoi. Therefore, you can easily learn by heart all ways around Cat Ba after a while riding motorbikes. It actually takes you only about 15 minutes to walk to all 3 Cat Co beaches nearby Cat Ba from Dolphin hotel. Not many travelers realize there is such a great place to stay rather than competing to book a centered hotel.
 

What to do?

Cat Ba national park is not very far from Hanoi so you can make an amazing excursion from Hanoi. The best time to start your trip is at 8:00 am of the first day and the time to come back is at 1:30 pm 3 days later. Because you can have the whole first morning and last afternoon to relax before getting ready for any other activities. It can take you 4-5 hours to reach the destination when everyone has to take the ferry over the beach in about 40 minutes then the remaining move is by bus on road.

First day

Your first day should be the time to explore mountains- Cat Ba National Park! It is not true that coming to islands means that you have to go swimming. Cat Ba Island serves you all kinds of explorations from hiking, kayaking or swimming. If you love to see panoramic view of mountains and various ancient trees, and if you love to explore quite and tranquil place, Cat Ba National Park is for you! Most of tourists here in these hot days are foreigners or young Vietnamese who prefered moving their bodies in cool temperature of the mountains.
 

The total time for hiking is only about 2 hours then it is high time to reach Cannon Fort and enjoy amazing scene of the sunset in the Cannon Cafe. This is one of two most amazing sights in Cat Ba that you can not miss! The experience in Cannon Port lasts for short time but worthwhile. Firstly, you can walk or use motorbikes crossing the winding and sloping road to the top, the feeling is similar with the experience of travelling in real mountainous roads in Northern Vietnam.

Then you will have some thoughtful moments when arriving the Fort to know about great Vietnam war. Before 6:00 pm you should move to the Cafe and count down to the sunset time. You might not find anywhere else in Hanoi to catch the spectacular moment of the sun, mountains and sea!
 

Evening is dinner time in lots of restaurants with fresh seafood then tourists can feel the music in some pub or bar before ending the first day. 2 recommended restaurants for the whole trips are Phuong Phuong restaurant and Yummy restaurant where you can love the good service and food.

Second day

The seconday is best time for the sea!

Most book in advance Canoes tours to explore the sea because a private canoe has extremely expensive cost. You get in the Canoes with many strangers but this can be an interesting time for you to get to know others and still enjoy the breath-taking bays and sea. A normal ticket for a tour is 400.000 VND per person.
 

The whole morning is time travelling on the sea through amazing views of different bays which are more diverse and more attractive than Halong Bay. Next, tourists have lunch served by cooks in the canoe and feel the cool sea wind through windows. Afternoon, you can have around 1 hour of kayaking and 30 minutes swimming, 30 minutes visiting Monkey Island to see naughty monkeys and 1 hour for photos then coming back. That is the best itinerary to immerse in Lan Ha Bay. Why you have to spend hours on canoes reaching Lan Ha Bay and kayaking? Because the water around Lan Ha Bay could never be compared with any other areas with special turquoise water.

Back home at around 5 pm then you can take some rest after a whole day floating in the sea. Dinner time should be spent in good restaurants for the greatest trip.
 

Last day

The last morning you should get up early to enjoy sunrise view in the sea. This time promises to give you best feelings ever to truly live as a person and live a journey. Then you can visit some fishing village nearby to by fresh seafood as gifts for relatives or to just interact with fishermen in Cat Ba and know their daily life.

Finally, it is time to pack your package, have the last meal and get ready to go home!

Cat  Ba Island would be much more beautiful than any photos you have seen. Only when you set your foot in the place, can you feel the authentic beauty of Cat Ba Island, where you can have unforgettable memories in Vietnam.