Cat Ba Island Travel Guide
Cat Ba Island is the largest island in Halong Bay area and it is one of the largest islands in Vietnam. If you are looking for a day tour out of Hanoi the travel consultants may advise you to go to Cat Ba Island. There are some cruises in Halong Bay offer 2 night including 1 night on Cat Ba Island. You also can just go to Cat Ba Island for staying there for the beach. Everything you should know about Cat Ba IslandThere are many things you can do on Cat Ba Island when you want to relax or even you want some adventure tour there. That is a good place for a relaxing holiday or adventure tour.Things to do on Cat Ba IslandSwimmingThere are some beaches on Cat Ba Island (Cat Co 1, Cat Co 2, Cat Co 3) and the beach on Monkey Island. So if you like the beach holiday then Cat Ba Island is a good option for you and family. The beaches on Cat Ba Island especially Monkey Island Beach is very clean with emerald water. So that is the perfect beach for your holiday in summer. In Vietnam summer holiday from June to July, there are a lot of Vietnamese tourists visiting Cat Ba Island so if you visit Cat Ba Island please note it will be crowded in June and July. Beaches on Cat Ba Island is very clean with emerald waterHikingThere is Cat Ba National Park on Cat Ba Island where you can go hiking there to Ngu Lam Peak. That is a very nice area for hiking as the air is fresh in the national park on the remote island. When you are in Ngu Lam Peak you can have a view of Halong Bay and Lan Ha Bay.Hiking in Cat BaKayaking and CruisingWhen you are in Cat Ba Island, you can take a day boat trip to Lan Ha Bay from Beo Pier to visit Monkey Island or to Dark and Bright Caves. Click Here for more detail of Dark and Bright Caves.Kayaking in Lan Ha BayShopping in Cat Ba IslandThere are a lot of shops and there is a night market where you can buy the local souvenirs at a low price on Cat Ba Island. When you buy something, there you can bargain to get a good price. Please ask your guide to know how to bargain in the Vietnamese way. Dining in Cat Ba IslandWhen we talk about the food in Cat Ba Island we need to talk to the seafood there. As it is an island so there are fishing villages there where people do fishing and have fishing farms. The seafood in Cat Ba Island is very fresh as they catch the seafood every day.In the early morning, you may go to the market for seeing local people buy and sell the seafood then they move to the mainland to bring to the city.There are a lot of seafood restaurants on Cat Ba Island at a reasonable price. If you like you also can go to some floating restaurant near the city and enjoy the meal in the floating restaurants. That is so interesting. Cat Ba AttractionsThere are some tourist attractions in Cat Ba Islands you can visit and see when you visit the island.Local villageIn Cat Ba Island there is a nice local village of Viet Hai. You may get to Viet Hai Village by boat from Beo Pier. Learn about their life in a remote area of Cat Ba Island.Viet Hai Village on Cat Ba IslandCat Ba National ParkCat Ba National Park is a good place to visit. You can buy a tour from your hotel for a trekking tour there to Ao Ech or Ngu Lam Peak. There you can visit the Hospital Cave with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.Trekking in Cat Ba National ParkMonkey Island If you wish to visit Monkey Island where you can go swimming in the clean water with long sandy beaches and see a lot of monkeys you can take a tour from Beo Pier.It is easy to book a day tour with your hotel on Cat Ba Island and the bus will pick you up from your hotels.Monkey Island ResortAccommodation on Cat Ba Island There are a lot of hotels on Cat Ba Island from low budget to higher budget, from homestay to 2-star hotel, 3 stars or 4-star hotel. There are some good hotels like Hung Long Harbour Hotel, Sunrise Resort Cat Ba.In the summer, there is a lot of Vietnamese traveling to Cat Ba so there are a lot of low budget hotels there which may cost about 20.00 USD/room/night. Nowadays, young people going there a lot for relaxing so there are more and more eco-accommodation in the remote area which far from Cat Ba Town.When to visit Cat Ba Island The best season to visit Cat Ba is from April to November as it will be the warm season so you may do swimming on the beach because Cat Ba is famous for the beach in North Vietnam.Please note the peak season of Cat Ba Island is from the end of May to the end of July because it is the summer holiday in Vietnam so there is a huge number of Vietnamese travelers traveling to Cat Ba Island. They travel with family and company so there are a lot of big groups. If you go to Cat Ba Island at this time the price of the hotels will be high especially the weekend. So make sure you book the rooms in advance. In the peak season, you may book the high-class hotels because the high-class hotel price at that time is not much higher than the low-class hotel. It is because Vietnamese will travel a lot and there are a lot of Vietnamese travelers who just can pay the low-class hotel but those hotels will raise the price a lot and not much different from the high-level class hotel. And if you stay in those low-class hotels like 2 stars the services are not so good because the hotels are lacking professional staff to serve a huge number of travelers at that time. If you wish to avoid the crowd and get a good deal you may visit Cat Ba Island from the middle of September to November as the summer holiday has ended. That is still not the cold weather season so that is still good for Cat Ba Island.Tour to Cat Ba Island There are a lot of cruises in Lan Ha Bay that will have itinerary for 3 day 2 night and those cruises have itinerary for you to visit a part of Cat Ba Island. Normally, those cruises visit Viet Hai Village on Cat Ba Island.There are some cruises having itinerary to the caves on Cat Ba Island also.The cruises having itinerary to village or caves on Cat Ba Island like V’Spirit Premier Cruise, Perla Dawn Sails, Scarlet Pearl Cruise, Orchid Cruise, La Pandora Cruise, La Regina Legend Cruise, La Regina Grand Cruise.Perla Dawn Sails CruiseHow to Get To Cat Ba IslandFrom Hanoi you can get to Cat Ba Island by booking the cruises in Lan Ha Bay then they will go to Vietnam Hai Village on Cat Ba Island. That is easy as it will be included in the cruise trip.If you just want to go to Cat Ba Island only but not the cruise, you can book a bus from Hanoi to Tuan Chau Harbour then take a fairy to Gia Luan Harbour then get a taxi or bus to Cat Ba Town.You also can get a bus to Got Harbour then take a fairy to Cat Ba Island then take a bus to the center.Thank you very much for reading! We hope you will have a good vacation with family in Vietnam or friends on Cat Ba Island.
Read more
