I'm going to be in Hanoi for the first week of December (5 days) and am interested in taking the boat trip on Halong Bay. Has anyone else taken this tour? If so which Cafe should I purchase it from? I was told the Sing Cafe(?) are the cheapest, but the Kangaroo Cafe has the best boats. I'm tending towards the latter since reading about them on thingsAsian.com. But I am keen to hear from you all. I don't care if I have to pay more, I just don't want to stuff up my holiday. I've been to HCM but this is my first time in the north. So if there are any other tours I should be looking at please let me know. What about Sapa? Is this possible in 5 days? Thankyou all for your help. Steve Mills

We did the three day, two night tour with HandSpan tours (search for their website). Great trip.

Did you stay overnight on the boat or in a hotel? If a hotel, which one? What do you recommend, I have read mixed reviews about staying on the boat. Thanks!

The 3 day, 2 night HandSpan tour has one night on the boat (fairly comfortable double cabins) and one night in a local hotel on Cat Ba Island. There is a half-day hike on Cat Ba Island that is beautiful (although a bit rough). We really enjoyed sleeping on the boat, lounging on the deck, and jumping off the side of the boat to take a swim. Great food, too. I recall about $50 per person, all inclusive of roundtrip transport from Hanoi, all meals, boat trip, all accomodations.

How many people does Handspan usually take on these tours? Is it a big group? What were the accomodations like in Cat Ba? Were the boat sleeping quarters clean? Thank you for any information.

On our trip, there were about 10 people. The travelers ranged from early 30s to early 60s - generally older than some of the groups that I saw with the other travel cafes. The boat was spotless, the hotel accomodations were clean but basic (terrific food), and the buses used to transport from Hanoi to Halong Bay were very comfortable with airconditioning. The boat had only one or two toilets, but that was fine, because there weren't many people on the boat. The boat ride was wonderful. Nothing better than lounging in a comfortable reclining chair on the deck with a good book, looking at the wonderful scenery. The guides also were very helpful. Others on our trip had taken the HandSpan tour to Sapa and raved about the trip. I believe that HandSpan costs a bit more than Singh or Kangaroo, but we were very pleased with HandSpan. HandSpan also arranged train tickets for us from Hanoi to Hue.

I'm traveling to Vietnam in mid December. How will the weather be in Halong Bay that time of year? Also, how was the train ride from Hanoi to Hue? Was it comfortable?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Nancy

Hi, Nancy!<BR>I don't know how the rainfall around the Halong Bay area in December compares with other months, but as far as temperature goes, I don't think you could have chosen better. <BR>I haven't done the train journey from Hanoi to Hue, but I have a friend who did it about two months ago. If you try to nail her down about the scenery, etc, she will finally admit that it was quite lovely, but it's hard to keep her on the subject, as she keeps getting back to her REAL memory of the journey, and that was the primitive toilet situation on the train. Will that worry you?

The first class overnight train from Hanoi to Hue was fine - no real complaints. Our family of four had a single compartment, with four beds. Food was very basic - make sure to bring snacks and water. The toilets were typical SE Asian train toilets - clean, but basic. It probably was a squat toilet, but it could have been a Western toilet - it just doesn't stand out in my mind as being exceptional, which means it must have been fairly ordinary for the country.