Halong Bay - Which boat to cruise?
 

Hi all,

We're planning to spend 2 days in Halong bay and, after searching a lot, we're thinking of the Bhaya or Indochina Sails cruise. While I've heard quite much about the Bhaya, not much has been mentioned about the Indochina Sails. Has anyone booked this boat?

Thank you

We did the Indochina Sails 3 boat overnight and it was fine. At the time, it was the newest of the fleet which included the IS1, IS2 and the Valentine, which is smaller and more intimate. I have heard that the IS cruises are slightly more upscale than the Bhaya cruises but you probably can't go wrong with any of them.

I think plenty of boats on Halong Bay can offer good food and a high
degree of comfort. Beyond that, you want to consider how big they are
(do you want a small-boat experience or a cruise ship?), and where do
they go.

These people: http://www.indochina-junk.com/ claim to be the only ones
with a license to go to "Region 2" and are therefore able to get away
from the hundreds of other boats on Halong Bay. I've done an
overnight on their Red Dragon and enjoyed it very much. It has 4 or 5
cabins (there were 7 people on my cruise, and about the same number of
crew), and their other boats are smaller. The accommodations and food
were excellent. The only other boats we saw were a couple from the
same company, plus the Victory Star, which looked huge in comparison
(three decks, sleeps 40) and was not able to go ashore where we did.

On these small boats, you eat family style whereas I believe the
larger boats have individual tables and buffets. Our guide said he
thought the two-night tour was the best choice, and people I met
who'd done that said they enjoyed it very much. I was happy with
one night.

As you can see from our recent report, the Bhaya cruise just lived up to its reputation and frankly spending 2 days onboard is a wise decision.

We did see the Indochina Sails while we were there. Seems a good boat.

These 2 boats you are asking are all good to join, however I personally like the Lines run by Indochina junk as someotherguy mentioned, they are doing unique routes and kinda family stylem, so hospitable crew on board.

Thank you very much everybody for your help. Seotherguy - could you please shed a light on the so called 'Region 2'? Is there anything special out there?

From what I could see of the map that our guide had, "Region 2" is the
Eastern part of the bay, but I don't have definitive information.

We visited an island with a cave which my companions said has splendid
stalactite and stalagmite formations and a good view (I'm too old to
climb but enjoyed pottering around the beach) and the younger people
also went kayaking. Next day, we visited a floating fishing village
(you get rowed in by small coracle boats).

I think all the tours do something similar, but use different islands
and villages. Since I've only done the one tour I cannot compare to
others, but I enjoyed this one and we had the places we visited pretty
much to ourselves. I'd be interested to hear reports from other
boats.

Just completed two night cruise with Indochina Sails 3, the most modern of the Indochina boats having been completed in 2008. There were 15 cabins. The service, food and excursions were all better than expected. Eventhough I have three children of my own, it may be worthwhile to check if there are many infants and small children on your cruise. Since the common areas are small, the atmosphere can be dramatically altered by a few screaming babies. I would have no hestitation on recommending Indochina sails. (They did however, split up our group of five to opposite ends of the boat even though we had specifically booked the cabins as adjacent. After complaining, they refunded us $50.)

Thanks someotherguy and G2T for the info. BTW, happy new year to you all!