sea sickness in Halong Bay?
 

I would very much like to take an overnight junk cruise in Halong Bay during my trip to Vietnam in March but am worried about sea sickness - i always feel terribly nauseated when out at sea and would not like to ruin my adventure.

Can anyone tell me if sea sickness is a problem in Halong Bay?

This depends more on you than on Halong Bay. WHile Halong Bay is relatively sheltered, some people are very prone to seasickness. If you are, it may not matter how calm the waters are.

The waters were very calm when I visited Halong Bay

The water was dead calm when I was there in November. On a large boat like the Dragon's Pearl there was no motion that I could detect when we passed through the wakes of other boats (which was not often).

At night we anchored in a bay with a couple of dozen other boats. It was very calm. There was no vertical motion but I thought I detected a very slight horizontal motion. Had to watch the separation between an object on the boat and a distant one to detect that there was actually a very slight motion. In the morning I saw that the boat had turned in place 180 degrees.

I don't get seasick, so YMMV.

We just did a junk boat cruise in Halong Bay just 6 days ago. I tend to get seasick but was fine, however, we were there only during the day. It was too chilly for the night.

It was very calm in late Nov. If you are prone to sea sickness make sure you are on a larger junk. We went on the Ginger junk. It held 18 people. It is quite new and very stable.
It also had proper kayaks with a guide, which we really enjoyed, since we were able to get away from all the boats that go to the same spots. We kayaked through some beautiful scenery.

We recently (mid January) had an overnight cruise on the Lagoon Explorer on Halong Bay. It is a 1 year old junk with a fantastic crew, 5 double beautiful en-suite rooms and magnificent food.

We booked through Luxury vietnam Travel only a few days before. Approx $850 US for 2 adults + 2 children, including a guide with us the whole time (who sort of doubled as a baby sitter!). I thought this was great value!

We thoroughly enjoyed our cruise, the caves were fantastic and my hubby and 2 kids loved jumping off the junk into the icy waters. Everyone thought they were crazy, but we are Aussies!

The bay was very calm, and it is so sheltered I don't think there would be any problem with sea-sickness.

Enjoy Vietnam, we did, very much.

If you are concerned about sea-sickness, invest in some ginger pills. I got some at Whole Foods before going to the Great Barrier Reef last summer. We had 30 knot winds and spent the night out on the reef. I took a couple of ginger pills every 4-6 hours and had NO problems.

We went on the Dragon's Pearl in December and it was also very calm. No problems. And I am prone to seasickness.