We want to do a one night overnight cruise in Ha Long bay on a boat where you check in around 11am on the first day and you get back to the dock on day two around 930am

We will be in a Hanoi hotel before the cruise and heading to Hanoi airport after the cruise. I see its like a 3 hour drive between Hanoi and the docks.

For those who have gone between Hanoi and the docks, it is possible to leave Hanoi early on the morning of day 1 and get to the dock by 11am? I suppose its possible to make it back to Hanoi for an afternoon flight on day 2?

Thanks!

What time does your flight depart? Domestic or international flight?
In my opinion, the best is stay the night in Hanoi before the flight.

I never like to have travel on a day of an international flight. A missed train, a major traffic accident; Any delay can be expensive and make it hard to reschedule your flight. A seven hour car ride in India, that was supposed to be 2-3 hours, a storm that washed out tracks in Japan,; both of these were on the day before my flight home, so no issue. But the drive from Bangkok to the airport that usually takes a
less than an hours turned into 2 hours before we'd even gotten on the highway. I left the taxi, but could not get through to the airline to cancel, so had to pay for a new ticket. Luckily, it was just a short flight to Cambodia. (Travel insurance didn't want to pay because it was a private taxi, but eventually did as the cause of the gridlock (an explosion at a school) was front page news).

The cruise companies normally arrange transport from Hanoi hotels to the boat dock. This is preferable to you organising your own transport as they are then responsible for getting you to their boat. If you choose to arrange you own transport then I would leave by 08:00 to get there for 11:00 . There is a relatively new highway which means the journey time is now 2 hours compared with the 3-4 hours it used to take. NB traffic in Hanoi is terrible, but predictably so.

Noi Bai airport is on the other side of the city from Halong so will take a bit longer, 2.5 - 3 hours. Leaving at 09:30 , you should be at the airport by say 12:30 . Allow two hour for a domestic departure so a flight after 14:30 should be fine. If an international flight I would allow alone for check in. The last couple of times there, the queues for immigration were horrendous - we spent at least 1.5 hours in the queue. Again, I would ask the cruise company to arrange taxi for you.

Thanks. Yes, I should have clarified that from Hanoi we would fly to Hue, a domestic flight.

Given what others are saying, I think we'd be OK to book a late afternoon flight out of Hanoi.

Thanks for input!

This is exactly the information I was looking for, thanks.

I've written to cruise company but haven't heard back but will follow up. Per response to another reply, we will fly Hanoi to Hue, a domestic flight. I need to make sure I know which airport that is of course in case there's more than one in Hanoi and allow plenty of time for checking in. Thanks!

Arrive at Noi Bai airport, Hanoi 2 hours before your flight to Hue.