What is Cat Ba? An island near Ha Long Bay and Hai Phong in northern Vietnam. About 5 hrs away from Hanoi.
Should I go there?
If you live in Northern Vietnam, I’d say yes. If you’re just a tourist here for a few weeks or less, then no. But definitely go to Ha Long Bay (2 day 1 night trip is best), and you can always stop by Cat Ba if you like.
Recommended time:
2 full Days, or 3 if you have a decent amount of money and want to do the mountain climbing gig with Slopony (see below).
My Trip:
Getting there: 4.5 – 5 hrs one way, from Hanoi:
- 4 hrs on Bus
- .5 hr: Power boat to the island
- .5 hr: Bus to town
I was excited to go to Cat Ba, hit the beach, get some good seafood, relax. I’ve heard that there are big parties for foreigners (raves, even) there and Thuy even said she heard you can see nude strippers there. (illegal in Vietnam)
I experienced neither. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
There are a lot of hotels near the sea, there’s this long sidewalk that parallels the bay. We were able to get a decent (not great) hotel room that had a direct sea view for $25 USD. There’s a good selection of hotels, depending on your price range, even a resort that’s built into one of the beaches. A lot of these hotels are a 20 minute walk to the nearest beach.
Regarding the food, I was very disappointed. Much more expensive that I thought it would be- Thuy and I spent $40 on a dinner on a floating restaurant, the Tuyet Beo (fat snow is the literal translation). Henry said he liked it, but I’m not so sure for that price. I think the seafood overall is reasonably fresh, but the prices are not better than Hanoi (Hanoi isn’t a sea side town)’s and none of the restaurants we found could really cook.
So the raw materials were ok, but the preparation, the cooking, were consistently subpar.
In terms if what to do around the island, you can explore the island on motorbike ($6-7/day for a rental not including gas), which I enjoyed a lot. The streets are well paved and clean, unlike Hanoi roads’ dirt-filled air- easy to just ride around for hours and check out the sights. There are a number of national parks that you can visit, but although I checked them out, I didn’t see anything special. I did see a sign to go to a frog pond, but I learned that was a 4 hour round trip only available by walking. Nonetheless, because the island is pretty mountainous, riding around all afternoon made me feel adventurous.
The beaches, are not that good. There’s a lot of development going on right now to add more services/luxury to the beaches, but the basics are ok. The sand isn’t too great, the water is definitely nothing close to clear (blame erosion called by development?), the beach is not particularly big, but I do like the view. It’s like looking at Ha Long Bay. One of the beaches is complete docile, the other one a little bit better if you like waves, but definitely not a surfer’s place.
My favorite think is just go swimming for a bit, and then come back and relax and have someone bring you a toasted squid ($4 USD). Cold beer is optional.
Overall, I think 2-3 days is a good time here.
On the day we were set to leave, we found out about Slo Pony Adventures (http://www.slopony.com/), which does stuff like host mountain climbing not only on Cat Ba but in multiple locations around Vietnam. If we had known about it earlier, we would have stayed an extra day to go climbing, but the trek is definitely for foreigners only. No way a regular Vietnamese person who earns $150-200/month is going to spend $70+ to go mountain climbing.
If there’s anyone out there who’s reading this and planning to go to Cat Ba, Henry’s friend Nguyen Viet Tung (say “tomb”) is a good guy to ask for info on hotels on tours:
- www.catbaventures.com
- info@catbaventures.com
- (844) 0912467016
Some more pics of the trip:
