On the Vietnam Experience you will visit Halong Bay. Halong Bay is an UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994 and for good reason.

It is absolutely stunning!

Halong Bay is a body of water of approximately 1,500 square kilometres in North Vietnam with a 120 kilometer coastline, in the Gulf of Tonkin near the border with China, and 170 kilometers east of Hanoi. Ha Long Bay – means “Bay of the Descending Dragon” in the Vietnamese language. The bay consists of a dense cluster of 3000 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean.
While exploring the bay, you feel lost in a legendary world of stone islands. There is Man’s Head Island, which resembles a man standing and looking towards the mainland. Dragon Island looks like a dragon hovering above the turquoise water. La Vong Island resembles an old man fishing. There are also the islands of the Sail, and many more. They have named 989 Islands.

Feedback of a traveller visiting Halong Bay

Today was one of the best days so far on my trip for pure holiday indulgence. We got a bus from Hanoi the 4 hours to Halong Bay warf. The journey was not bad, the first part Tho (the guide) told us lots of interesting history and then we stopped off at a craft shop where a nice lady gave me a chop stick holder with a dragon fly on! The rest of the way most of us dozed and we arrived to the throng of tourists very quickly.
Our boat was lovely. It had 3 levels, below deck were the sleeping cabins, which were really clean and had a fully functioning bathroom! The main deck had a great dining area and bar and then the top was the sun deck – bliss! Arrival drink finished we set off and left the rest of the boats and the newly developed Halong city in the distance.

Now, think a bit like in James Bond’s Goldfinger, and you’ll get the idea of the many “monolithic limestone islands” we were sailing by. Lunch was served pretty much as soon as we set off. It was delicious! After that we went up on the sun deck and chilled out, seeing some local fishing boats and homes floating on the water.

We stopped off to visit a huge cave called Hang Sung Sot, which had loads of stalactites and stalagmites inside, some of which Tho tried to tell us where shaped like various animals. Another one was rather weird shaped and lit up in pink – apparently it was a cannon!!
Back on the boat we did a bit of a circle because some of the group where doing kayaking and one was broken but that was fine. I was happy reading my book on the sun deck.
Another really great day on the Vietnam Experience!…..