Travel Guide

Published on December 4, 2011, 10:21 pm

HALONG BAY DESTINATIONS - HALONG BAY TRAVEL GUIDE


There is an alternative way of getting to Cat Ba Island if you are pressed for time and cannot take in Halong Bay on your tour. You can take an hydrofoil from the Hai Phong Seaport.
With an area of 356 square km, Cat Ba encompasses forested zones, coastal mangroves, freshwater swamps, beaches, caves and waterfalls. In 1986, the Northeast side of the island was designated a National Park and includes a protected marine zone. 

HALONG BAY TRAVEL GUIDE

Cat Ba Island & Cat ba national park

A trip to Cat Ba island can done separately or in combination with a visit to Halong Bay. Cat Ba Island is the largest island in the Cat Ba Archipelago that consists of 350 limestone outcrops adjacent to Halong Bay. This is an oasis where you can be gone for one or for several days. If you start from the Halong Bay Wharf, it will take you four hours by boat, with stopovers for swimming, visiting spectacular karst and eating fresh seafood. You can contemplate the beautiful scenery of Halong Bay before reaching the island. 
There is an alternative way of getting to Cat Ba Island if you are pressed for time and cannot take in Halong Bay on your tour. You can take an hydrofoil from the Hai Phong Seaport.
With an area of 356 square km, Cat Ba encompasses forested zones, coastal mangroves, freshwater swamps, beaches, caves and waterfalls. In 1986, the Northeast side of the island was designated a National Park and includes a protected marine zone.

Tuan Chau island 

 Tuan Chau island’s name is the combination between ‘linh tuan’ (the patrolman) and ‘tri chau’ (district chief) because in the feudal time, the royal army set up a guard station here to patrol and defend the borderland.

The first project of great significance was to link Tuan Chau and the National Highway No18 by building a road. The work was officially started on February 28th, 1998. All company staff had to overcome numerous hardships to achieve this difficult task, which translated people’s dream into reality.Tuan Chau has become well- known to both international and domestic tourists as an attractive destination 

Ti Top island

Got its name from Ghermann Titov, a former Soviet Union hero, Ti Top Island displays a beach shaped like a crescent moon and sand that has been washed to a snowy white by the tide.

In 1962, this tiny island had the honor of receiving a visit from astronaut Ghermann Titov, a hero of the former Soviet Union, accompanied by President Ho Chi Minh. To perpetuate the remembrance of their visit, Uncle Ho named the place Ti Top Island. It has now become an attractive beach for tourists and has various of tourist services.

Thirty-five years afterwards, in 1997, Ti Top returned to the island having his name. Deeply moved, he wrote in the souvenir book of the Management Board of Halong Bay: "My deepest thanks to destiny, which has allowed me to come back to this tiny island.” It has become a beach attracting many visitors.

Located about 14 km east from Bai Chay Wharf, Ti Top Beach takes the shape of a crescent encompassing the island. Small though it might be, it wins kudos for its quiet and airy atmosphere, as well as its alluring landscape.

The beach boasts pristine white sand, clear and blue water and small waves, which make it ideal for recreational activities like swimming and other sea sports. At present, there has a Ti Top Beach bar in the island which also provides swimming costumes, floats and lukewarm shower. Fresh water was carried to the island from inland. Swimming at Ti Top Beach is really enjoyable. After swimming, you can enjoy fresh sea food specialties in an ideal environment of immense sky and sunshine.

This beach is very beautiful and is well worth a visit to cool off when the heats starts to get to you. If you spend a day at the beach and elect to take a deckchair, you will be asked to buy either a baguette, some lovely pineapple or a drink, otherwise you will have to pay for the seat. During the full moon, you are able to wander around until late at night.

The island has become a popular tourist destination. On summer holidays, the famous beach of Ti Top Island cools off visitors heading to Quang Ninh Province and you will surely have a chance to join in an interesting journey to the natural wonder...

Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha bay belongs to the Ha Long bay community, a World Natural Heritage, famous for its dreamlike and fresh beauty. Guests will have a chance to imagine freely about small islands and stalactite with special and miraculous forms when visiting Amazing cave, which is the largest and the most beautiful in Ha Long bay. Visiting Tiptop cave and swimming in the bay will give you an interesting vocation day.

Steering Kayak Boat and fishing is the ideal choice for golden-sunlight days at Lan Ha and Ha Long Bay. The water surface is glistening. Kayak Boats quietly drift on the bay. Somewhere, a boat drifts freely and seem to have a good time with playful fishes. All of those beautiful sceneries, you can only find at Cat Ba Island.

Trong cave 

Hang Trong, or Drum Cave, refers to a nearby cave that earned its name as a result of the sound made as the wind blows through its stalagmites and stalactites.The waters here are quiet for swimming and there is a lot to explore by kayak. 

Depending on conditions there are as many as five potential anchorage spots. Though Hang Trong is the most used, conditions may mean the vessel's captain opts for another site.

Thien Long Cave

Thien Long is located in Phu Long town, which is isolated from the area around.

Going around the cave, you will see the root of hundred year Si tree which was planted on the top of the mountain (Si is a plant symbolized something old and holy, and usually grown in temples, pagodas, and communal houses in villages). The cave’s air is so cool and fresh; at times some bats flew over our heads and made us nervous. You could go around the cave and enjoy the extraordinary figures of stones; freely to imagine and guess what form stones are. That is very interesting!

Dau Go Cave

The grotto is on Driftwood Island. Seen from afar, the entrance to the grotto appears to be blue, and has a shape similar to that of a jellyfish. After 90 steps up the island, the entrance is reached. The ceiling of the grotto is about 25 m. Hundreds of stalactites falling down from the roof of the grotto look like a waterfall.

The grotto is divided into three main parts.

The exterior is a room with a vault full of natural light. Many forms may be seen in the rock formations of the chamber, depending on the imagination of the visitor of course.

Crossing the first chamber, one enters the second chamber through a narrow passage. The light here is mysterious, and new images appear in the stone. It makes us having a fear and be inquisitive.

The third chamber of the grotto is widely opened. At the end of the grotto is a well of clear water. Looking up in the dim light we recognize that surrounded is the image of an ancient citadel and a scuffle of elephants, horses, man with bristly sword and spear. All are making a rush and be petrified suddenly.

The name Driftwood Grotto came from a popular story of the resistance war against the Yuan - Mongolian aggressors. In a decisive battle, Tran Hung Dao was given the order to prepare many ironwood stakes here, to be planted on the riverbed of Bach Dang River. The remaining wooden pieces found in the grotto have given it its present name.

And the name Giau Go is associated with the legend that General Tran Hung Dao (1226-1300) hid ironwood stakes in preparation for the Bach Dang battle against the Yuan-Mongolian invaders.

Luon Cave

Luon Cave is situated on Bo Hon Island, 14km south of Bai Chay Beach, Quang Ninh Province.

In front of the grotto is Tortoise Islet and the Sky Gate is on the right. Here the cliffs stretch vertically out of the pure blue and smooth water.

Ba Ham Cave

Situated on the south-west side of Ha Long Bay, Ba Ham is found on Calf Head Island in Lan Ha Bay. This island is part of the range of islands at the farthest end of Ha Long Bay, bordering the immense zone Long Chau Sea. Ba Ham is situated in the middle of a narrow, rectangular area, with the all four sides enclosed by vertical cliffs.

That is a system comprising three wide and round pits, linked together by a narrow and meandering tunnel. Stalactites hang from the ceiling in a myriad of strange, colored forms.

The silence is disturbed only by the sounds of the boat’s oars. On the island are many species of plants such as orchids, Benjamin figs, banyans and cycads, which blossom throughout the year. It is also the home of yellow-haired monkeys, birds, flying squirrels and bats. Under the deep blue surface of the water are the animated lives of shrimp and fish.

Although 25 km from the shore, it has long been considered an ideal tourism zone. The entrance is a open semi-circular hole in the flat stone wall on the north-west side of the island, 4 to 5 m above the sea.

Starting from the entrance, tourists enter the first tunnel, which boasts a forest of stalactites and stalagmites in different shapes and various colors. They fall down the water surface like the roots of banyan or ficus trees. The deeper one pushes into the tunnel, the darker it becomes. The river is deep yet so clear that one can see shoals of fish swimming.

Kim Quy Cave

Kim Quy Grotto or Golden Tortoise Grotto is situated on Dam Nam Islet, with a peak 187 m above sea level. Dam Bac Islet is in the front of the grotto and Soi Sim Islet in the back.

The grotto is 100 m long and 5 to 10 m wide, running in a north-south direction.

A narrow way leads to the interior of the grotto where a stream flows. The stalactites here are snow-white and lightly hang from the ceiling.

It is linked to the ancient legend of the Golden Tortoise: after having helped Emperor Le Loi defeat his enemies, the Golden Tortoise took back the magic sword he had given him, and swam towards the sea. Arriving in Ha Long Bay, it met with so many evil spirits and demons hindering its journey that it remained to do battle. After having defeated them all, the Golden Tortoise was so exhausted that it searched for a grotto to rest in, and once inside, turned to stone.

Today in the grotto, it can be found dozing, still with ancient wounds covering its body. 

At the water-level, an arched entrance leads to the grotto, just at the base of the island. Passing through the pretty entrance, you come across a tranquil round lake, surrounded by luxuriant trees and high dangerous stone walls. Monkeys run to and fro in groups, Benjamin fig trees shade the landscape and many orchids hang their sweet-scented flowers. In the lake, many species abound: shrimp, fish, crab and cutlet-fish.

This is an enclosed group of islands. It connects with the sea via a 4-meter-wide, 100-meter-long, and 3-meter-high mouth. Inside the grotto, the 1-km2 brackish lake is surrounded by mountains. On the cliff one still find traces of fossils of fresh-water snails, which prove that men used to live there and this must have been a deep valley then.

The beauty of the site is the mingling of a number of factors: the mountain's size and form, the color of the water and the clouds.

Cat Co beach

Visiting the large beach of Cat Co, which is separated by a small range of mountain, you can swim in the blue and warm water, so clear that you can see the golden sand beneath.

The white-sand Cat Co beach make a great place to lounge around for the day. They are about 1 km southeast from Cat Ba town over a steep headland; and can be reached on foot or by motorbike.

Cat Co Beach is separated by a small hillock that can be climbed over in about 20 minutes. However, you can take the easier route along a new wooden seaside walkway around the mountain. The beach offers simple accommodation and camping.

The mountain adjacent to Cat Co Beach has a tunnel and fascinating caves and grottoes, such as Hang Luon, Khe Sau, Trung Trang, Gia Luan and Kim Cuong. Visiting these caves and grottoes you will get the feeling of the explorers, discovering the wonders and mysteries endowed by nature. The fauna living on the Cat Ba National Park is diverse: 20 kinds of animals, 69 kinds of birds, 20 kinds of reptiles, rare wild white - headed languor. Coming out of the caves and grottoes you should spend a little time to contemplate the sunset over Lan Ha Bay. On the golden background of the horizon and the dark blue of the sea, the heaving islets become multiform, the white sea-gulls hover and sea-eagles make circles in the sky, all beautifying the immense and fascinating space, and enchanting the visitors.

Cat Co Beach is a tourist spot, attractive for its natural beauty and wonders endowed by nature

Fighting Cock islet

Fighting Cook Islet or Trong Mai Islet is situated on the south-west side of Halong Bay, 5km from the tourist wharf near to Dinh Huong Islet. 

The islet looks like a pair of Cock & Hand in the sea.

In a somewhat large expanse of open sea, the island seems to grow up from the bottom of the deep emerald waters. At sunset, the island with the height of over 10 m is bright red and in a somewhat tottery position. Their tiny legs support heavy bodies, and it appears that one strong wave could throw the two stone blocks into the sea. However, hundreds of millions of years have passed, and the islet is still there.

The image of the islet is the logo of Halong Bay and Vietnam Tourism.


HALONG BAY TRAVEL