Looking for a Halong Bay tour?

Let us guess… you are in Hanoi, you want to go to Halong Bay and you hesitate about what tour and what agency to choose, don’t you?
Maybe we can help you.
Here some tips we consider VERY important to know:

1* There is a thing you must know: the more forums you check and the more people you ask, the more you will be confused.

2* Keep in mind this too: DO NOT VISIT THE BAY ON YOUR OWN.
If you do, you risk to pay more, to see less and, over all, to spend much more time traveling and looking for the things.

3* All agencies provide the same tours. You have 3 categories:
– standard (cheapest)
– superior
– deluxe
The ONLY differences are, theoretically, the room and the food. The rest is all the same.
We say theoretically because you have a high probability of sharing boat with other levels, eating the same and paying much more.

4* The more you pay the more probability you have to be disappointed.

5* How much you enjoy the visit depends on the people on board. It is a lottery, until you are not there you won’t know. Nobody can help you in that.

6* You have three different tours:
– one day. Everything in a rush.
– 2 days 1 night. Sleeping on the boat.
– 3 days 2 nights. First night on the boat, second in Cat Ba island.

7* There are some agencies who own their own cruise. They provide what they offer, but it is much more expensive.

OUR RECOMMENDATION:
Think what is the purpose of your tour: visit the Halong Bay. It doesn’t matter how much you pay or what boat you choose, absolutely everybody sees the same view.
Food? You are not going to eat worse than on land, why to worry about that?
Choose the CHEAPEST. You will feel less stressed about what you receive and enjoy more the tour.
Do not pay more than 30$ and you can even book it in at hostel, that way you can bargain.
1 night is good enough, but the true is that 2 can be nice as well, is up to you.

A team

When you don’t travel alone, the best thing you can do at first is not planning the trip itself, but organizing the group.
And we are not different.

What is what a team needs at the beginning? A “director of orchestra”. We all agree, Miguelito was the one. He knows the template of our trip, the most famous cities, temples, natural parks, beaches… anything could interests us but without those tourists who want to see what everybody already knows. What to pack, visas information… Not just that, the best bargaining and ok, the owner of the Guides.
Albertico is the one writing these sentences, it means, the blogger, altough Paul’s help is needed for the French version. The daddy giving the daily money to his kids, so the person collecting the money from everyone… and always paying 😦 Photographer amateur, most of the pictures you’ll see in Picasa are his.
Polo is the people networking. He takes care of Couchsurfing (so far so important) and is learning Spanish, that even if it isn’t really important for the team it keeps us entertained (not easy learning it here).

We all carry stuff in our bags. Medicines, books and personal care products are not few, do we distributed.

Everything is done in a balanced way. Roles can change and collaboration is key.

This post also available in:
Spanish
French

In Bangkok you are not allowed…

… to fuck.

Yes, it looks like taxists from Bangkok do not really like you do that in their cars.