Lan Ha Bay Boutique Cruise 3d/2n: Kayaking - Swimming & Biking Viet Hai Villages

We had the most amazing time and would definitely recommend this tour, taking you away from the busy ha long bay. The crew were great, lucky was a fantastic guide and the food was incredible.

The tour was designed to discover many amazing things around the Lan ha bay & Halong bay. I so impress with the biking & kayaking time on the second day. Everything is beautiful here! Nothing bad to say. Just highly recommend!

The best cruise I have ever been on! Such an amazing experience that I will never forget. The food and scenery was to die for!!. The tour guides I had were both incredible, I had Vu and Ha as the guides on my cruise, they were they had such incredible knowledge on everything we did on this trip. I highly recommend this cruise, definitely value for money! The rooms were small but cozy and the views from the bedroom window were stunning! Kayaking was definitely the highlight, and we even got to see monkeys!😁

Thank you so much for the lovely experience on 3 days/ 2 nights, we've loved every moments. We will recommend this trip for your hospitality and friendly services. Keep it up the good work. Kayaking & Cycling was the best part!

The staff were helpful & polite. We enjoyed the kayaking very much, we did three times: first afternoon, second afternoon & third morning. The biking around the villages on the second day was very good as well. They offered excellent food for Eater but more tofu for Vegetarian will be perfect!

Ha was the guide and she was spot on. Great cruise and amazing time to have on a peaceful place. Would totally recommend the tour for activities like kayaking, visiting national park and meeting people from various parts of the world

Halong Bay is beautiful. The food on-board was very good. The guides did a great job and were excellent with kids. The cabins were basic and small. All boats in Halong Bay follow a similar itinerary, so there’s always other groups of people. While the boat is basic, and doesn’t have the same amenities as some of the newer boats, its smaller size ensures there aren’t hoards of people around. The transfer process is long - boat to bus to ferry by foot and back to bus on return - and could be improved.

We thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of this cruise trip. All staff were very friendly and tour guides went our of their best way to make us all feel comfortable. The biking, walking trip in the second morning & fishing villages, kayaking...were informative & interesting!

Our cruise was all kinds of fantastic. Our three hosts (Ha, Tom and Vu) were enthousiastic, funny and helpful where needed. The food was some of the best we had in Vietnam, and that included meals for a vegetarian. Loved the scenery, loved the activities, nice cabins with comfortable beds. Highly recommended!

Did 2D/1N trip.Efficient pick up(though 1/2 hour early) from hotel in small coach. Guide explained journey to boat and we had a comfort stop part way. All asked to get on a boat and sit inside due to the rough waves in the harbour (good health and safety). After a drink all one and 2 night guests were asked to go upstairs whilst day trippers were served lunch. We then transferred to Lan Ha legend itself. Had cabin on upper deck. Were told some cabins on lower deck very noisy due to engines so sleep difficult for them. Had a lovely lunch, went kayacking through caves and had option to swim before a spring roll making class - more to it than you think! Had a wonderful dinner on the top deck. Itinerary said squid fishing,karaoke and silly games. Fortunately( in our opinion ) only squid fishing took place - though nothing caught which seems to be usual but it was fun trying. After a comfortable night had a reasonable breakfast - toast , omelette,fruit. Then more kayaking and net fishing(caught nothing). Sailed back through to Halong bay and was told we would be transferring to a speedboat to take us to the harbour. Life jackets issued and off we went. Arrived at harbour and were taken to a steep wall and asked to climb out. Fortunately our boat guide Linh was with us and she refused. Then told by boat man to take life jackets off and was taken to some steps but officials denied us landing. Eventually they took us to a neighbouring deserted beach and we jumped off into the water with all our bags. The poor guide was in tears. apparently usual boat couldnt take us that day and this was a new boat - certainly not one to be used again. We all felt like illegal immigrants and carrying bags over a sandy beach was not easy. Unfortunately that memory spoiled the overall experience

Thanks for changing & FREE upgraded our room. Thanks for carrying us both guides. All crew was nice & friendly. Laces we're visited were amazing. The second day was excellent!

A bit disappointing when check-in on board because all other boat around us was very luxury & nicer this boat. But on the second day, when we transferred to the Day boat & met others who stayed on some other luxury boats, we recognized that they paid much money for that & we're happy with our budget option with friendly services & fair price. our group on Lan Ha legend cruise was smaller than luxury boat & everyone can interact together! Every boat does the same same route & it's up your budget!

Everything was sababa! Extremely friendly people, tour guide was really frienly, fun & flexible when it came to arrange transportation back to hotel, he made the trip more relaxing!

I appreciate frequent updates about the plan for the day. The staff on board were helpful. It's very good mix of activities with swimming, kayaking, cycling. Cycling on Cat Ba island was very nice. Prior for Booking, email communication was excellent + prompt. The size of the cruise is small + intimate. The guides are lovely!

Our guide Thang was excellent & hlepful. He helps me to contact my driver about the next trip & I am very grateful for his help. The trip was great, giving me unforgettable memories!

I had a great time on the Lan Ha Legend. Though the boat is older and not quite a luxurious experience, you spend very little time in your room and most of the time enjoying the sun deck while on the boat or doing off boat activities. The day activities were amazing...incredible views while kayaking and such a neat experience with the bike ride on Cat Ba Island. The dinners on the boat were also extremely tasty, I was very pleased with this! Pickup in Hanoi was seamless. At the end, I was flying out of Hai Phong, so they dropped me at another boat that was going to a different port closer to the airport making my airport transfer easier and less expensive. That thoughtfulness was really appreciated. If you are looking for a fun experience with great day time activities while meeting new people, this is the boat for you.

We had a great time on this boat. Our two guides Ha and Vu were extremely helpful and informative. We appreciated h thy e smallness of the boat and group and particularly enjoyed the all day trip to Cat BA island, a full day of cycling, kayaking and swimming as well as visiting some local villagers. The whole trip was beautiful and we highly recommend it.

Small boat & small group was my style. Services were outstanding. Tom & all the staff were very nice and helpful. Thanks to them, we spent an excellent cruise. We will definitely recommend the tour and will do it again!

We chose the 3D/2N tour to Lan Ha Bay for our family of 4 as we heard that Ha Long Bay was more crowded and further to get to. The tour went very smoothly, from pick up in Old Quarter, Hanoi to all the excursions including kayaking, swimming, and cycling on Cat Ba Island. The food was excellent and the staff very lovely. The boat is smaller than the luxury cruises surrounding us, but it was intimate with no more than 20 people. The rooms are small and basic, but we spent almost no time there except for sleeping. They arranged for a private car to the airport right after the tour and the email communication beforehand was excellent. If you want a good mix of activities and relaxation at a reasonable cost, this is a wonderful tour.

We're transferred to the Day boat after breakfast to join different activities & group. The Day boat have no bed room but nice, huge sundeck & friendly staff. The biking around Viet Hai village was interesting. The kayaking area & swimming was brilliant. It's pristine place & very clean with cool water & small beach!

The cruise was really nice, mostly through Lan Ha bay which is less travelled than halong bay but still very beautiful. I think that's better than Halong because you don't see as much rubbish floating. I saw quiet a bit when we got close to Halong, the rubbish is a bit depressing. Lan Ha is a good choice Very glad we did the 2 nights well worth it as it's more relaxed and you see more of the bay. The 2nd day activities where great. The day boat that collected us was nice and their guide Steven was fantastic so friendly, kind and informative. The 1st guide Jack on the main boat was a lot of fun too, lead us on a great kayaking trip, grey guide. 2nd guide Ha was friendly and made an effort to make sure we were happy. The boat is older and a bit basic but fine for the money and we were happy. Transfer there was good but on the way back it was an old mini bus without seatbelt that worked. They really need to find safe drivers I fear these mini buses in Asia.

My friend and I stayed on board for 3 days and 2 nights. We spent a really nice time there. The crew, the service, the food,...everything was quite good. We also did plenty activities and our guide Hà made our stay so easy and fun. It was nice to hear some stories and learn about vietnamise culture. We highly recommend it :)

We went on the 3days, 2 nights trip with Lan Ha legend cruise & that’s unforgettable. Boat was nice & the bed was comfy, air-conditioning worked well and the bathroom was clean with hot shower. Food was plentiful & delicious. The second was perfect with Biking in the morning, kayaking & swimming at the pristine places in the afternoon. Highly recommend!

This cruise trip was the best experience in Vietnam. Kayaking, swimming, Biking trip excellent. The Lan Ha bay was very beautiful & less touristy. Our group was small enough to make friends from others. Highly recommend!

That's a budget but amazing small group & size boat. Scheduled was excellent with pristine places & less touristy visited. We would love kayaking & swimming & biking very much!

The trip was really great & worth it. Great Jumping onboard and great tour guide – very friendly & funny. Excellent daily meals, Kayaking was the best part. No complaint

We've enjoyed this cruise trip very much because of small group & excellent schedule. The second day was amazing with biking around villages & kayaking, swimming at the nice beach, lagoons. Services met our expectation, highly recommend!

The tour guide on the second day did not spoke English well but he was very friendly, did biking through villages & kayaking with us. Lan Ha legend cruise & team was so friendly, did great activities & route where less touristy than other!

We absolutely recommend this cruise trip to everyone. The Lan Ha bay was so beautiful. All activities were very exciting: Kayaking, swimming in the tranquil bay. Biking through Villages in Cat Ba national park...don't miss it!

We had amazing 3 days/ 2 nights with this cruise trip. We loved all activities: Kayaking, swimming, biking, fishing...Everything was smoothly from the beginning to the end. Staff & crew were all friendly & happy!

This cruise option was a middle range in Halong bay. We can pay more for luxury but we loved to book this Lan ha legend because of small enough & traditional boat & that's correct. Biking & kayaking on the second day was brilliant. BBQ dinner on the top deck was perfect. Highly recommend!

We've had amazing experience on this cruise trip. kayaking & swimming at the pristine lagoons & beaches was perfect. A boutique & small group was a highlight!

The second day was very good. We did a biking trip through the Viet Hai villages, kayaking & swimming in the afternoon at the perfect lagoons!

We enjoyed our time on our cruise thanks to the wonderful new friends we made - I guess that is one of the joys of travelling. There is no doubt the scenery is stunning and that is why we wanted to come. Added to this we had trekking, kayaking, swimming and bike riding. The visit to the pearl farm on the last day was a waste of time so if I did this again I would have stayed relaxing on the big boat. I can attest (as did all the other passengers) the boat does not look anything like the photos on the internet - it was an old thing in need of a paint job and the rooms were small and damp. The bed was rock hard (and I like a hard mattress) so a good nights sleep was almost impossible. The food on the first night was simply stunning - a Vietnamese BBQ feast! The food went slightly downhill after that but was still good - it’s just that he first night was so amazingly good nothing else could compare!! Breakfast was minimal both mornings with just toast and strawberry jam and an omelette. Our first tour guide was Vu and he was exceptional telling many stories and sharing the Vietnamese culture. At night he made sure he brought all the tourists together and taught us fun games and kept us amused with group puzzles and the like. He stayed up with us all taking till everyone went to bed. He left the next morning and we had Rocket as our guide fir the day on the Island. He was a local and looked after us well. When he left we had a new tour guide, Hom, but he never said hello or introduced himself at all which was odd. He told us dinner was ready then he left and none of us saw him at all the rest of the afternoon and evening. We paid $438 USD for the two of us although we could find many cheaper deals in Hanoi but you don’t know what you are hung them get. All in all I enjoyed the trip to the magnificent Ha Long Bay and my highlight was the new friends we made on our trip.

We booked onto the 2N 3D tour with Lan Ha Legend on booking.com (which didn't include transfers) so booked the return transfer via email afterwards. All very straight forward... Until... Day 1 On the first day we got picked up promptly in a nice air con minibus which was great. Stopped off at the ceramics factory as expected en route and then got to the main boat via speedboat from Ha Long Bay. Once on the boat we were told by the guide to sit down and eat lunch before checking in but she was then interrupted and told we had to move boats as the one we were sat on was broken and not yet fixed. Not ideal (and the guide definitely wasn't expecting it) but were very fortunate as we were upgraded to a much nicer, newer, spacious and higher rated boat (UniCharm) - great! On the new boat we had a delicious lunch, then went kayaking, swimming and then had BBQ dinner after a short cooking demo. Day 2 This day got more hectic. We had groups on the new boat on all sorts of itineraries (Lan Ha 3 day/Lan Ha 2 day/new boat 3 day/new boat 2 day etc) and so there was a lot of confusion about what we were doing and when. Eventually a group of us 6 were told we would be kayaking (again) and biking which sounded fun. At 9.30am our guide approached us asking why we were still here and where our day boat was - we didn't know, we were hoping she did! Anyway, a day boat arrived which took us on our day. We didn't realised at this point we were saying bye to our guide who we never saw again. The day trip was a lot of fun despite the bad rain - biking on Cat Ba island, and kayaking to a beach where we explored a couple of beaches and swam. Back at the boat on the second night was the identical cooking demo (which we skipped) and the same BBQ as the night before. I'm definitely not complaining about the repeated meal which was delicious! In the evening we were introduced to a new guide but I'm still not convinced he was for us as part of the Lan Ha cruise. He told us we were biking at Cat Ba the next day (which we had already done). He seemed surprised to hear that it would be a repeat for us and said that we would actually have to pay extra if we wanted to do it again. If we didn't pay we could just stay at the boat. Day 3 As expected based on last night's conversation, we stayed on the boat all morning. No alternative itinerary was planned for us so that was disappointing. We had a fantastic brunch before departing the boat. The transfer back was ok but oddly we were introduced to a 3rd guide at the bus. By this point we just gave up trying to work out what was going on and just went with it! So in summary, the organisation of this trip and the itinerary was a disaster! We did repeated activities and nothing on the 3rd day which was a shame. We appreciate that there was an issue with the boat and that sometimes these things happen, but the lack of organisation and communication about our itineraries could have very easily been overcome! What saved this was the upgraded boat which was absolutely beautiful and we were so lucky to meet 4 others from USA who were in exactly this situation! We laughed our way through the chaos and had a thoroughly enjoyable time! Not sure I'd be booking with Lan Ha in the future though!

I researched heavily before selecting 3 day/2 night Lan Ha Legend because they take you do the more remote parts of the Bay where there are less tourists and pollution. I will say that the first day and third day were wonderful! Kayaking on the bay is a must, and we went through caves in Lan Ha bay and there were so many little jellyfish in the water! Way cool. VO AND LING ARE AMAZING TOUR GUIDES! The reason they are getting an Average rating is because Day 2 was Terrible. I felt like we wasted a day of our vacation. We were told that the weather was too bad so the itinerary was changed to a tour on Cat Ba Island. The "tour" involved a tour guide who barely spoke English, waiting by the side of the road for 2 hours because the car "brakes were broken," and only spending 10 minutes inside Cat Ba National Park. We were sorely disappointed and they did give us a small, partial refund. But beware...if the "weather is bad" don't waste your time on the back up plan--Go back to Hanoi with the rest of the 2 day/1 night people.

My wife and I did the 3 day/2 night cruise with Lan Ha Legend Cruises and were very impressed. With spectacular views, amazing food (both in quantity and quality), a variety of different types of fun activities, and friendly guides, this was one of the top highlights of our trip to SE Asia. We considered booking one of the luxury cruise ships and are so glad we didn’t - I truly believe this smaller boat with fewer frills was a better experience for half the cost! If you have time, the 3D/2N option is also worth it to have a full day with no travel and the chance to explore Cat Ba island!

Our group of 5 adults absolutely loved this 2-day cruise. Our biggest regret was that we didn’t stay longer (3 days or more). Vu was an excellent tour guide and storyteller. He was very knowledgeable about the bays, history of Vietnam, fishing and Vietnamese cooking. He was enthusiastic and friendly which made the cruise very enjoyable!! The excursions off the boat were a lot of fun. We loved kayaking through the caves and found that enough time was given to really enjoy the experience – we did not feel rushed to get back to the boat. The Vietnamese cooking class on board was hilarious! We had a blast attempting to make the food and laughing at our lopsided spring rolls. Every single meal provided on board was outstanding. There were numerous dishes to try and Vu and the staff were very accommodating if you have food allergies. There was so much food served at each meal – no chance of going hungry! The staff on board were also excellent. Very friendly and attentive. The mixed drinks were delicious and flowed steadily. I HIGHLY recommend this cruise to anyone! It is absolutely worth it to take the route “less travelled” and go through beautiful Lan Ha Bay/Cat Ba Bay rather than the overpopulated Halong Bay cruises. The views are stunning and it isn’t as crowded with boats. If you have the opportunity, stay for 3 days/2 nights. You won’t regret it!

My partner and I did the 2 day 1 night cruise and it was awesome. We had a lot of fun enjoying the amazing sights of Lan Ha Bay, kayaking and swimming in beautiful secluded lagoons. The food was delicious and the cocktails were excellent. Our guide Hung was exceptional. He was very knowledgeable, had very good English, and shared a lot of interesting in-depth historical/cultural information about Vietnam that we hadn't heard anywhere else during our stay in Vietnam. He was also very accommodating after the cruise ended. There was a miscommunication with the travel agent about transportation to Cat Ba, and Hung personally went out of his way to make sure we got to our hotel in Cat Ba at no extra charge. I highly recommend this cruise!

We chose the legend because of the consistently positive reviews and the well-made photos. Unfortunately, the boat is old, dirty (stains on the bed linen) and very worn. The staff was very helpful but had little knowledge of English. Food is fine. I recommend the boat only if you would like to travel in a small group on a fishing boat.

We spent the first two days with a great guide and great activities. But great disappointment on the condition of the dirty, poorly maintained, rather bagpacker style, lack of hygiene!

Excellent cruise, great cabins and bathrooms. Very friendly staff and exceptional Limh guide, always attentive to our needs. Thanks to her, the cruise was wonderful. A 10 rating

Our Vu guide is very friendly and taught us a lot about the bay and its activities. The wooden boat and not very new surprises a little at first, but is comfortable, well equipped and very friendly. The crew, as always in Vietnam, were very welcoming.