Before hitting busy Hanoi Johannes and I decided to go to Cat Ba Island by ferry. As I have been to Halong Bay 3 year ago I wasn’t keen on another 3 days/ 2 nights boat trip – which actually was quite nice back in 2013. Check out my Tripadvisor review.

So we flew into Hai Phong and took the local ferry over to Cat Ba Island. We went on the slow ferry – which apparently cost the same like the speed boat (150k dong – local price is 90k dong) but took around 3 hours. It was a nice boat trip, very relaxed with nice weather and we could chill outside. So nothing to complain about as we had enough time and no time constraints. We explored the island by bike and relaxed over a beer or two.

Cat Ba Town is also getting touristy and they are building many new hotels, but its a good location if you want to explore the island and trek in the national parks, head for a boat trip or go on a Solo Deep Water Climbing tour. Check out my post here.

In my opinion 3 days are enough to explore the island, jump on a boat and do the climbing part. Great fun but not much party on the island. There is a hippie place 10km west from Cat Ba Town, called Woodstock Beach Camp and is very chilled place. If you don’t mind having many restaurants around this is your place to hang out.