Bai Tu Long Bay: the quieter bay next to Ha Long

Where is Bai Tu Long Bay?

Bai Tu Long Bay lies north-east of Ha Long Bay in Quảng Ninh, off Vân Đồn (Van Don) and Cẩm Phả (Cam Pha). It is a separate national park, outside the World Heritage property, and no official area or island count exists for the whole bay.

The map shows the bay beside Ha Long Bay.

Is Bai Tu Long Bay better than Ha Long Bay?

It suits different travellers. The press describes Bai Tu Long Bay as little known to international visitors, with trips built around inhabited islands, villages and beaches, while Ha Long Bay has the large show caves and the better-established official routes.

In its favour

• It is little known to visitors, especially international ones, according to press reports from 2023 and 2024.
• Many islands are lived on, so trips centre on villages and beaches.
• A 2025 guide calls Quan Lan less crowded than Cô Tô or Ha Long Bay.

What to weigh

• “Quieter” rests on press descriptions, because nobody has counted visitors or boats on the bay. For scale, Ha Long Bay had about 10,000 visitors a day and about 500 registered boats in March 2026.
• The caves on its routes, Hang Nhà Trò and Hang Phất Cờ, have no published size; the large documented show caves (Sửng Sốt, Thiên Cung and Đầu Gỗ) are in Ha Long Bay.
• The official routes are new: published in July 2024, launched on 29 March 2025, and still missing from the Board’s visitor site, which lists only Ha Long’s VHL1 to VHL8. The park’s own site describes itself as in a test phase.
• Costs are unsettled while the sightseeing fee remains unpublished.
• After the road to Ao Tiên port comes a boat of 40 minutes to 1.5 hours to Quan Lan, so the islands want two or three spare days and are no day trip from Hạ Long.

The bays compared page sets Bai Tu Long beside Ha Long and Lan Ha, figure by figure.

What to see in Bai Tu Long Bay

The official routes visit Hang Nhà Trò and Hang Phất Cờ, pearl and village areas, and the beaches of Quan Lan and Minh Chau. Vung Viêng fishing village is on Ha Long’s route VHL4, and the connecting routes continue from there.

• Caves. Hang Nhà Trò, on BTL1 on the Bản Sen side about 2 km from the commune, has animal-shaped stalactites, and shells and fossils suggest people once lived there. Hang Phất Cờ is on BTL2, but no account of its size or features was found. In the park area Cái Đé is a tunnel cave on Cái Lim island that can be entered only at low tide, beside Hang Dơi; Hang Đông Trong lies about 500 m from the Van Don pier, and the Hang Quan system on Thắng Lợi was a wartime garrison.
• Quan Lan and Minh Chau beaches. Quan Lan island has two beach centres about 12 km apart. Minh Chau has gently sloping white sand and is calmer and quieter; the Quan Lan side is busier, though a 2025 guide calls its main bay beach calm and good for families. The 2026 guide names Quan Lan, Minh Chau, Việt Mỹ, Sơn Hào and Robinson beaches, and gives April to June as the best months, with storms and boat suspensions from July to September. Rooms on the two islands cost 300,000 to 3,500,000 VND a night, from homestays to resorts (March 2026).
• Village life and food. Sá sùng, the peanut worm, is dug from the tidal flats of Quan Lan and Minh Chau at low tide from February to October, mostly April to July, and only animals of 6 cm or more may be taken. Tu hài, the elephant-trunk clam, is farmed widely in the calm, plankton-rich water off Van Don. The Quan Lan communal-house festival runs from the 10th to the 20th day of the sixth lunar month, with the main day on the 18th.

The islands are reached by boat. A bridge of over 967 m joining Minh Chau and Quan Lan with Bản Sen island, at about 550 billion VND, was still a plan at the end of 2025.

Bai Tu Long Bay cruises

Official Bai Tu Long day routes board at Ao Tiên port in Van Don (BTL1 to BTL6) and at Cam Pha (BTL7 to BTL10, launch not confirmed), and from Ha Long’s ports the way in is route VHL4 plus a connecting route, or an overnight cruise of three days and two nights. A fare band for Bai Tu Long cruising has not been published.

None of the official day itineraries starts at Hòn Gai, and no cruise that really boards there was found. Overnight cruises continue from Tuần Châu (Tuan Chau) through Ha Long Bay into Bai Tu Long: a “Heritage Journey of Ha Long” runs for three days and two nights, and a 109.9 m vessel with 55 cabins began a three-day Ha Long and Bai Tu Long programme from Tuan Chau in May 2024, without a published fare. A 46-cabin hybrid steel overnight boat is planned for the bay in 2027, and the Board repeated in September 2026 its target of steel hulls for all tour boats on Ha Long and Bai Tu Long bays by 2030, a plan that is not yet a rule.

Rules follow the Ha Long framework. In March 2026 Quảng Ninh ordered a review of the technical standards of every tour boat on both bays, with round-the-clock monitoring, and dining or parties in caves are not licensed. Storm suspensions reach this bay too: the 13 June 2025 notice set separate stop times for the Minh Chau to Cô Tô area, and the online thunderstorm warning system launched by July 2026 covers Ha Long and Bai Tu Long bays. The cruises page covers boat types, fees and safety.

How far is Bai Tu Long Bay from Hanoi?

Ao Tiên port, where the official routes that opened in 2025 board, is about 200 km from Hà Nội (Hanoi), mostly on expressway: about 3 hours by limousine (2025), a little less by car in good traffic. From there it is 40 minutes to 1.5 hours by boat to Quan Lan.

Van Don International Airport lies about 20 km from Cam Pha and about 53 km by road from the Hạ Long International Passenger Port. It has few scheduled domestic flights and its routes have changed several times, so check current flights before planning around it (checked October 2026). The Hanoi to Ha Long Bay page compares the road and air options.

Questions visitors ask