Lan Ha Bay: beaches, islands and cruises

Where is Lan Ha Bay?

Lan Ha Bay lies east and south-east of Cat Ba Island and south of Ha Long Bay, in Hải Phòng (Hai Phong) city’s Cát Hải special zone. Day boats and overnight cruises start from the Cat Ba side.

The map shows where the bay lies against Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba.

What to see and do in Lan Ha Bay

Day boats visit the floating fishing village of Cái Bèo, small island beaches (Cát Dứa, Ba Trái Đào and the Vạn Bội sand bar), small caves (Hang Sáng, Hang Tối and Hoa Cương) and the Áng Thảm lagoon. Kayak and rowing-boat services have been suspended since 15 November 2024.

• Cai Beo floating village. The best-known floating fishing village on the Hai Phong side, reached by boat from Bến Bèo, with fish farms and seafood. Counts of its households differ, so the fair figure is a few hundred.
• Island beaches. Cát Dứa 1 and 2, two curved beaches on Monkey Island; Ba Trái Đào, whose name means Three Peaches, with white sand and clear water; and the Vạn Bội sand bar. Press accounts describe swimming at these beaches, and no rule against it was found on the Hai Phong side. The town beaches, Cát Cò 1, 2 and 3, belong to Cat Ba Island and lie outside the bay.
• Small caves. Hang Sáng and Hang Tối, the Light and Dark caves, and Hoa Cương cave sit on the boat routes. They are small; the large show caves are in Ha Long Bay.
• Áng Thảm lagoon. A brackish inner lake about 2 km from Cát Cò beach, roughly 245 m by 145 m, entered through a rock crevice about 1 m wide and about 6 m above the sea. The entrance is slippery and edged with sharp oyster shells.
• Việt Hải village. A land village inside Cat Ba National Park, reached by a trek of about 10 km (about four hours) from the park centre or by boat. Rooms cost 500,000 to 700,000 VND in bungalows and 200,000 to 300,000 VND in homestays (2023).
• Cat Ba langurs. The Critically Endangered langurs live on steep limestone cliffs about 100 to 150 m up, through the Lan Ha part of the archipelago. Sightings are chance events, and no langur-viewing tour was found.

A 2022 guide described three standard boat routes, and operators vary them.

Lan Ha Bay cruises

Day boats and hourly-hire boats leave from Bến Bèo (Cai Beo pier) in Cat Ba town, and overnight cruises are sold from one night up to three days and two nights. No official Lan Ha tariff was found, so the prices below are dated press figures.

Visitors buy the bay ticket and hire their boat at Bến Bèo. Where overnight cruises board has not been reported since the Gót ferry dock closed on 1 March 2024, so read the pick-up point on the booking. In early 2026 overnight cruises on Ha Long and Lan Ha ran at about 70 to 75% occupancy, with some days full. Ha Long Bay’s price band, about 2.5 to 4 million VND a person for a standard two-day, one-night cruise, does not apply here.

Storms reach this side too. Hai Phong’s transport department orders boats to safe moorings before a storm (before noon on 6 September 2024 for Typhoon Yagi), and overnight cruises on both bays were cancelled from 5 September that year. Two fatal collisions between tour boats have happened on the bay: in the Cửa Cái area on 19 June 2022, and at the Vạn Bội sand bar on 14 June 2026, when a wooden boat with 10 passengers was hit from behind and sank, everyone was pulled out and one woman died. Hai Phong ordered an investigation and an audit of passenger tour boats.

Since 1 April 2026 a passenger service links Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay, with tickets from 4 April at the two Ha Long ports, and since 1 May 2025 licensed Cat Ba tour boats may work Ha Long routes VHL3 to VHL6. Its fares and crossing time were not published; the bays compared page sets out what is known, and the cruises page covers boat types, fees and safety.

Getting to Lan Ha Bay

No road bridge reaches Cat Ba: the 5.443 km sea bridge that opened on 2 September 2017 reaches Cát Hải island only. From Hà Nội (Hanoi) allow roughly 3 to 3.5 hours to Cat Ba town by expressway, ferry and road, then a boat into the bay.

The usual way in is the car ferry from the Đồng Bài terminal to Cái Viềng, with the cable car, fast boats from Hai Phong and a passenger ferry from Tuần Châu (Tuan Chau) as alternatives. Queues at weekends and holidays can add hours, so check the crossing before you set out; the Cat Ba Island page lists every route with its dated fares and times.

Lan Ha Bay and the World Heritage listing

On 16 September 2023 the World Heritage Committee extended the Ha Long Bay property to include the Cat Ba archipelago, which brought Lan Ha Bay and Cat Ba National Park inside it.

The decision came at the Committee’s extended 45th session in Riyadh, at about 21:40 Vietnam time, and renamed the property Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago (Vịnh Hạ Long - Quần đảo Cát Bà). It is a natural property under criteria (vii) and (viii), and Viet Nam’s first World Heritage property spanning two provincial-level units, run jointly by Quảng Ninh and Hai Phong. The property now covers 656.5 km², with a 341.4 km² buffer zone, and 1,133 islands: 775 in Ha Long Bay and 358 in the Cat Ba archipelago.

The values quoted at inscription include sea-flooded tower karst at its final stage of erosion and seven linked island and marine ecosystems, from rainforest and mangroves to coral reefs and brackish lakes, and the Cat Ba langur is the headline species. For visitors the listing has meant the kayak halt of November 2024 and the new links with Ha Long since 2025 and 2026; no heritage-specific entrance charge, zone closure or visitor cap was found. IUCN’s World Heritage Outlook, finalised on 11 October 2025, rates the property “significant concern”, naming mass tourism, more than 1,000 tour boats across the property, water pollution and waste, and building without enough environmental assessment. The history and geology page tells the longer story.

Questions visitors ask