Plan your visit: where to stay in Ha Long Bay, fees and days needed

Where to stay in Ha Long Bay

Stay in Bãi Cháy for a first visit: it has the beach, the night market, the passenger port and the most hotels. Hòn Gai is the local side of the city, Tuần Châu is a resort island beside the main cruise port, and an overnight boat is the usual choice for one or two nights. Cát Bà and Quan Lạn are overnight add-ons; neither works as a day trip from Hạ Long. No authority regulates room rates, so the bands below are dated “from” prices and live rates will be higher at weekends and holidays.

Peak dates fill the rooms. From 25 April to 2 May 2026 hotel occupancy in Quảng Ninh ran at 90 to 95%, and over the National Day break of 29 August to 2 September 2026 about 227,500 visitors stayed overnight in the province. The Hạ Long Heritage International Marathon runs from 20 to 22 November 2026 with about 18,000 runners, and the Tết holiday runs from 4 to 10 February 2027, so book early around both. For Lan Hạ Bay and the national park, Cát Bà Island has its own guide to staying on the island.

How many days do you need?

A day trip from Hanoi is possible but long: about 11 to 12 hours for roughly 4 hours on the water. One night on a boat fits one full route at a relaxed pace, and two nights let a boat cover two routes or reach Bái Tử Long or Lan Hạ. A night ashore in Bãi Cháy adds time for the museum, the market and the beach.

For a first visit, one night aboard is the better trade: the day trip is a long haul, and a night on the bay avoids the rush back to the city. A common shape is two nights around Hạ Long with one of them on the water, arriving by road in daylight and sleeping in Bãi Cháy, boarding at noon the next day and leaving the bay by late morning on the third, or the same in reverse with the boat first. The storm season runs from June to November and is most active from July to September, so allow a spare day in those months, because departures stop when a storm approaches.

Ha Long Bay entrance fees

The official adult sightseeing fee is set per route: 250,000 VND on VHL1, VHL2 and VHL5, and 200,000 VND on VHL3 and VHL4, plus a 60,000 VND port charge, so a day trip on VHL1 or VHL2 costs 310,000 VND (checked October 2026). Children under 1.2 m tall or under 7 pay nothing. The fee is collected by the Board per person per visit, and one ticket covers every stop on the route.

The rules behind the fees:

• One ticket covers every sight on an itinerary; there are no separate cave tickets.
• The sightseeing fee is charged per person per visit; boat fares, port charges, kayaks and food are separate.
• Children of any nationality under 1.2 m tall or under 7 pay no sightseeing fee.
• People with especially severe or severe disabilities (Article 11, Decree 28/2012/NĐ-CP) pay no sightseeing fee and need a disability certificate and ID.
• Vietnamese citizens aged 60 or over pay 50% of the fee; foreign seniors pay the full price.
• Children of any nationality aged 7 to under 16 pay 20% less, with a passport for foreign children and school letters for groups.
• The 60,000 VND port passenger charge is charged on top of the sightseeing fee, with 50% off for the elderly and 20% off for children aged 7 to 15.
• An overnight ticket is a combined sightseeing and overnight fee: "1 night" means at most 24 hours from leaving port and "2 nights" at most 48 hours, and boats may overnight only at designated anchorages.
• Rowing and kayaking are priced separately and paid to the licensed operator; they are not in the sightseeing ticket unless a cruise firm bundles them.
• VHL6 is for vessels licensed to run between Hạ Long and Cát Bà, out and back within 48 hours, and VHL7 is only for fast explorer yachts (du thuyền khám phá).
• Cruise fares are not regulated by these fees; the sightseeing and overnight fees and the port charge are normally included in the cruise price.
• Altering tickets, using fake or expired tickets, using a ticket against its printed terms and lying to get a discount are prohibited.
• No sightseeing fee is published for the Bái Tử Long itineraries (BTL1 to BTL10).

What a trip costs

A day trip from Hanoi comes to roughly 1.3 million VND with a shared van both ways, a standard overnight cruise costs about 2.5 to 4 million VND per person, and Bãi Cháy rooms start from about 700,000 VND for a 3-star (June 2026 “from” price). Street food costs about 30,000 to 55,000 VND a dish, while seafood is sold by weight, so ask the price per kilogram first.

Seafood is where bills go wrong. In June and July 2026 a group of 31 paid about 27 million VND at a Bãi Cháy seafood restaurant, which inspectors then fined 10,750,000 VND for weighing and price-posting faults; a separate 50.66 million VND bill, 12 kg of lobster at 2.95 million VND a kilogram, was judged correct because the prices were displayed and the customer chose and weighed the items. Ask the price per kilogram and per dish, watch the weighing and agree the total before anything is cooked.

Cash in VND covers markets, street food, kayak points, taxis and tips; hotels, larger restaurants and cruise operators generally take cards, though that was not checked case by case. Many banks charge 50,000 to 80,000 VND per withdrawal on a foreign card, and some cap each withdrawal at about 10 million VND. Tipping is not customary or required in Vietnam, so treat it as optional.

Rules on the water

Boats sail from 05:00 in summer and 05:30 in winter and must be back in port by 20:00, or 19:00 in winter. Swimming is allowed only at licensed beaches, kayaks and rowing boats only at licensed points in daylight, and single-use plastic is banned on the bay. No Board or provincial rule on drones was found, but national rules require registration and permission for any device of 0.25 kg or more.

• Boats may leave from 05:00 and must be back at the quay by 20:00 in summer (1 April to 31 October); in winter (1 November to 31 March) they may leave from 05:30 and must be back by 19:00.
• Single-use plastic is banned on the bay for boats and visitors (bottles, cups, straws, bags and boxes) and is checked at the ticket gates.
• Swimming is allowed only at a licensed beach.
• Kayaks and rowing boats are used only at licensed points, in daylight, through contracted operators, and tour boats may not rent out their own kayaks.
• Boats do not land at Hòn Trống Mái (Kissing Rocks) and keep their distance.
• Boats must charge the listed price, sightseeing tickets are bought at the Board's counters inside the port terminals, and altering tickets, using fake or expired tickets or lying to get a discount is prohibited.
• In caves and nature there is to be no littering into the bay, no breaking branches or picking flowers, no breaking stalactites or carving and drawing in caves, and no buying or selling coral.
• Under Decree 288/2025/NĐ-CP (5 November 2025), drones of 0.25 kg or more must be registered and the pilot needs a licence and permission for each flight, and a foreigner needs a Vietnamese guarantor; no bay-specific drone rule was found.

A ban on eating and drinking in the caves was reported in 2016, and in 2025 Quảng Ninh said dining in caves is not licensed, so do not plan a meal underground. Overnight guests hand over passports or ID at boarding for registration. Guests may never stand or sit on a boat’s bow or rails, and must put on a life jacket when the master tells them to. Day tickets cover 06:30 to 18:30, and the main caves and Ti Tốp open from 07:30 to 17:30 between 16 April and 31 October and close at 17:00 in winter.

Steps, children and access

No official source describes step-free access to any cave. The Ti Tốp viewpoint is nearly 400 stone steps, about a 100 m climb; Đầu Gỗ is about 90 steps from the shore, Sửng Sốt about 60 and Hang Cỏ about 70. Most boats have two or three decks with steep internal stairs and many are reached by tender, so wheelchair users should ask the operator in writing about the gangway, any lift and the bathroom. People with severe or especially severe disabilities pay no sightseeing fee with a disability certificate and ID, and children under 1.2 m or under 7 go free. Cruise operators set their own child fares, so confirm them in writing, and ask for child-sized life jackets before boarding.

Safety and emergency numbers

Dial 113 for the police, 114 for fire, 115 for an ambulance and 112 for search and rescue. The Board’s hotline is 0812 488 111, in use since 1 January 2026; its notice does not say whether it is staffed around the clock or in English. Storm suspensions, the safety record and what to ask about a boat are in the cruise guide.

Questions visitors ask