Halong Bay is located in Quáng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. The bay has a 120 kilometre long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square kilometres in size with 1969 islets. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves, other support floating villages of fishermen, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Another specific feature of Halong Bay is the abundance of lakes inside the limestone islands, for example, Dau Be island has six enclosed lakes. All these island lakes occupy drowned dolines within fengcong karst.
Halong bay is a world heritage site recognized by UNESCO in 1994 and 2000, according to it’s remarkable limestone Karst and beautiful landscape. Halong bay is also a new Nature Wonder of the World. There are a about 2000 limestone formation with approximate 1.500 square km of water. With this huge water surface, it take us almost 1 week to visit the whole bay. There are many ways to visit the bay, such as day cruise and overnight cruise. For Day Cruise: you can book a 4 hours , 6 hours or 8 hours private boat. with this kind of tour you can visit many beautiful spots.
For Overnight Cruise: You can join a sharing boat or hire your own boat. They will take you to the place that day cruise can not go to. Also with many activities : Fishing, Squid Fishing, Swimming, Kayaking, Caving, BBQ on beach, Dinner in cave.
Fishing is one of the good thing to do. Amazing experiences you can get with the fisherman. they will take to fishing with their fishing boat, using their net and tool to catch Halong bay fish and squid. Each fishing boat only can carry only 5 people, so if you have big group you should ask or hire more boats.
BBQ on beach is another unforgettable experiences, with all kind of Halong bay sea food, you can have your best meal ever right at very small golden sandy beach. All kind of fish, squid, clam, sea oyster, shrimp, come with the best Vietnamese cook to make sure you will have your real Vietnamese taste that you can not find anywhere else.
Today Halong bay draw millions of tourist every year. Most of them from China, Korea, USA, Australia…… Sixty per cent of tourist choosing overnight cruise to visit the bay. with very reasonable price from $60 to $300 per person for 1 night.
Most of tourist say that, the best part of Halong bay is not Halong bay itself but the Floating Village. There are some villages around the bay. they are small communities, and they never move away from the bay. Come here you can see the simple life, simple houses, simple way of living.
The best time to visit Halong bay is local winter time, from September to April. When the weather is cold but no wind, calm sea. From May to August temperatures rise and storms are more likely during the rainy season.
