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VietnamDescription and is it worth a visit
Lanha Bay or Lanha Bay is a younger brother or sister Halong Bays. It is located south of Halong and washes Cat Ba Island with its waters, although it is often mistakenly indicated that Cat Ba is located in Halong. The border between the two bays runs implicitly to the north of the island.
Lanha Bay is little known among foreign tourists, but in fact it is almost as beautiful and spectacular as Halong, and is also recognized as one of the most beautiful places in Southeast Asia. and usually tourists visit this bay during a cruise on Halong, but they don't even know about it.
There are about 300 picturesque limestone islands with sandy beaches, caves, lagoons, floating fishing villages. During the Lanha cruise, tourists, in addition to just admiring the beauties, can kayak through water caves; visit lagoons formed by karst islands; snorkel or dive; land on one of the islands to relax on sandy beaches or climb its rocks; visit the largest floating fishing farm in Vietnam; and there are many more things.
But, in fairness, it is worth noting that the photos of Halong Bay and Lankha from advertising booklets and on websites do not always correspond to the reality that you will see here. Unfortunately, there are no traditional sailing boats with specific easily recognizable sails as in the promotional photos. Tourists are carried on large motorboats, and all these traditional boats under sail in advertising are the result of photomontage or staged shooting.
Our opinion is that it's worth visiting Halong and Lanha Bays, of course, but only once. We visited it three times, and the second time it was boring and uninteresting, not to mention the third.
Lanha, like Halong, is visited only in the form of excursions on cruise boats, which are easiest to purchase on Cat Ba Island. The simplest one-day cruises from Cat Ba cost from 700,000 VND. They include swimming among the most picturesque islands in two bays at once, snorkeling or disembarking on a secluded beach, visiting a floating village and kayaking through caves, disembarking on Monkey island, where you can relax on the beach or climb to the highest point of the island.
More expensive tours may additionally include a visit to Halong Bay, overnight on board with dinner and breakfast, diving, swimming in the open sea, disembarking on the hard-to-reach shore of Cat Ba for a walk to the authentic village of Viet Hai and other entertainment. There are tours for one and two nights. Well, if finances allow, you can rent a boat entirely with a team and make up your own travel itinerary.
We advise you to choose cruises that include at least a visit to one of the dry caves, preferably Sung Sot Cave, landing on the beach and monkey island, floating village and kayaking. If all this does not happen, then you will just float and miss more.
But before you decide to go to Halong, you should be warned about the numerous incidents that kill tourists. This is due to the low level of safety on old pleasure boats. Many of the tourist pleasure boats have long outlived their days as fishing vessels, and now live a second life after alterations and repairs. The last incident (at the time of writing) occurred in the summer of 2025, when 39 tourists died.
🕐 Working hours
Around the clock.
💵Entrance fee / ticket price
The cost of simple tours for one day starts from 700,000 VND (rate temporary unavailable USD, see the currency of Vietnam and its exchange rate), and comes to several hundred dollars for tours with overnight stays on board and meals.
🚶 How to get there
Lanha Bay is located north of Kabta Island (Lanha on the map), it can only be visited on a cruise boat with a group excursion or by renting the whole boat. The cheapest such crises are sold on Cat Ba Island in travel agencies and hotels, but you can also buy them in Halong or Hanoi. Tours from Hanoi include delivery to the pier, the cruise itself, and delivery back to Hanoi.
You can also buy excursions online, including even paying with a bank card of the Russian Federation, on these sites:
- 📷 Halong/Lanha Tours on Trip.com (payment by MIR card works)
- 📷 Excursions to Halong/Lanha on GetYourGuide
- 📷 Excursions to Halong/Lankha on Sputnik8
- 📷 Trips to Halong/Lanha on Tripster
Departure to Cat Ba cruises takes place from the Ben Beo/Cai Beo pier on Cat Ba (Ben Beo/Cai Beo on the map), it is easy to reach on foot. If you need to purchase an individual tour (hire a boat), you can come right to the pier, there are "helpers" who will offer you everything. But keep in mind that if you hire a boat, you will additionally need to pay for access to the Bay Nature Park at the official ticket offices at the marina.
Friends, we remind you that it is much more interesting to get acquainted with the sights of Cat Ba with the help of excursions, and therefore we advise you to look at options with online booking and reviews on these excursion aggregators: