Halong Bay Scenery

Please note: that this information is applicable if you rent a boat (day trip) by yourself and might not be applicable if you pay for a package through a travel agency and share a boat with others or stay overnight on the boat.

During our first trip in second half of November 2009 they asked for 2,000,000 Dong for a 6 hours trip but we negotiated it down to 1,100,000 Dong. November is low season and the price is cheaper.

In July 2010 they asked for 3,000,000 Dong for a full day trip and this time we managed to get it down to 2,000,000 Dong. Some locals told us it was an OK price, not high and not low. The locals also told us to make sure that the service charge is included in the price (which it was not in our case as it turned out) so we had to pay 250,000 Dong extra.

When the boat was about to depart in the morning it was nowhere to find, we had to wait 45 minutes after the stated time before the boat arrived. It turned out that they sold an “early morning trip” to some other tourists even though we paid for a full day trip so our trip started 45 minutes later than planned and they refused to deduct from the fee we negotiated the day earlier.

Later if the afternoon while it was still a few hours daylight remaining they headed back towards the shore. I requested that instead of heading back we go to a sand beach at one of the islands i visited a few years earlier. They told us that the beach was closed which was a big fat lie because i saw it just a few hours earlier when we passed it (i could even point in the direction of the beach). I challenged them and after some discussions they realized the futility to argue with me and they  agreed to turn around and go to the beach where we spent a couple of hours.

After the beach they started speeding back to shore but i asked why they were in a hurry back even though we paid for a whole day trip. They couldn’t give us an answer so again we argued with them and they slowed down so we could view the magnificent scenery.

Finally when it was about to get dark we headed back to shore and went back to the hotel after a very beautiful day.

Some learning’s:

• The prices depends greatly on the season (winter is low season and summer is high season)
• You can negotiate down their initial bid with  at least 30-40%, maybe more
• Verify if the service charge is included in the negotiated price or not
• You may have to be assertive sometimes because they might try their luck to make the trip shorter
• Also agree what will happen if the boat is delayed when you negotiate the fee before you sign the agreement. I suggest you try to negotiate how much to deduct for every 30 minutes the trip is delayed
• To save money you can buy the seafood in the local markets before you start the boat trip and ask the crew to cook the food on the boat. Expect fresh fish, crabs etc. to be at least 2-3 times more expensive if you buy it on the boat compared to the local market.

In the November trip we had no problem with late departure and we didn’t have any other issues either. Everything went smoothly on that trip. On the July trip we had a lot of problems with the crew trying to cheat like i described above but we still had a great time, Ha Long bay is truly a wonderful place which i highly recommend you visit.

Worth noting is that my wife is fluent in Vietnamese so we  could easily negotiate prices etc. due to this. You will probably have a harder time to make yourself understood than we had.

Have a nice trip to Ha Long Bay!

Ha Long Bay Revisited is a post from: Peter Bergdahl's Personal Blog

So i made this 8 minute video to share with you one of the true wonders of the world.

Let me know what you think by making a comment below.

Halong Bay Cruise Vietnam is a post from: Peter Bergdahl's Personal Blog