One of the must-do excursions from Hanoi is visiting beautiful Ha Long Bay by boat. You can do this as a daytrip but it is even better as an overnight cruise. Luckily we had a budget surplus from our weeks in Missouri that we could apply to booking the cruise, which is a little pricey but well worth the cost. We booked our 1-night cruise on La Journey Elegance via Booking.com about a week in advance for around $380 including roundtrip transfer by luxury bus from Hanoi and the 4% credit card fee. The price includes two lunches, dinner, breakfast, and a couple of excursions from the boat. While there were small hiccups, it was a great experience and we had a wonderful time. My review from Booking.com is below, but here are all the details.

Transfer and Arrival

Our reservation was through a tour company and a representative came to our apartment the morning of our departure to help us get on the bus. It was a little frustrating because we weren’t given a pickup time until after 10 p.m. the night before, and we ended up getting the earliest time, 7:30 a.m. They actually arrived around 7:20 and messaged a couple times to hussle us down to the bus. The good part of being the first pickup is we got first choice of seats but we spent an hour driving around the Hanoi Old Quarter picking up others before we finally got on the road to Ha Long Bay.

About halfway there (an hour or so after leaving Hanoi), we stopped for half an hour for a restroom break at a tourist trap selling craft items. This was far too long a stop, but seemed standard with all the companies. We arrived at the cruise port before 11:30 a.m. and had about an hour of standing around there before we were finally taken to the boat.

Although there were several cruise ships docked in the port, the boats they actually use are anchored out in the bay, about a 20-minute ferry ride away. However, it was a scenic ride and I enjoyed taking photos of the bay islands right away. Finally we reached the boat around 1 p.m., just in time for their buffet lunch. The food was actually very good – lots of our Vietnamese favorites and plenty of healthy choices. Lunch came with a welcome glass of watermelon juice and tea and coffee were served at breakfast the next morning, but those were the only included drinks.

After lunch we went to our room, which was perfect. It had a very vintage feel, like luxury travel in the 1920s, but it was a good size and comfortable. We only looked at cruises with balcony rooms and this was definitely the highlight.  

Balcony Time

We had about an hour between finishing lunch and being called for the afternoon excursion and spent the whole time on our balcony taking far too many photos of the unique landscape of Ha Long Bay as our ship cruised around. The bay has almost 2,000 individual islands and it is all incredibly picturesque. Of course, it is also full of cruise ships, most similarly sized to ours. But we found the boats to be fun to look at as well. Unfortunately, I’m not sure our photos do the scenery justice.

We also took a little time to explore the ship. The bottom deck was the off-limits staff area. Deck 2 had some sleeping rooms (there were 22 total) and a small lobby with a cold and hot water dispenser (which we put to use the next morning for our coffee and tea), Deck 3 was the dining room and more sleeping rooms, including ours. Deck 4 had a bar and a couple of larger sleeping rooms. Then finally there was the sun deck on top with just fake grass and loungers.

Kayak Excursion to the “Dark and Bright Cave”

The included afternoon activity was a trip to one of the Dark and Bright Caves, geologic features that Ha Long Bay is known for. We were taken via our ferry boat to a dock where you could visit the cave on your own via kayak or be rowed in a small group. Chad and I chose the kayak option, which was a lot of fun. The cave and surrounding area were scenic and though the 20-minutes of kayaking each way was a bit of a workout, it was worth it.

Evening Fun

We returned to our ship around 5 p.m. and had a couple of hours to shower and rest prior to dinner. They encouraged people to attend their happy hour party (with a buy 2 get 1 cocktail special) and/or cooking class (to learn to make spring rolls), but we chose to spend the time on our own balcony enjoying the golden hour light as the sun set. One interesting occurance was that our boat was approached by several small motor boats with entrepreneurial people selling beer and snacks. They had long polls with fishing nets to deliver the purchases, but we weren’t tempted to buy anything.

We brought along a bottle of Korean soju in order to avoid the slightly overpriced cocktails on board (though I checked the menu and they were only $8 or $9, so not too bad). I also managed to get a brief pocket of internet service to be able to send my daily email to my family, but for the most part we were offline throughout most of the cruise, which was kind of nice.

Dinner was a five-course mostly seafood meal that was very good. We had a minor issue claiming the complimentary bottle of wine that was included on our Booking.com reservation (a $45 value based on the inflated cruise pricing), but managed to work it out prior to dinner (some of those details are in my review) and we enjoyed the Chilean wine we were given.

After dinner, we took the rest of the wine back to our balcony and then went briefly up to the bar where the staff were the only ones participating in the post-dinner karaoke activity. It was charming to watch them and a fun evening overall. 

Morning and Return Transfer 

The next morning, I went right out to our balcony to soak up every moment I could there. That spot was truly one of my favorite places in Vietnam. I just could not get enough of the rock formations. At one point, I heard the sound of goats in the distance and saw a small group of them climbing along one of the islands. There was a light early breakfast with tea and coffee that we attended to get our caffeine fix. The boat offered a second kayak excursion at 8 a.m. that morning but we decided to stay behind and enjoy our room. Then there was a final brunch and we all got back on the ferry boat around 10:30 to go back to the port and onto the bus back to Hanoi (with obligatory 30-minute tourist trap stop, of course).

We were so glad we splurged a little to do the overnight cruise and would recommend it to anyone visiting the north part of Vietnam. We didn’t love the transfer service, but that inconvenience was a small price to pay for such a great experience overall.

La Journey Elegance Cruise – Wonderful cruise! Liked: The cruise itself was excellent. Our room was very comfortable and we loved being able to sit on our private balcony and see the beautiful Ha Long Bay scenery. We were impressed with the quality of the food at all the meals. All of the staff on board were kind and professional. We felt the whole experience was well worth the price paid. The kayaking excursion was fun. We skipped the second day excursion to have more time to enjoy our beautiful room and balcony.  Disliked: The wifi almost never worked on the ship, which would have been fine (more time to look at scenery!), but we had an issue and it would have helped to be able to contact the tour company about it. We booked a promo that included a bottle of wine, but the staff on the cruise had no record of this. Luckily I was able to pull up my reservation confirmation and they honored it. But it took about 45 minutes to resolve because the staff was trying to find the cruise manager. We also booked transportation from Hanoi through the tour company, which proved very confusing. We weren’t given a pickup time until after 10 p.m. the night before and it was unclear how to find the bus for our return. There was also a lot of wasted time on the transfer – 30 minutes at a tourist trap and a long wait until it was time to board the boat.