Skip to content

Jeroen

Cheaper tour around Cat Ba (Hạ Long Bay)

If you are planning to go to Ha Long bay but don’t want to go pay $200 for Castaways or $160 for hideaway.

Read on; We did practically the same tour for $60!

<!–more–>

Although Castaways via the best party hostel (IMHO) in Vietnam is definitely worth the money, some people might not have the luxury of spending that amount of money on a 2N/3D tour.

We checked out some other tours from Hanoi to Ha Long but they where all pretty expensive. The cheapest one we found was $60 (but it didn’t have the transport included $30 for a return ticket)

We must be able to do this cheaper!

And so we did! Via Cát Bà island (the biggest island in Halong Bay)

 

Our tour

So we organised our own (cheaper) tour!

We got the bus-ferry-bus to Cat Ba island, the biggest island in Halong bay. From there we booked a tour for only 14$. We booked our tour at Mr. Zoom. The boat takes you around Halong bay (you’ll even soar past castaways island) and takes you kayaking in the same place as with Castaways. (I know from experience because I’ve been on the Castaways trip in January :) )

The tour itself was pretty awesome, we went kayaking and because i’d already been there I could navigate us to a hidden cave entrance which is pretty hard to spot. We were the only ones in the secluded area!

Kayaking in Halong Bay
Kayaking in Halong Bay

 

After a fine lunch we went on and went for a dip in the pretty disgusting water of Ha Long bay (serious people! Don’t litter!)

All in all we paid 24$ for a return trip to Cat Ba, $6 per person per night for a overnight stay in a Hotel on Cat Ba. and 14$ for a day-tour (including kayaking and a hill climb on monkey island) for two stingy backpackers that’s all that counts 😉

The view from monkey island
The view from monkey island

That leaves some money here and there for some Bia Saigon and a pizza (“The He-man”) on Cat ba @ Noble House

After the bus-boat-bus tour back to Hanoi, it was time to conquer the highest mountain in Indochina.

Canyoning in Đà Lạt

Hello from Đà Lạt!

Đà Lạt is a great place in Vietnam, the last time I visited it was end of January (read my previous adventure here)
Now it’s more rainy, but that didn’t spoil the fun.

I did some different things this time which was really nice.
Although i stayed at the same hostel (Dalat Family Hostel) which is a absolute must-do on your trip to Dalat.
They moved locations so now they are able to fit more travelers, without losing the real “family” feeling.

When we arrived Mama Đà Lạt gave us a big hug and immediately ushered us over to the dinner table where there was more food than the actual table could handle.
I ate more in the last two days in Dalat than in the previous week in Vietnam 😉

Mama dalat makes really nice food

We were pretty tired by the long journey from Mui Ne, so after a well deserved beer we went to bed (The beds are excellent in this hostel!)

Day 1: Canyoning with VietChallenge

Canyoning, if you have never done this before, it’s really awesome. Basically it’s going down a track in some barren territory (preferably downstream) and on the way down you’ll abseil down some cliffs or waterfalls.

Waterfalls dalat canyoning
Me abseiling down a cliff into a waterfall

After checking all the equipment and getting explaination on how to abseil down the cliffs we set off into the jungle. We did three waterfalls in total and a cliff-jump from 7 and 11 meters. There was also a natural water slide along the way.  After which we got a mini-van back to Mama and the food was already prepared when we got there, and as per the usual was really lovely and more than you could muster to eat.

Day 2: A day in Dalat

First off we went into town by foot. That takes about 30~40 minutes but you can see a variety of things along the way, and you’ll get a nice impression of how the Vietnamese people live. The first sightseeing spot was the crazy house and as the name states, is pretty crazy, really weird architecture.

On the roof of the crazy house in Dalat

After that we went to the central market for some food and seeing the place bustling with activity.

Must-do’s in Dalat:

 

Now we are off to Hoi An via Nha Trang!