Backpacking Cat Ba
Everyone books the Ha Long Bay cruise. The people who did the reading go to Cat Ba instead, sleep on an island for €6 a night, and spend three days in water that looks exactly the same with about a tenth of the boats on it.
Cat Ba is the biggest island in the archipelago, and the bay on its doorstep is Lan Ha: three hundred limestone towers, hidden beaches, floating fishing villages, and the crucial difference that you are allowed to swim in it. Behind the town is a national park with jungle trekking, and above it a hilltop fort with the best view in northern Vietnam.
The town itself is a strip of hotels around a harbour and it is not beautiful. You are not here for the town. You are here because the boat leaves from it at eight.
Why Cat Ba is popular with backpackers
- Lan Ha Bay, which is Ha Long Bay without the traffic
- A whole day on the water with kayaks and lunch for about €25
- You can actually swim here, which you cannot in Ha Long Bay
- A national park with real trekking, twenty minutes from your bed
- Night kayaking through bioluminescent plankton
- Beds from €6 and hostels built around meeting people
Best time to visit Cat Ba
A northern island, which means cold winters and wet summers. The sea is not swimmable all year, and when the weather turns the boat trips simply do not run.
Watch the typhoon window from July to September, just before the good autumn weather arrives. When a storm is coming they stop the ferries and every boat trip, sometimes for two or three days in a row. Do not put a tight flight connection on the other side of this island.
Backpacker budget: around €20 a day
- €6hostel bed
- €2.50local meal
- €0.60beer
- €5scooter per day
Guide prices from our own days in Cat Ba. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best hostels on Cat Ba
All three are in Cat Ba Town, all three have a pool, and all three run their own boat trips. The one you pick decides what your evenings look like more than your days.
The One Hostel & Rooftop Bar Catba
Rooftop bar over the harbour, a pool, and something organised most nights. If you arrived on your own and would rather not stay that way, this is the one.
Catba Buffalo Hostel
The best-known name on the island and the highest rated, which for once is the same thing. Big, sociable, with a pool and its own trips out into Lan Ha Bay.
Secret Garden Wandernest Cat Ba
Calmer than the other two without being quiet: garden, hammocks, and a crowd that is more into trekking than tequila. Good middle option, and the one to pick if you want to sleep.
Best things to do on Cat Ba
A full day in Lan Ha Bay
The reason to come. Eight hours out on the water: a boat through the limestone towers, kayaks into caves and lagoons, a stop to swim, lunch on board and a cycle through a village in the middle of it. Lan Ha sits right against Ha Long Bay, looks identical, has far fewer boats on it, and lets you get in the water.
Night kayaking with the plankton
You paddle out for sunset, wait for it to go properly dark, and then every stroke of the paddle lights up blue underneath you. Trail a hand in the water and it glows. It is one of those things that sounds like marketing until it happens about a metre from your face.
Cat Ba National Park
Half the island is national park, and the trek up to the Ngu Lam viewpoint takes about two hours return for a view over the whole thing. There is a longer route across to Viet Hai that fills a day.
Cannon Fort
Old gun emplacements and tunnels on the hill above town, and probably the best view on the island: the harbour on one side, the whole of Lan Ha Bay on the other. Go for the last hour of light.
The island on a scooter
Cat Ba is small enough to ride around in half a day and empty enough that it is a pleasure. The road through the national park is the good one: jungle on both sides, almost no traffic, and viewpoints where you can pull over.
The Cat Co beaches
Three small bays a walk from town along a cliff path, numbered one to three. Not the Thailand kind of beach, but sand, swimming and a sunset, and free.
Viet Hai Village
A village of about a hundred people in a valley inside the national park, reachable only by boat or over the mountain road. Most Lan Ha Bay tours stop here and hand out bicycles for an hour, and it is a proper contrast to the harbour front.
Best area for backpackers
Cat Ba Town
Not really a choice: almost every hostel, restaurant, tour desk and scooter rental on the island is in this one strip along the harbour, and every boat leaves from the pier at the end of it.
Rooms facing the water cost a little more and get the noise from the karaoke bars. One street back is quieter and the food is cheaper.
Good to know about this area
- Every tour and every boat leaves from here
- Hostels with pools, rooftops and their own trips
- Walking distance to the harbour, the cliff path and the beaches
- Scooter rental on every corner, from about €5 a day
- The seafront is tourist prices. One street inland is half that
- Cash matters: outside town there are almost no ATMs
How to plan your days on Cat Ba
Two days covers the island, three if you also want a night out on a boat. Pick how long you have.
Out into Lan Ha Bay. A full day on the water: boat through the karsts, kayaks into the lagoons, a swim stop and lunch on board. Lan Ha borders Ha Long Bay, has a fraction of the boats, and you are allowed in the water here.
Tonight: seafood off the grill at the harbour, price agreed by the kilo.
The island on two wheels. Ride the road through the national park to Viet Hai Village, which until recently you could only reach by boat or over a mountain path. Climb up to Cannon Fort on the way back for the view over the bay.
Tonight: a beer on your hostel roof, looking down at the harbour.
Trekking or climbing. Walk the route through the national park up to the Ngu Lam peak, or go rock climbing on the towers straight out of the water in Lan Ha Bay. Both are booked from town that morning.
Tonight: back to Hanoi, or straight on to Ninh Binh by bus and boat.
Food and drink on Cat Ba
Fishing island, and you taste it. What came in this morning is on the grill at the harbour tonight, and you order by pointing at it.
One warning that will save you real money: the seafront restaurants charge tourist prices and the ones a street inland do not. Same fish, half the bill.
Always ask the price per kilo before they cook your seafood. If they will only quote you per piece, you are about to overpay.
Getting there and onward
You can only reach Cat Ba over water. The combined tickets from Hanoi sort the bus, the boat and the transfer in one booking, and here that genuinely is easier than doing it yourself.
From Hanoi. About four hours on a combined ticket: bus to Hai Phong, then the speedboat or the ferry across, then a last minibus into Cat Ba Town.
On the island. Town takes twenty minutes to walk end to end. For the national park and the beaches, rent a scooter at around €5 a day.
Onward. Boats run to Ha Long City daily. Plenty of people go straight on to Ninh Binh instead, about six hours on a through ticket.
- Combined ticketHanoi 4 hrs, bus and boat in one booking
- FerryHai Phong to Cat Ba, about 45 minutes
- ScooterFrom about €5 a day, the whole island
- Lan Ha Bay day tripBoat and kayaks, about 8 hours
- OnwardNinh Binh in about 6 hrs by bus and boat
Staying safe on Cat Ba
The island is safe. The water and the mountain road need a bit of attention, and that is about it.
- Check what happens to your boat trip if the weather turns. It happens here regularly
- Keep the life jacket on while kayaking, however well you swim
- Ride slowly through the national park. Goats and monkeys cross without looking
- Bring cash. Outside Cat Ba Town there is almost nothing to withdraw from
- Jump off the boat without asking how deep it is there
- Ride without a helmet. The police here do check
- Book the cheapest boat trip without asking how many people are on it
- Assume you have signal. Out in the bay your phone goes quiet
Rebels on the Road tip
Most people do the bay tour and then stay in town. Rent a scooter instead and go early, out along the coast roads on the east side of the island. Empty tarmac, the sea on one side and green hills on the other, small fishing hamlets where nothing is for sale, and viewpoints nobody has put a ticket booth on. An hour of that before breakfast is the bit of Cat Ba that does not show up on anybody’s feed.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need on Cat Ba?
Two to three. One for the bay, one for the island, and a third if you want to trek, climb, or do the plankton kayak as well.
Cat Ba or a Ha Long Bay cruise?
Cat Ba, for most backpackers. You get the same limestone scenery in Lan Ha Bay, you are allowed to swim in it, it costs a fraction of a cruise, and you are not locked into a schedule for two days. A cruise wins if you specifically want to sleep on the water in Ha Long Bay itself.
Where should I stay on Cat Ba?
Cat Ba Town. Everything is there, and the alternatives are resorts a long way from the pier your boat leaves from.
Is Cat Ba expensive?
No. About €20 a day covers a bed, food, a beer and getting about. The one place it climbs is seafood on the seafront, and that is avoidable.
Can you see the bioluminescent plankton for real?
Yes, in the right conditions. It shows up when you disturb the water, so every paddle stroke lights up and a hand trailed over the side glows blue. It needs a dark night, so around the new moon is better than around the full one.
Do I need a scooter on Cat Ba?
Not strictly. Tours include transport and the town is walkable. But the road through the national park is the best thing on the island after the bay, and €5 buys you a whole day of it.
When is the best time to visit Cat Ba?
April and May, or October: warm, clear, and the sea is swimmable. November is dry and clear but too cool to swim. December to March is cool with fog over the bay, and July to September is typhoon season, when boats can be cancelled for days. If you come in September, leave some slack in your plans.
