Transportation recommendations for Halong Bay to Hanoi?

We will be on the Celebrity Millennium in November and are leaning towards doing an overnight in Hanoi while we are docked at Halong Bay. I know it takes about 3.5 hours each way, but the more I read about Hanoi, the more I would like to see it.

We would like to just walk around the city and will book a street food tour for the evening. So we do not really want to book a full guided tour - just transportation from port into Hanoi. It doesn't look like Celebrity is offering Hanoi on your own, so I was wondering if anyone knows shuttle services/ transport companies we could book. I tried Googling and didn't come up with much.

Try Ann Tours. They may be able to arrange a transfer for you there and back. It does take more than 3.5 hours to get there so beware particularly when you are returning to the ship. We lucked out because it was Chinese New Years Day, so the traffic was light.

Things might have changed since the last time I was onboard the Millie on a Southeast Asia cruise in December 2014. But I do recall there being an option for Hanoi Overnight transport provided by Celebrity back then. Not sure if the shore excursions page has yet to be updated (last year some of the excursions were only added nearer to the Sailing date). Anyway if Celebrity still provides this option it might be more convenient. Otherwise, no fuss travel's suggestion is a good one.

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I lived and worked in Halong Bay for a time.

Other than seeing the (horribly polluted) Bay itself, there is very little to do there.

Every weekend I went to the Novotel to hire a car with driver to take me into Hanoi.

Round trip was US$90.

Travel time varies.

My best time (one way) was 2 hours 45 minutes.

Worst was 3 hours 15 minutes.

We used Ann tours in viet nam and were exceedingly pleased with our guide. Worked with tony and it was a pleasure