A short Halong bay cruise- worth it?

Hi!

I am considering booking a short 3 hours long Halong bay cruise. Our plan is to make a long one day excursion to Hanoi and then the day after take the ship excursion in Halong bay. I know many people prefer longer cruises in the Halong Bay but we would like to visit both Halong Bay and Hanoi. Our time is limited, the ship leaves at 1 PM so we only have time for short one. What do you think, is the shorter cruise worth it and do you get enough time to see the Bay? I appreciate any comments!

We opted for a day trip to Halong Bay from Hanoi as well, with a short cruise vice the overnight trip. We were happy we did. I think cruising the bay for a few hours definitely provides enough experience plus saved a few dollars. The drive from Hanoi to Halong Bay is a long one, but plenty to see along the roadway.

Thank you for your answer. Did you book your Halong bay Cruise through the Cruise line or did you arrange a private excursion? Usually I alwas arrange private excursions but this time I am hesitant. Might be wisest to book through Celebrity, the timeframe is only till 1 pm so it could occur problems.

Al opinion as we were told the opposite . People who did the Hanoi trip from Halong Bay Area said the drive was long and the cruise company bus got stopped by bandits. We also just spoke with a friend who came back and found Hanoi not very interesting while the sites on Halong especially further into bay we amazing.

We chose to take an overnight junk cruise rather than the long journey into Hanoi and loved it. But if you only have 3 hours for a tour of Ha Long Bay, by all means go for it - wonderful scenery.

Three or four hours in Halong Bay is perfectly fine.

We've done it both ways; first time through the ship and second time privately with one other couple.

We were pretty much on the same size "Junk" boat both times. First time we were with 50 or 60 others and second time just the four of us.

Much nicer the second time.

Also we were able to get inside the caves the second time which we couldn't do on our ships tour.

Inside one of the caves.

Click on http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showp...&postcount=383 for information on viewing a video of our junk boat cruise of Halong Bay, Vietnam. What a beautiful bay!

We took a private tour to Hanoi from Halong Bay. It was a very long day. It is a tender port but we were lucky to get a tender by7:30AM as we are Elite plus. The drive to Hanoi is close to 3 hours. We were very interested in seeing the city so we felt it was worth it. Also even though the ship overnights in Halong Bay, I believe the last tender is at 9:30PM as it is a world heritage sight so you must come back in time.

We then took the ship's tour of Halong Bay and went to the caves as seen in a previous post. It was about 3 hours and a delightful trip.

We did this in November 2016 on the same cruise as Captain Ron.

Janice