Cai Be (Cat Ba)

Cat Ba Island

Cong Do & Van Boi

Cat Ba Island and Ha Long Bay are celebrated for their exceptional seafood, much of it farmed in floating cage aquaculture systems visible throughout the bay. Fresh grouper, snapper, and cobia are raised in these ocean cages and served at floating restaurant villages accessible by boat. The island's restaurants specialise in northern Vietnamese seafood cuisine with dishes like Cha Muc (squid cakes, a Ha Long speciality), grilled oysters with scallion oil, and Sam (horseshoe crab) prepared multiple ways. Cat Ba town offers a range of Vietnamese and international restaurants catering to the tourist market. The floating restaurant villages in Lan Ha Bay provide a unique dining experience where you select live seafood from the cages and watch it prepared to your specification. Northern Vietnamese cuisine tends towards subtle, refined flavours with extensive use of fresh herbs, fish sauce, and fermented shrimp paste. Ha Long's famous squid cakes (Cha Muc) are hand-pounded from fresh cuttlefish and deep-fried to golden perfection, considered the finest in Vietnam.

Cat Ba Island Resort & Spa

Monkey Island Resort

Cat Ba Sunrise Resort

Hung Long Harbour Hotel

Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island offer one of the world's most visually spectacular diving environments, with thousands of limestone karst towers rising from emerald waters in a UNESCO World Heritage landscape. The diving here is fundamentally different from Vietnam's tropical southern sites, characterised by dramatic underwater karst topography with caves, swim-throughs, and vertical limestone walls encrusted with marine life. Visibility is variable, typically ranging from 2 to 5 metres in the bay's sheltered waters, increasing to 5-10 metres at more exposed offshore sites. The unique environment supports unusual karst-associated fauna including specialised gobies, blennies, and a remarkable diversity of nudibranchs and seahorses among the rocky crevices. Cat Ba Island serves as the main diving base, with sites on the island's eastern shore offering the best conditions. Cong Do and Van Boi in the heart of Ha Long Bay feature shallow soft-coral carpets, glassfish sheltering in cave entrances, and small cuttlefish hunting in the shallows. Cai Be on Cat Ba hosts sea fans, gobies, and blennies in a sheltered rocky environment. While the diving is not about coral abundance or large pelagics, the extraordinary underwater scenery of limestone formations, the adventure of cave exploration, and the unique ecological adaptations of the karst marine community make this a genuinely distinctive diving experience unlike anywhere else in Southeast Asia.

Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba

Warmer months with better visibility of 5-10 metres, comfortable water temperatures of 23-29 degrees Celsius, and calmer seas for boat access to dive sites.

Cool winter months with water temperatures dropping to 18-21 degrees Celsius, persistent mist, and very limited visibility of 2-5 metres. A dry suit or thick wetsuit is recommended.

Transitional months with variable conditions. Air temperatures can be cool in March with persistent mist and drizzle.

Cat Ba Island and Ha Long Bay are accessed from Hanoi, approximately 150 km to the west. The most popular route is by road to Haiphong (approximately 2 hours) followed by a hydrofoil or ferry to Cat Ba Island (approximately 1-2 hours). Alternatively, direct bus and ferry combinations operate from Hanoi to Cat Ba in approximately 3.5-4 hours. Some travellers arrive via Ha Long City and transfer by boat into the bay. Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) in Hanoi receives extensive domestic and international flights. Once on Cat Ba, motorbike rental is the best way to explore, while dive sites in Ha Long Bay are reached by boat from Cat Ba harbour or from overnight cruise vessels operating in the bay. Several dive operators based on Cat Ba run day trips to the best sites. The bay's extensive network of cruise boats means dive scheduling should be coordinated to avoid crowded areas.

Dive Sites in Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba

Cai Be (Cat Ba)

Cat Ba Island

Cong Do & Van Boi