Halong Bay lies off the coast of Halong city, about 180 km to the east of Hanoi. The Bay was recognized as an UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. It is one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist attractions for its amazing landscape and spectacular beauty spots within the Bay.Visiting Halong, tourists will be provided with a wide variety of options for tours, accommodation, dining and entertainment. Here we offer several basic tips for tourists when traveling to Halong.

• When to go? - It is possible to visit Halong Bay all year-round, with the best time to visit from October through April. In winter (December, January and February), it can be cold with low visibility for the landscape. In summer months from May to September, temperatures rise and storms are more likely during the rainy season.

• How to get there? - If you book tour from a travel agency, they will arrange all the transportation upon your request. If you travel by yourselves, there are regular buses from Hanoi which depart daily every 15 minutes from Kim Ma Station.

• What to do? - Once you are in Halong, there are lots of activities to take part in.

Swimming and sunbathing are the most popular options in summer. Halong Bay comprises thousands of lime stone islands and grottoes, so there are countless places to stop for swimming, sunbathing and fishing when cruising around.

Kayaking is the best way to explore Halong Bay. With this activity, you can paddle to little caves, deserted beaches or grottoes.

Boat cruising is the most interesting part of a Halong tour. You take a boat cruising around the bay to admire hundreds of stone islets that seem to move and change as the boat passes by.

• Halong cruising guide

For safety purpose, smoking is not permitted in your cabin or any internal areas.

Although the ship is like a hotel, however, everything happen on boat and you must be careful when moving along the decks since they can be slippery.