“Don’t go there! You won’t like it!” That was what the locals were saying about Cat Ba Island. From our Grab drivers (Asian version of Uber) to the hotel manager, everybody we spoke to seemed to be on the same page about Cat Ba. Vietnamese people go there on holidays. There’s a high season and a low season, (like everywhere, but I’ll explain why the difference can be felt over there) and everybody will try to rip you off.

First let me tell you that we loved Cat Ba. Like every place it has it’s pros and cons and even though we are foodies and the food was nothing less than terrible, we enjoyed the Island very much. After much insistence on wanting to go there, we asked our tour company to drop us off at the ferry on our way back from the cruise in order to save some time and money.

Low season
As we are traveling for a year on a budget, we got though calls to make. Because of plane ticket prices, data on past rainy seasons and current natural disasters, we built our itinerary in a very uncommon way. We try to get to a place towards the end of low seasons. This way we get the cheapest accommodation and the torrential rain is over or almost. In Cat Ba, low season really means LOW season.

In Cat Ba, some restaurants will be closed or shut early. It won’t be too crowded and hotel rooms will be cheaper. Depending on your bargaining power you will be able to get a hotel room for the same price than a bed in a dorm next door. And if your are willing to pay an extra 2 USD more a night you might even get a nice one with no mold nor stains on your bed sheets. 😉 We were able to negotiate our room for 13$ US a day. For this price, we had two double beds, aircon, private bathroom, large closet, a desk, a private balcony and an awesome view.

The Food
It has been written that food and seafood specifically is great in Cat Ba. That was not our experience at all. From not being able to find a decent breakfast to only being able to find oily fried rice for dinner. Our meals were miserable. They burnt my crab and my prawns. Plus, they don’t peel them so you end up with mushy prawns and you have to work for them. I couldn’t even find a decent omelette banh mi. (Banh mi trung, if ever you go) The best meal we had was probably the fried vegetables at the vegetarian restaurant our new German friends , Julia and Nico invited us to.  That was our vegetable portion of the month. It’s been unusually hard for us to find decent amount of vegetables in Vietnam. Even the vegan restaurant we tried in Hanoi did not offer balance meal. If we found vegetables they were usually deep fried.

What to do in Cat Ba

Here’s where it makes up for everything else. 🙂
Cat Ba is the home of a great national park. It’s a great little hike. We did it in flip flops, but it brings you up to a gorgeous viewpoint.

There is the usual rip off of a guard taking 10 000 dong(VND) for you to park your scooter there. And he won’t even stay there to check your bike. There is also an entry fee(20 000 VND) to get in the park (if you are not Vietnamese), but its totally worth it.
There are also a few caves. We only did the Hospital Cave that ended up being pretty disappointing but the story is interesting.
Kayaking the bay
The highlight of this trip for me was our day kayaking to Monkey Island with our new friends. The Monkey Island beach itself is nothing amazing but the freedom of kayaking the Bay at one’s pace is priceless. Locals brought monkeys on this Island for the tourist to enjoy so they might be hungry and a bit aggressive. Luckily, we saw them from a distance and they didn’t come to bother us at all. Going through a non touristy floating village was something I really wanted to do and it happened without planning it. 🙂 There are several other Islands with beaches where you might be the only ones chilling there, but sadly because the bay is super touristy, it’s dirty as hell. (There are hundreds of cruises going there.) Garbage is floating everywhere which takes the beauty away.Driving around
They call it a motorbike, but really it’s a scooter. They have 125 cc scooter everywhere in SE Asia. You can rent one in Cat Ba for 80 000 VND a day (24 hours). If you pay more, shame on you! All the scooters were in pretty bad condition in Cat Ba, so the price difference is really what made the difference for us. The tires were all worn down and the brakes ready to be changed. You can check them all. They are all crap. (Same in Hoi an, btw) Getting a scooter will enable you to see stuff you won’t be able to see otherwise.

Climbing
I didn’t do it but it’s definitely on my todo list on my next trip to Vietnam. You can arrange a trip at a local shop.
If you look at most travel blogs, they will tell you to do some kind of circle, around the country, taking the trains and the buses to get to your destination. Depending on the level of comfort you are looking for, I would say it can be the cheapest way, but the truth is not all the time. For example, it was cheaper to fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok than taking the 1st class sleeper train back.

Conclusion

If we were to redo our trip, we most definitely would skip Halong Bay and head straight to Cat Ba island. The reason why most vendors in Hanoi discourage tourists from heading to Cat Ba, is because it results in a direct loss of income for them. They may also simply want to preserve Cat Ba for the locals and avoid it from becoming the mess Halong Bay is. My request is, if you’re going to visit Cat Ba, try and be conscious of your contribution to the wear and tear of the place.

Cheers!