VietCamLao Chapter 4 - Vietnam: Ha Long Bay. Quan Lan Island. (Part 1)

After four amazing days in the mountains we decided to change scenery and visit Ha Long Bay Area.
It was a long journey to get to Cai Rong (even relatively short distances in Vietnam require hours of driving), where we supposed to take a ferry to Quan Lan island. We picked up this island cause it was less touristy then Cat Ba. There are several ferries heading to Quan Lan.
At the arrival to the island we were warmly welcomed with bunch of tuk-tuk drivers offering us Overpriced rides to the town. Barging skills were really useful! Try to don’t pay more that 30.000 for a ride.
After another 5 minutes of barging in the town we got two scooters and were ready to find perfect accommodation for couple of days. The plan was to get some rooms at the beach this time!
After another 10 minutes of barging at the Minh Chau Beach Resort we agreed on price. It’s a the nice resort on the other side of the island and were ready to have some downtime there!
Quan Lan island is relatively small so one full day was more than enough for us to explore it. We visited several beaches, Quan Lạn temple, nice coastline and fishing boats gathering. Talking about fishing boats... we managed to organize small boat trip in the rough sea and it was quite an experience for us! (Of course we had to bargain). We payed 1.000.000 dong for several hours cruise around the island.
From Quan Lan island you can come back to Cai Rong or you can head to Ha Long City instead (Bến Hòn Gai Quảng Ninh). We chose the second option cause our next destination was going to be Cat Ba island! Ferry terminals in Ha Long Bay Area are really distant and not that easily connected by public transportation so we needed to take a taxi in order to get to the ferry terminal in Tuan Chau Island.
Unfortunately we had to say good bye to Giannina this time, we had some really memorable time with her and better companion would be hard to find!
Back to fun part: ferry from Bến phà Tuần Châu terminal takes approximately one hour of panoramic ride to get to the island. It’s better to come earlier as time departure time can be flexible. We heard a lot of horror stories about getting to the town from the ferry terminal, but when we arrived there was a bus waiting with reasonable price for a ride, 30.000 dong each.
If you travel around dry season in Vietnam then it’s gonna be low season for local people and quite easy to find accommodation and tours. You can get really good deal for accommodation, a bit of barging effort required thou.
High season for Vietnamese tourists is in summer months, when it’s wet and hot.

Видео VietCamLao Chapter 4 - Vietnam: Ha Long Bay. Quan Lan Island. (Part 1) канала Exploration Brothers