MU CANG CHAI ESSENTIALS

08:00 - Pick up at your hotel in Hanoi. Take the morning drive to Cat Ba Island via Haiphong city. The drive includes a local ferry ride before reaching the island. The drive takes about more 3:30 hours in total.

12:15 - Get on your private Classic Chartered Junk, enjoy welcome drink, move around to learn about the boat and check into your cabin before cruising.

12:30 - Pull up the anchor and start your cruise, you will have a chance to enjoy lovely panoramas of Cat Ba Island's jungle-clad hills rolling down to colorful tangles of fishing boats in the harbor and out to the karst-punctuated sea beyond. The wooden junk firstly winds its way by a fishing village toward Lan Ha Bay. Not much different from Halong Bay, featured with hundreds of limestone islands and islets. Lan Ha is smaller but the karst formations gather close together, this makes Lan Ha Bay become the best place for kayaking and swimming activities. The beaches are tiny but there are more than in Halong Bay.

13:30 - Anchor is dropped in the middle of the bay for lunch time. If the weather is nice, your lunch will be served on the top where you are able to enjoy the scenery the best.

14:30 - After lunch, relax on the top deck to enjoy the breath-taking scenery of Lan Ha while the junk is meandering its way to Halong Bay. Arrive at Vung Kiem Lam area, get off the junk for padding your kayaks through tunnel-like caves and discover the hidden lakes and swimming off your kayak when you wish. In this area, if you are lucky enough, you may witness some normal monkeys or other type, called Cat Ba langur (one sort of the primate species).

17:30 - Get back on the junk and continue on the cruise to explore a remote part of Halong Bay. This is also the time that you can have fun on the top-deck to enjoy a drink and watching the sunset over stunning bay

18:30 - Get the anchor dropped when you reach the night place in a remote corner of the World Heritage.

19:00 - Dinner is served with a set-menu. Overnight on board.

For early risers: The summer sunrise is about 6:00 AM; Winter sunrise is about 6:30 AM (Ask your captain for better information on the day). Otherwise, you can remain in your cabin until the breakfast time.

08:00 - The engine is started and get ready for the second day.
08:15 - Breakfast is served while you are cruising further to Rang Dua area and Ngon Tay Islet. Turning around to Lan Ha Bay for the rest of the morning. The boat will stop by Ba Trai Dao beaches for you to take the swim before lunch.

12:30 - Lunch is served aboard.

13:30 -  Heading to Viet Hai dock where you will embark on a scenic cycling ride into a part of Cat Ba National Park, visit Viet Hai village, the only one community allowed to stay in the park area. Get some local interactions with the assistance of your guide and learn about the local life. Ride back to the boat and head to the night place in Lan Ha Bay. Take more swim at sunset if the weather permits.

18:30 - Enjoy set-menu dinner and spend the second night on the junk.

07h45 Breakfast is served on board
08:30 - The junk will meandering in between the sheer cliffs of Lan Ha Bay toward Monkey Island whose beach is sandy and ideal for the last swim. Here, the guide will hike you up to a viewpoint on the mountain where you can get a beautiful bird-view from the high. 
10:30 - Check out of your cabin. Start cruising back toward the wharf while an early lunch is served.

11:30 - Bid farewell to the crews and disembark. Drive back to Hanoi.

16:30 - Arrive at your hotel in Hanoi. End of service.​