Top 20 Tourist Attractions of the Halong Bay Area

Published On : 04 Sep 2024

Rising in northern Vietnam, Halong Bay is well-known for its breathtakingly beautiful green sea, limestone grottos, and rugged islands. With millions of visitors each year eager to marvel at its natural beauty and experience the excitement of island and beach hopping as well as the thrill of spelunking, this World Heritage Site is among the most popular tourist destinations in the world. When visiting Halong Bay, you should not miss these top 20 tourist attractions: When visiting Halong Bay, these are the top 20 tourist sites you should not miss:

1. Cruising Halong Bay
Not feasible without a cruise to maximize its 2000 islands; gourmet cuisine and beverages, opulent lodging, calm and beautiful surroundings, and thrilling travel activities on sea guarantee a unique Halong Bay experience. From two-day/one-night cruises, tours include kayaking, swimming, viewing floating villages, sunsets, caves, and island climbing. You may have a luxury cruise, a cheap cruise, or a private cruise if you would like one.

2. Ti Top Island
Along with the company of breathtaking islands, Gherman Titov is another breathtakingly lovely island named for a Russian astronaut with a sandy beach to relax and swim in Halong's crystal-clean water. Along with a 400-step hard climb to the top for an incredible 360-degree perspective.

3. Sung Sot Cave
Another famous cave to visit is the Sung Sot or Surprise Cave which is the largest in Halong Bay with an abundance of long pointed stalactites and stalagmites. This cave is well illuminated and to access it, one has to climb some 100 steps to three big chambers with marvelous geological formations.

4. Floating Villages
A few noteworthy features are the floating waste disposed villages, Halong Bay features some of the most iconic floating villages where inhabitants dwell, and engage in farming as well as fishing right on the water surface. If yes, then visit floating houses, for seafood, go shopping, ride on traditional country wooden boats, or kayak through the villages. Some of the most famous include Ba Hang, Vong Vieng, and Cua Van.

5. Titop Island
For lovers of water activities, they can go beachcombing, swimming, and sunbathing or climb up 400-plus steps to the top of Titop Island aptly named for Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov where they can marvel at the spectacular views of Halong Bay’s seascape of islets, and the green waters below.

6. Dark & Bright Cave
This is a three-chamber limestone cave the first chamber is called the ‘Dark Darkness Chamber’ and the second one is called the ‘Sunlight Chamber’ since the second chamber has a natural roof-dome opening to receive Sunlight. It has various beautiful formations of stalactites and stalagmites and there is also a very pretty beach outside this cave.

7. Yen Duc Village
If you want to take a sneak preview of the locals’ way of life, then take a quick tour of this lively fishing town complete with picturesque teak wood houses built on stilts, shanty docks, small souvenir stalls, and boats plying along the water that gives a feel of the famous Halong Bay. Often it is visited on foot in colorful maze-like streets, crossing small bridges.

8. Trinh Nu Cave
Another extraordinary cave in Halong Bay, Trinh Nu or Virgin Cave remains one of the most beautiful places attracting tourists with its brilliance of beautiful stalagmites and stalactites located in the serene waters of green color. During the low tide, beautiful white sand beach can be seen and there is excellent swimming and paddling in the turquoise waters.

9. Water Puppet Show
Visit Tuan Chau Island or Bai Chay Harbor to watch an excellent water puppet theatre where puppeteers entice the audience with their joyful shows depicting local legends, myths, and historical events performed over a pool of water behind a curtain.

10. Long Chau Lagoon
Tour boats can only enter the Long Chau Lagoon on Lan Ha Bay, by navigating through small grottos formed by limestone cliffs where kayakers can pass through a small tunnel a cave, or an arch into a blue lagoon. It is stunningly gorgeous and serene with the most majestic sunset ever.

11. Viet Hai Village
Cycling past the village’s tightly orchestrated bougainvillea-laden lanes, gaze at the quaint buildings that are painted yellow in Vietnamese architectural designs and even drop by a tiny temple where the village’s guardian spirit is housed not forgetting occasional blurred sights of the villagers at their daily activities.

12. Cat Ba Island
Located only 25km away from Halong Bay, Cat Ba Island boasts some of the island’s best features including the Cat Ba National Park, the green mangrove forests, lakes, and waterfalls that surround the island’s beautiful beaches. It also has great scenic views, and trails for hiking, climbing, rock, boat, kayaking, and other cultural activities.

13. Monkey Island
Lively Monkey Island or Cap La Island as it is called, harbors a sizeable troop of monkeys that live on an immaculate stretch of sand backed by virgin forest. Having fun and swimming with those cute monkeys is one of the most interesting activities enjoyed here.

14. Lan Ha Bay
Aside from Halong, there is the Lan Ha Bay which forms a part of the Halong Complex and boasts of limestone cliffs rising from the greenish waters. Having fewer numbers, Lan Ha Bay is less commercialized than Halong Bay and has hundreds of virgin beaches and bays for one to explore on a cruise or a canoe.

15. Cai Beo Floating Village
However, the Cai Beo Floating Village is not a permanent floating village, and its inhabitants only live in boats for several days and spend the rest of the time working in rice paddies. Take a tour around the different communities and be able to learn from people how they live their lives among these frogs.

16. Hospital Cave
Tíhon âm chỉ định cho xây dựng này trong cuộc Chiến tranh Việt Nam. Walk through a 400-meter hallway with different rooms where you can see relics from the war period such as the war-era operating theatre and soldiers' barracks. An intriguing historical site.

17. Halong Pearl Farm
Here, you can witness the real process of the cultivation and harvesting of pearls that look wonderful. Some farms even give the visitor a feel of how it once was as they get to participate in the traditional method of pearl farming. Of course, you are also able to purchase beautiful discount jewelry here as well.

18. National Park Bai Tu Long Bay
Far from Halong Bay is Bai Tu Long Bay which is a long natural bay, and a National Park of Vietnam presenting exquisite bays, white sand beaches, and forests of limestone and mangrove swamps together with fishing villages and 3000 square kilometers of mountains rising from the emerald waters.

19. Vung Ha Beach
There is a Vung Ha Beach located on the non cliched northern coast of Halong Bay where few tourists go. Its white sand beach that stretches kilometers in length bordered by spectacular limestone mountain ranges and its reflection on the turquoise sea water makes it an excellent place to swim, kayak sunbathe, and be alone than anywhere else.

20. Co To Island
Co To island is located north of Halong Bay and there are natural forests, mangrove trees, a lighthouse, the coral reef, white sand, fishing villages, and some other magnificent scenery that will satisfy your wanderlust in case you are looking for an unspoiled Vietnam. A paradisiacal destination to relax with beautiful sea sceneries in the backdrop.

And there it is – the twenty best things to do and see around Halong Bay from gliding through great seascape masterpieces and discovering mysterious grottos to elating in aquatic villages on brilliant islands. As a destination, it has what it takes to attract everyone from those in search of an adventurous holiday, a cultural experience, or plain lazy sunshine holidays with scenic backdrops in mind. As you check the highlights of the attraction destinations, it is now time to get to the wonderlands of nature in Vietnam.