The limestone islands
Nearly two thousand, rising from the sea.
Thierry Boriecolour adjusted by Lycaon — Public domain · Thomas Hirsch / User:Ravn — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Balon Greyjoy — CC0 · Balon Greyjoy — CC0
A bay of nearly two thousand limestone islands rising straight out of green water, about 160 km east of Hanoi, and Vietnam's most famous landscape. Its name means «descending dragon»: legend says a family of dragons sent to defend the country spat out jewels that turned into islands and blocked the invaders' ships. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1994 and in 2023 extended the site to take in the Cat Ba archipelago to the south-west. You see the bay from a boat. Day trips follow numbered routes from the Ha Long cruise ports: route 1 visits Thien Cung and Dau Go caves, route 2 Sung Sot Cave and Ti Top Island (both have their own pages). Overnight cruises sail further into quieter corners, with kayaking among the islets and sunrise from the deck. The islands rise 50 to 100 metres, many of them hollowed by caves, and some are named for their shapes, such as the two Fighting Cock rocks facing each other. A few floating fishing villages remain, though many families have been resettled ashore since 2014. The weather shapes the visit: spring and autumn have the clearest skies, winter is cool and often misty, and from June to September storms can cancel sailings at short notice, so choose an operator that refunds weather cancellations.
Nearly two thousand, rising from the sea.
Kayaking and sunrise among the islets.
Sung Sot and Thien Cung by boat.
Northeastern Vietnam, about 160 km east of Hanoi; boats leave from the Ha Long cruise ports
By expressway in about two and a half hours; most cruise operators run shuttle buses from Hanoi's Old Quarter to the port.
A day trip covers one route with one or two caves; an overnight cruise reaches quieter parts of the bay and allows kayaking and sunrise on the water.