Quan Lạn island

Bái Tử Long bay

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View from window of speed boat when I traveled from
Quan Lạn island back to the mainland. There are
many islands like this in the bay.

After I was back home from Hà Giang, I booked another tour to the far north (Cao Bằng province), but the tour was cancelled a couple of days before the trip. I decided to change to a 3-day tour to Quan Lạn island. April 30 and May Day are one of the biggest festivals in Vietnam, so hotels are fully booked in advance and prices often go up. I chose to travel on a tour as it was very close to the holiday and it was also more convenient. My 3- day tour (from 28 to 30 April) costs US$150. Quan Lạn is one of the islands in Bái Tử Long bay (north east of Hạ Long bay). We left Hanoi at 5:30am and traveled 216km to Cái Rồng port, then we changed to a speed boat. After 45 minutes we arrived at Quan Lạn island. It took us 6 hours to travel from Hanoi to the island. We couldn’t go faster as the police always check traffic speeds on the highways and impose heavy fines on drivers who break the speed limit.