booked the family suite on the Paloma cruise. Was amazing. Spent 3 days and 2 nights. The suite was very large (compared to other boats I have been on), we had a large private deck and the crew and our tour guide were fantastic. The ship was very clean and we had a great tour guide. Well worth it.

We have been to Halong Bay several times and have tried different cruise companies each time. So far our favourties have been Indochina Sails and Bhaya Cruises. For Luxury, and that extra touch, Bhaya come out in front. The boat is large and has several areas to sit and enjoy the Bay. It has a massage area for those who wish to fully relax, great staff and little extras like roses petals dropped onto you from above as you arrive and scattered on your bed. The dinner is many courses long consisting of great food and the staff are just excellent. They cater for children very well and made dishes which my children devoured. Happy Hour at dusk meant we could sit and enjoy the suset with a cocktail.

Indochina Sails on the other hand was less luxurious (but more expensive) however the bathrooms were very big in comparison to the Bhaya. Rooms very similar, food lovely but not as extensive in terms of range of food. Only one outside area to view the bay (which was fine but not enough seats for everyone and many of us had to stand for hours). Staff were unable to bring up chairs from the dinning room or another area to cater for all the passengers. Indochina had a wine tasting hour which was fun and in comparison Bhaya had a spring roll making(and eating ) session. Happy hour was also after 9pm on Indochina Sails which was dissapointing as it would have been nice to sit on the deck at dusk and have a drink or two. Did not cater well for children in terms of food and the vegetarian options were a bit light weight. Kayaking however was wonderful and the location was stunning. Only problem was that you have to miss out on the floating fishing village (which is included in your package) to take advantage of the kayaking. Bhaya Cruiases had these activities seperately when we travalled with them.

Overall, both offer great value for money and very similar packages however, my personal preference was for Bhaya Cruises which made the extra effort in certain areas and made the overall experience first class.

We took an overnight cruise of Halong Bay with Paloma in July. Overall, we enjoyed the experience - Halong Bay is absolutely amazing and not a place to be missed, and an overnight cruise is certainly a great way to experience it. The boat is very nice, the rooms are small but that's to be expected, but they are in great condition and we got a fruit platter in our room was a nice touch. The cruise was pretty packed with activities, which isn't to all tastes, although we didn't mind it, and we've heard that for longer cruises, there's more downtime for relaxing, swimming, etc. The food was very good, not the best that we had during our visit in Vietnam but still good. We were a little annoyed that you have to pay for all beverages, even soda or water, and the boat only provides 2 small bottles of water... so during meals, coffee/tea was provided afterwards but if you wanted anything to drink during the meal (including coffee/tea) then you had to pay for it. It felt a bit like nickel and diming considering that we paid a significant amount for the trip. This may be standard practice among all of the cruise ships but just something we noticed. We enjoyed kayaking around a floating village, and they took us to an amazing cave (although it seems like a lot of different groups do all of this so it may not be that unique to this trip). The drive from Hanoi is 3-4 hours, and we stopped on both ways at what we thought was an irritating, enormous tourist/souvenir trap. Seems like every bus going from Hanoi to the Bay goes there so might be unavoidable. The real draw is of course the Bay, so these little annoyances are worth it, but I'd still recommend bringing your own water/other beverages.

Ha Long Bay is the first reason that we go to Vietnam. However, our taken boat has very short trip. The boat started at 12 pm and stopped for lunch at around 1.30 pm. We though it would continue after lunch but it didn't. The tour and staff on boat always urged us to pay more during the trip like to buy the fish from fish farm and they will cook for you . When you finish the eating, they will charge you the cooking and service fee. And also advised tourists to hire small boat to look around which also need additional cost.