Hi John, sorry for the long delay in answering your question, but I haven't visited Tripadvisor for a while due to not having travelled overseas since lockdown began. Our trip included an overnight stay in Halong Bay, on a junk boat, and I have to admit I was sceptical regarding how comfortable that would be. It turned out to be the highlight of a ten-week trip that took in 11 different countries. This particular part of the trip was a 17 day tour through Vietnam and Cambodia, arranged through G-Adventures, which began when we met with other travellers in Hanoi and our overnight at Halong Bay was on our second day in Vietnam. I can't recommend it highly enough. Waking up in the morning, with a view of the karsts from our bedroom window, was breathtaking. The beds were great and the food onboard was excellent. I can't fault it in any way. I've uploaded loads of photos taken onboard the junk boat and hopefully you can find some of them to see what I'm talking about. If I can answer anything more specifically, please feel free to ask. I promise to check in here more frequently in future.

I just recently spent 3D2N in Ambassadors Cruise and I must sayit is worth the experience. Whether you are to book with a travel agency or by yourself, it would be a good deal being with Ambassadors Cruise as the staff are so friendly and accommodating

I have done 1 day cruise, I feel 2D1N is good. I went in Dragonfly and it was good.

reclim is correct. However, here is something else to consider. There are generally two ways to drive. Although we had a private tour for most of our trip, our tour company transferred us from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay via a group van. We only had one other couple in the van so that was not an issue. However, the van makes two stops on the way, supposedly for bathroom breaks but each stop is at a giant tourist souvenir venue, each stop is 40-45 minutes instead of one ten minute stop, or no stop if you don't need a bathroom break at all. They pick you up at 8 am, it is a 2 hour drive non-stop but with the breaks it is 3 1/2 hours. The boat loads at around 2 pm as I recall. Undoubtedly, the van gets paid to stop at the giant souvenir shops, so your ride is longer but cheaper than a taxi. Second, because of the route of the souvenir shops, it is a more local route with lots of traffic and traffic lights, usually two lanes in each direction, the right lane being mainly for motorbikes. The drive is constantly going in the lane of oncoming traffic to pass cars and trucks. It is hair raising but fun. Fasten your seat belt tightly. On the other hand, if you have a private taxi or car and are willing to pay more in tolls, you can drive on a highway that takes much less time, which means you can leave at 11 am and get there before 1 pm/1300 to check in way before 2 pm/1400. So you need to consider how you want to go, leave at 8 am on local roads with sales shop stops and other passengers for less money, or go on a seer highway and pay much more, I don't know how much.

We used Huong Hai Sea Life cruise. Great crew, they adapted very well to our food requests of no meat, pork, chicken, with more vegetarian and squid or fish dishes. They have options to kayak, visit the cave, and visit the fishing village. Unless you love to kayak, the trip to the fishing village is in a large rowboat with 6 passengers, and the boats row as closely to the little mountains as kayaks do, so you don't miss much by not kayaking. The fishing village trip is well worthwhile in scenery as well as culturally. Be prepared to tip the rower. The cave is not a particularly interesting cave, if you've ever seen a cave before, but it is easy to do, so might as well. From what I can tell, the ships are similar in that they have a lower restaurant level, a couple of levels of rooms/berths, then a top open deck level for other activities and a bar. All of this is very nice, except if you are on the level below the top level, you will hear people walking, dancing or jumping during 6 am morning Tai Chi, so I would recommend asking for a level closer to the bottom level than the top level. Otherwise you will have a hard time getting to sleep, especially on New Yeats Eve, unless you are the last to go to sleep, and you will be awakened as we were at 5:45 a.m. as people assembled for morning Tai Chi or to watch the early dawn, and you may prefer to sleep late after New Years Eve instead of be awakened by whoever gets up early to go on the top deck. One last thing. There is wifi on the boat. If you want to connect, you may find as I did that certain parts of the boat have a stronger signal than other parts, in our case the front was better than the middle or back.

I apologise for my delay and note that you would have already gone there so I hope that you had a wonderful time, the Vietnamese people are very friendly and helpful. The airport is also a good place to ask for good accommodation from the Information Centre as they are a font of good advice.