I. Introduction to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island

Cat Ba Island is a wonderful destination for those who love tranquility, nature immersion, and want to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, especially for foreign tourists who want to explore. This archipelago is not only a famous tourist destination but also recognized by UNESCO as the world's largest biosphere reserve, consisting of more than 367 big and small islands. Here, tourists can enjoy the beautiful scenery of bays, beaches, and mangrove forests, explore amazing caves or relax on pristine white sand beaches. Ha Long Bay - a natural wonder of Vietnam - gathers thousands of islands and unique limestone formations. Tourists experience fascinating activities such as cruising on boats, sea diving, mountain climbing, and admiring the stunning caves. Ha Long Bay is also recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage site, highlighting the unique cultural, historical, and geographical value of Vietnam.

II. What foreign tourists do when visiting Ha Long Bay

1. Ha Long Bay

Traveling to Ha Long Bay is attractive not only to domestic but also to many international tourists. This land is favored by nature with stunning scenery. In 1994 and in 2020, this place was also recognized by UNESCO as a world natural heritage. The lush vegetation, thousands of islands and clear blue water provide many attractive experiences.

2. Tuan Chau Island

Traveling to Ha Long must visit Tuan Chau Island, Quang Ninh. Nature here is like an ink painting creating a peaceful and breezy scenery. The sea is most beautiful from April to October when the sun is warm, the sea is calm, very convenient for relaxation and outdoor activities.

3. Bai Chay Beach

If you want to plan exploring the sea in Quang Ninh, you can select the rare artificial beach here, Bai Chay beach. With a total area of up to 100m2, the sandy beach extends up to 1000m, this is a super hot check-in point chosen by many people in the Ha Long tours, especially for foreign tourists. Here, you can also participate in exciting activities such as: cycling along the beach, kite flying, surfing,... And especially, many beachside restaurants with diverse menus will make you play "forgetting the way back".

4. Cua Van Fishing Village

With the travel experience of many tourists to Ha Long, if you haven't visited Cua Van fishing village, you haven't fully enjoyed the beauty of this place. Cua Van is an ancient fishing village in the bay with very unique living characteristics of the fishermen.

Here, tourists will explore exciting activities such as: fishing, squid fishing, rowing... and enjoying delicious seafood right on the boat.

5. Quang Ninh Museum

Considered a mini-model of Quang Ninh, Quang Ninh Museum contains the culture of Ha Long people, Vietnam, sketching the most characteristic aspects of the mining land. It is also a famous, beautiful check-in spot. Foreign visitors come to visit and learn about the history here.

6. Luon Cave

Luon Cave is a famous tourist spot on Bo Hon Island, near Heaven's Gate and Turtle Island. The reason for the name Luon Cave is because it is a closed, circular mountain bow, in the middle is a clear blue, smooth lake, connected to the sea by a tunnel created by a cave whose bottom is submerged in water. Luon Cave is nearly 60 meters long, the cave ceiling is only 2.5m to 4m high depending on the tidal water.

Exploring Luon Cave is an interesting journey rowing through the beautiful circular arch cove, full of stalactites hanging down. A round, flat, and quiet lake inside, surrounded by lush trees, steep cliffs, on which groups of monkeys playfully jump.

7. Sunworld Ha Long Park

An amusement complex on the beautiful Bai Chay beach, covering an area of up to 169 hectares with many attractive entertainment items such as the world of adventurous games along with Vietnam's "largest" roller coaster, a refreshing water park named Typhoon Water Park, Seaside Village with delicate regional culture, or simply immersing yourself on Ha Long beach with clear blue water and fine white sand.

A 2km sea-crossing cable car will take tourists to the Ba Deo entertainment complex - a collective of interesting sightseeing spots and unique entertainment activities. Must-visit spots at Ba Deo peak include the Japanese Garden, indoor game area Mystery Castle, especially Sun Wheel - one of the world's highest Ferris wheels. Especially when taking the cable car, tourists will have the opportunity to admire the panoramic view of Ha Long Bay from above.

III. Visiting Cat Ba Island

1. Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha Bay, located on the East coast of Cat Ba Island, faces the Van gate and is adjacent to Ha Long Bay. This is a very calm bay area, shaped like an arc with about 400 big and small islands creating a giant painting depicting fairy scenes.

All the islands here are covered with green trees or vegetation. Furthermore, there are many fish farms on the bay, both for sightseeing and providing fresh seafood to meet the culinary needs of tourists every day.

The density of limestone mountains here is quite thick and still very pristine, dividing the sea surface into small bays and coves. Many bays, inlets, and caves have not been explored. Unlike Ha Long Bay, Lan Ha Bay has up to 139 small and beautiful golden sand beaches but deserted, likened to a "blue strait" inviting tourists to explore. Many sand beaches stretch between two mountain ranges, quiet, and without big waves are really ideal beaches.

2. Monkey Island

Monkey Island is a small island not far from Cat Ba Island. There are a lot of monkeys on the island and tourists can freely play with these smart animals. However, according to the recommendations of the island's management, you should not tease or feed the monkeys strange food. This is a mountainous island, with a beach formed over millions of years by waves and wind sand, rocks, corals, and various types of sea creature shells such as snail shells, clams, shrimps, crabs to the foot of the mountain. Monkey Island has 2 crescent-shaped beaches, Cat Dua 1 beach, and Cat Dua 2 beach, in which Cat Dua 1 beach is longer and has an army post. Next, the sea water here is extremely clean, so it becomes an ideal beach spot for tourists when traveling to Ha Long Cat Ba. The services here include a thatched restaurant where tourists can enjoy the sea breeze, buy drinks, eat ice cream,... as well as a range of services for guests such as renting swimwear, buoys, and kayaks.

3. The ancient Cai Beo fishing village

The village also has the name Vung O, considered the oldest fishing village in Vietnam. Here, visitors can firsthand learn about the way of life of people from thousands of years ago. Stepping onto the floating house, rowing boats into the midst of the floating farms, buying seafood... are experiences not to be missed.

4. Cat Ba National Park

It is also a world biosphere reserve. Tourists can choose to climb mountains for 4 - 8 hours, or a shorter route of just over 2 hours. Walking, cycling, motorbiking, or driving for 2 – 3 hours are also options chosen by many people. Tourists can walk through the green Kim Giao forest, go up to Ngự Lâm peak to view the entire national park, watch wild animals at night, and explore the caves...

5. Swimming

The first thing tourists mention when traveling to Cat Ba is probably swimming. Cat Ba with many large and small beaches with clear blue water along with long stretches of sand, interspersed among the jagged mountains will be a very suitable choice for those who want to find a cool, clean space close to nature.

Beaches in Cat Ba not only have economic value with many rich seafood species but also have a great tourism value famous for many beautiful coral reefs and magnificent cave systems. Some beautiful, famous beaches in Cat Ba can be mentioned such as Cat Co 1, 2, 3 beaches, Tung Thu beach, Van Boi island beach...

6. Kayaking

If you're someone who loves underwater activities, kayaking is definitely an interesting experience that you cannot miss when traveling to Cat Ba. Rowing a boat while drifting on the sea surface admiring the sparkling waves under the golden sun, passing through the steep mountains standing majestic in the heart of the sea will be an unforgettable experience for tourists.

The most interesting thing when kayaking is that tourists will admire the limestone mountains up close, explore the caves or see with their own eyes the majestic stalactites that nature has bestowed. You can rent a kayak individually or in groups. The cost of renting a kayak is quite reasonable, so whether you go alone or in a group, this promises to be a very interesting activity that you cannot miss.

IV. Foreign tourists explore the cuisine of Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island

Ha Long pearl milk tea

Ha Long pearl milk tea is already too famous, isn't it! The yogurt brings a wonderful flavor of aloe vera, jelly or dried coconut, it feels both sweet and creamy extremely interesting. Currently, we can also enjoy this dish in many places, not necessarily having to visit Ha Long.

Sa Sung

Sa sung or also known as sea worms, earthworms, Panax,... is a high nutritional value seafood, very effective in curing many diseases. Sa sung can also be used to cook many dishes, the most delicious must be mentioned is sa sung stir-fried with garlic.

Ngan

The name is ngan (disgusted) but eating it is not ngan (disgusted) at all! Ngan is a type of seafood similar to clams but bigger. Ngan is very hard to catch so it is classified as a Ha Long specialty. Ngan can be cooked in many dishes such as grilled, soup, steamed or stir-fried with noodles.

Sea Sam

Sea sam has tender, moderately sweet, and chewy meat, a "familiar face" at most delicious restaurants in Ha Long Cat Ba. Sam is processed into many attractive dishes such as salad, stir-fried with lemongrass chili, crunchy sam eggs, stir-fried with piper lolot, steamed, grilled,...

Geoduck

Also known as elephant trunk clam, peeping clam, famous as one of the rare, high nutritional and special flavored seafood. In Cat Ba, people often cook geoduck into grilled onion fat dish, aromatically delicious, and the fatty taste is unforgettable.

Mantis Shrimp

Mantis shrimp is best when stir-fried with salt, tamarind. To make a delicious mantis shrimp dish, the cook must carefully select the mantis shrimp, especially it must still be alive so that when cooked, the meat remains intact, not mashed, and creates a distinctive aroma.

V. Tips for foreign tourists when traveling to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island

1. Weather

Ha Long is a closed sea area, less affected by storms. However, there are still many cases of travel agencies automatically canceling tours due to bad weather warnings from the sea. To avoid this happening to your journey, tourists should carefully monitor the weather to choose the right departure day.

The best time to travel to Ha Long is in November when the sky is clear and the weather is cool. Tourists can comfortably take a boat out to see, admire the wonderful scenery of Ha Long Bay.

2. Preparing necessary documents

Foreign tourists traveling to Vietnam need to prepare a passport and apply for an entry visa. Vietnam currently exempts visas for some countries, so tourists should learn about the countries that are exempt and not exempt to prepare full documents. In addition to the passport and visa, do not forget to bring along air tickets and other personal documents.

Above is the information that PYS wants to share with foreign tourists, preparing for a trip to Vietnam filled with fascinating experiences…

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