Cat Ba is an archipelago of 367 large and small islands belonging to Cat Hai district, Hai Phong province. Cat Ba Island is 30km from Hai Phong city center and about 150km from Hanoi capital. This place has been recognized by UNESCO as a world biosphere reserve because of its diverse and rich ecosystem. Cat Ba archipelago also has many primeval forests on limestone mountains floating on the sea surface, creating a beautiful and poetic landscape.
The best time to visit Cat Ba Island
Cat Ba Island is located in the North of Vietnam, so there are four distinct seasons: spring - summer - autumn - winter. The busiest time for tourism in Cat Ba is in the summer from May to August, and from August to October is the rainy season.
How to get to Cat Ba Island?
You can travel by many different means such as bus, plane or train. If you go from Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang or the southern provinces, you can take a flight to Cat Bi airport - Hai Phong.
If you go from Hanoi, you can rent a private car or limousine to take you to Hai Phong City
From the center of Hai Phong city, you travel by cable car to Cat Ba island with a ticket price of 200,000 VND/way for adults, 150,000 VND/way for children.
Traveling by cable car
Recently, Sun Group has launched a cable car route across the sea from Hai Phong to Cat Ba in just 8 minutes. The Cat Ba cable car ticket price for adults is 150,000 VND/trip and for children is 100,000 VND. If you want to stay on the island overnight, there is also an extremely convenient overnight parking service right at Cat Hai station.
Places to visit when you come to Cat Ba Island
Cat Ba National Park
Cat Ba National Park is extremely diverse in ecology, including marine ecosystems, terrestrial forest ecosystems and mangrove ecosystems. The forest is located about 30 nautical miles east of the town, about 60km from the center of Hai Phong city.
The national park has a total area of 26,240 hectares including the island and sea. The flora here has about 741 species, many precious woods such as trai ly, ve hoa, lat hoa, lim xet, cho dai, kim giao, white wood; 23 species of mangrove plants, 75 species of seaweed, 199 species of phytoplankton.
In particular, Cat Ba National Park has up to 60 species of rare animals listed in the Vietnam Red Book. This is definitely a beautiful tourist destination in Cat Ba that should not be missed.
Lan Ha Bay
Lan Ha Bay is located in the eastern area of Cat Ba Island, overlooking Van Gate and adjacent to Ha Long Bay. The bay is surrounded by more than 400 small islands, creating a poetic landscape. The islands here, whether large or small, are all covered in green trees or vegetation. The density of the rocky mountains here is also quite thick, surrounded by caves with magical stalactites.
Lan Ha Bay has up to 139 small and deserted golden sand beaches inviting visitors to explore. Many sandy beaches stretch between two quiet rocky mountains and have no big waves, making them ideal swimming beaches. Under the clear blue sea water are colorful coral reefs such as Van Boi and Van Ha beaches... The calm sea areas such as Tu Ve, Sen Island... are where visitors can dive to see the coral.
Lan Ha Bay's specialties are green mussels, geoducks, cobia, crabs, etc. There are many fish farms on the bay, both as a place to visit and to provide fresh seafood according to the culinary needs of visitors.
Cai Beo Fishing Village
Top beautiful tourist destinations in Cat Ba that should not be missed include Cai Beo - the oldest fishing village in Vietnam, still retaining its wild, traditional beauty while still having a modern look. This place has been inhabited since prehistoric times and is currently home to 500 households working in fishing and raising fish in cages in the bay.
Coming here, visitors can directly experience fishing and aquaculture activities and enjoy them right on the spot, can row a boat between floating rafts, buy seafood...