Book a Halong Bay Cruise Online or On Arrival?

Halong Bay is one of the best destinations to visit in Asia and in Vietnam. Booking a cruise in Halong Bay is very important for your group to make sure that you have a good cruise in Halong Bay. Many travellers may wonder if they should book a cruise in Halong Bay online in advance or on arrival. Both of them have some advantages and disadvantage so please read more detail about them as below. In general, we recommend booking a cruise in Halong Bay online in advance.

Transparency: That is a must for online business

On a website to book a cruise online, all the information is very clear. You will see the price, itinerary, inclusion and exclusion, room with balcony or not, the payment terms. You can work with your travel agents via email again to make sure that there is no mistake and see if there is any deal for your period because sometimes, your online agent cannot update all the information. The email is also like a contract between you and your online travel agents to solve the problem if any.

From searching online you also can see the reviews about the cruises in Halong Bay which your travel agent recommends to see if they are suitable for your group and those cruises have good reviews or not. You can see the reviews about the agents which you are working with and see if they are a good agent or not. You can use many sources online because customers can leave reviews about the agents they book with after their trips. 

If you go to Halong Bay and look for a cruise on arrival you will do not have much time to see the reviews about the cruises you want to go with and you do not have time to see the reviews about the agents you will book with so that can be a problem. There may be no cruises available especially in the high season or the peak days. If there are cruises available, you may get the cruises which other travellers avoid because they are not good enough. So we advise you to book a cruise online or at least before you arrive at Halong. 

One more thing, when you book a cruise on arrival the local people who want to sell a cruise for you may want to charge you with a high price and you may know that is a high price but you have no chance to work with other people because the local people will follow you and other people do not dare to have a low price for you ( that is like a rule among them). The time you have there is limited so some people may have to agree to book a not so good cruise with a high price at that time. 

The difficulty of booking online is you cannot predict the weather so you may have to cancel the tour but do not worry because when it is canceled by the weather and you will get 100% refund.

We advise you to book online in advance when you travel with a group or family, friends and you have limited time for your trip. If your trip is long, you travel alone and many things may affect your plan so you can book a cruise in Halong Bay just a few days in advance.

So booking a Halong Bay Cruise in advance online is better than booking a cruise on arrival in this case.

Availability: There are more choices online than on arrival

Obviously, when you book a cruise in Halong Bay online in advance you have a lot of time to check different cruises and there are more chances for availability of a cruise in Halong. There are many cruises for you to check or you can ask your travel agent to check for you because there are many cabins on cruises that can be not available on some automatically online sites like booking.com or agoda.com but they can be available when you check with your travel agents.

When you search online you can search by specific requirements like room size, boat style ( junk or steel boat), boat age, amenities, standard, etc. So you can choose the suitable cruises with your group with family or honeymoon. When you arrive at Halong, you just relax and do not worry about anything. If you are at Halong Bay and you look for a cruise at the harbour and if there is no cruise available or the available cruises are not so good cruises then now your holiday is not a holiday anymore.

There is one thing you should know that all the professional cruises have offices in the big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh but not at the harbor. The professional and good cruises will not allow their cruise staffs to sell the cabins at the harbor because all the food and other requirement need to be prepare and go through the company to make sure they are good and safe. When you book a cruise with a tour company, the cruise will register your information with a local authority and they need to be done some hours before the cruise depart and that to make sure you visit Halong Bay officially. Booking a cruise at the harbour, some staffs may agree for you to get on the cruise but they may not inform the cruise company and it means that you are not registered. So do not put you in an unsafe situation.

In this case, again booking a cruise in advance is much better than booking a cruise in Halong Bay on arrival.

Price: You get what you pay

Many of travellers may tell you that they got a very good price the last time for a cruise to Halong Bay when they book on arrival. That can be true sometimes when it is the last-minute – deal but normally they are the cruises which other travellers do not choose or it is in very low season in Halong Bay.

Nowadays, more and more Vietnamese travel to Halong Bay and the high season of domestic tourists is the low season of international tourists so there is no low season anymore when there are a lot of Vietnamese having enough conditions to stay in a good Halong Bay Cruises.

So, to get a good deal for a good cruise is impossible now. Most of the good cruises will be not available when you book on arrival except there are some slots unblocked and you are very lucky.

When you book on arrival, you may have a very good price or you may have to pay a very high price for a cruise if there is only few options for you and you must book as the time is limited.

When you book a cruise online, the price is very clear and you can choose a suitable cruise with a suitable price for your group. You may check the price to see which cruise has a good deal and choose the best one for you. Of course, you have a lot of time choosing carefully a cruise with good reviews from different sites.

Conclusion: You should book a Halong Bay Cruise online

With the information above, we advise you to book a cruise online to get the best cruise with clear information, secure booking and best deal from a reliable company. It depends on the season if that is high or low season but it is clear that booking online in advance is better than booking on arrival for a cruise in Halong Bay.

Thank you so much for reading. Vietnam Escape Tours Travel hope you have a good time for your vacation to Vietnam.