{"id":3783,"date":"2025-09-21T02:34:52","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T02:34:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/viajarvietnam.com\/cat-ba-island-travel-guide-and-must-see-places\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:06:11","slug":"cat-ba","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/viajarvietnam.com\/en\/cat-ba\/","title":{"rendered":"What to do in Cat Ba: the quieter side of Halong Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today we’re going to tell you everything you can see and do in Cat Ba<\/strong>, with a few tricks we picked up along the way and the mistakes you’re better off avoiding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We first visited 6 years ago and, like everyone on their first trip, we’d heard about Halong Bay<\/a> a thousand times and assumed it was a mandatory stop. But when we arrived we found cruise boats packed to the brim with tourists taking selfies. Don’t get us wrong \u2014 it was beautiful, but it wasn’t what we’d expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Someone in Hanoi<\/a> told us about Cat Ba. “It’s like Halong, but without so many tourists.” At first we assumed it was yet another place where someone’s trying to sell you something, but in the end we decided to give it a chance. And honestly, we’re glad we did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cat Ba sits in the same archipelago as Halong, half an hour by boat from the Hai Phong port. It’s the largest island in the area, and truth be told, it caught us quite by surprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We expected to find a handful of little houses and not much else, but it turns out it has everything: decent beaches, great hiking trails, caves steeped in history and a town that’s small but has plenty of life to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether you fancy a few days of downtime away from Hanoi, or you’re after a different, budget-friendly way to visit the Halong Bay area, keep reading \u2014 in this post we cover all the essential places to see in Cat Ba.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In this post<\/p>\n