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Bai Tu Long Bay is a bay and national park that sits directly northeast of Halong Bay, and while it may be Halong’s lesser-known neighbor, it is without a doubt, equal in beauty! The Bay encompasses Bai Tu Long National Park and like Halong Bay, is an area protected by the local government on both land and sea.

Best time to visit

The weather is obviously the main factor to consider when choosing the most attractive time to visit the north of Vietnam. It gets somewhat chilly here in January and February, whilst May typically marks the arrival of southern monsoons which last until September. March – April and September – October are therefore the best choices for your trip; neither too hot nor too cold, with clear skies above your head.

Check the below table for the general idea of Bai Tu Long bay weather throughout the year.

Month Avg. High (°C) Avg. Mean (°C) Avg. Low (°C)
Jan 18.8 15.7 13.3
Feb 20.8 17.8 15.6
Mar 22.4 19.9 17.8
Apr 26.7 23.4 21.1
May 30.6 26.9 24.1
Jun 32.4 28.8 25.9
Jul 31.9 28.6 25.8
Aug 31.4 28 25.3
Sep 30.7 27.1 24.3
Oct 29.3 25.3 22.3
Nov 26.1 22.1 19.1
Dec 21.7 18 15.2

Bai Tu Long’s current weather and 7-day forecast

BAI TU LONG BAY WEATHER

Here are top things to do in Bai Tu Long Bay:

Join a Bai Tu Long Bay Cruise

Taking a minimum 3-day Bai Tu Long Bay Cruise, you will experience pleasant services and unique packages of Bai Tu Long itinerary. You’ll have an opportunity to behold the UNESCO protected geological formations, learn about the biodiversity, try night squid fishing, do Tai Chi exercise, get a deeper insight of the local life, dine in a candlelit cave, feast on a BBQ lunch on the beach or cycle around floating villages.

Kayak in Vung Vieng fishing village

Situated in the heart of Bai Tu Long Bay, Vung Vieng village is a peaceful location where the unspoiled landscape and the local culture of fishermen have drawn lots of tourists’ attention. Thanks to the off-the-beaten-track area, kayaking in Vung Vieng is much more transformative than anywhere else. You can touch the crystal water and immerse yourself in the tranquil atmosphere of Vung Vieng fishing village.

Swim/snorkel in Ban Chan Beach

It’s perfect to swim or snorkel among the hidden paradise concealed from the masses and still widely unknown. Let’s enjoy the sandy beach, put your feet up, and even set up your own BBQ party in Bai Tu Long Bay.

Explore Thien Canh Son Cave

The route leading to Thien Canh Son Cave is already unique and a little adventurous since it set below a forest canopy and a stone cliff. The discovery at Thien Canh Son Cave offers an adventure to a mini ancient civilization revived through the stalagmites and stalactites. You will not only listen to many legends and stories about the cave but also capture mesmerizing moments of Bai Tu Long Bay.

Referring to Bai Tu Long, everyone immediately thinks that it is an extremely popular tourist destination in Vietnam with hundreds of wonderful islands and beautiful natural scenery. However, Bai Tu Long tourism is not only to enjoy the scenery but also many special culinary specialties, dishes, cuisine, food.

Here are some specialties that visitors cannot ignore when traveling here:

1. Oysters – Best dish in Bai Tu Long Bay

Favored by nature for weather conditions and water sources, Ban Sen island commune (Van Don district) is an ideal place to raise Pacific oysters. Dubbed the “kingdom” of oysters, because it focuses on many large-scale farming facilities. In particular, there are oyster farming areas that stretching for kilometers with over 1,000 rafts in the Cong Nua area and Bai Tu Long Bay.

Here oysters are processed into many different attractive dishes such as:

a. Grilled oysters with onion

Oysters after being peeled on one side will be baked. When the oysters are almost ripe, they will coat a layer of onion fat to make the oysters sweeter and smell better. When you remove the oysters from the kitchen, add onions and some peanuts.

When eating, you will feel the sweet but still coolness of the oysters, blended with the aromatic smell of roasted peanuts and fried onions.

b. Oysters in tomato sauce

Only with simple ingredients: oysters, tomatoes, dry onions, scallions, dill, and a little spice, created a very tasty and extremely attractive dish.

Stir-fried finely chopped shallots with tomatoes. Then, put the cleaned oysters on the same. Seasoning with a little fish sauce, the main noodles add flavor. When the oyster infused spices, add scallions and cumin to smell up. This is the favorite food of many people in Bai Tu Long Bay, especially the children.

2. Cha Muc – Squid Sausage

Meticulous is the essential requirement of this dish. Squid is cleaned and cut into small pieces pounding in stone mortars. The pounded squid is a little tangled enough to create a sticky level to have a medium bristle texture, not too tough or too friable.

a. Xoi Cha Muc – Squid sausage with sticky rice

To eat Squid Sausage at Bai Tu Long Bay, the right taste is often served with white sticky rice.

Quang Ninh white sticky rice has a unique flavor. This is the taste of the sea and the unique feature of Bai Tu Long Bay tourist destination. Once enjoying Squid Sausage with sticky rice, surely you will not forget the taste of this dish.

Currently in Bai Tu Long Bay each white sticky rice yield from VND 35,000 to VND 50,000. As a traditional dish of a place, a tourist center, this price is not considered too expensive.

b. Banh Cuon Cha Muc – Squid sausage with rolled rice pancake

This is a dish with a combination of 3 elements: squid sausage, rolled rice pancake, and dipping sauce. These 3 elements must ensure good quality and quality to create harmony for the dish and the delicious taste.   

To have a delicious flavor that attracts customers, you must make sure that the dipping sauce is the best. The sauce has enough ingredients including fish sauce, chili, sugar, lemon juice, … With a sweet and sour taste and the combination with the hot-rolled pancake, shrimp and each piece of squid slices to create a delicious taste right after touching the lips.

3. Sa Sung – Sipunculus nudus

Sa Sung is a type of mollusk, shaped like a worm, living in the coastal sandy beaches but not everywhere. Sa Sung is one of the best specialties in Bai Tu Long Bay that every traveler must try

a. Fried sweet and sour Sa Sung

Lots of flavors we can enjoy from this dish, the sourness of lemon, the sweetness of sugar and pungency, the spiciness of chili, the richness of fish sauce. Along with the crunchy, fried sweet and sour Sa Sung will surely bring you and your family a great meal in Bai Tu Long Bay.

b. Sa Sung Soup

Sa Sung is cooked with garlic, dry onions, a little bit of fish sauce, and seasoning seeds to create a strong flavor. Sa Sung soup is usually cooked with tomatoes and when almost cooked, it is added to guise leaves. The broth has a slightly sour taste, very good for the body, especially those who are tired or just recovered.

4. Sam Bien – Horseshoe crab

Sam Bien (Horseshoe crab) has a strange shape, hard shell, round body, swim very slowly and crawl like a crab. Female sam weighs about a kilogram, male sam smaller, weighs only half the female.

Sam bien bai tu longSam Bien legs and thighs after being cut off will be soaked in hot water to remove fishy, will be marinated with galangal, lemongrass, chili and spices and sautéed in a hot pan.

In addition to the familiar spices, it is indispensable for tamarind juice to wake up the aroma and natural sour taste for the dish. Guise leaf is added last to create the characteristic aroma of this dish.

Sam’s legs are sweeter and more fragrant than crab meat. Vietnamese people (especially people in the coastal areas) consider it a favorite when drinking with friends.

5. Oc Mong Tay – Solenidae

With a two-piece structure, about the size of a finger, the intestine is milky white, the shell is slightly yellow-brown. The taste of it is fleshy and chewy so it is used as a raw material to make many delicious dishes in coastal areas of Vietnam.

The popular dish of Oc Mong Tay is tamarind-fried. To make tamarind-fried Oc Mong Tay, people often combine familiar ingredients in the kitchen every day such as garlic, chili, tamarind, peanuts and laksa leaves – a spice that reduces the smell of fishy and flavor enhancement for the dish.

The solenidae after being washed will be cooked with tamarind. The sweet and sour fried solenidae with tamarind is a nutritious food, suitable for many people’s taste, especially used as a snack on cool, rainy days

6. Bai Tu Long Cu Ky – Stone crab

Cu Ky is a type of sea crab with two very large pincers, hairy legs, firm meat and very fragrant. This crab has become a specialty dish in Quang Ninh (Bai Tu Long, Ha Long and Mong Cai).

Cu Ky lives in rocky ravines, wood chips along coastal cliffs and mangroves, as well as in aquaculture farms, rafts and breakwaters. They can grow to large sizes (width up to 12 cm), feeding on small planktonic.

Cu Ky’s meat is only found in their two pincers. Their body is porous and almost no meat. The exotic is also processed in many different ways such as noodles, steaming, roasting with tamarind or grilling over charcoal.crustacean species.

7. Hai Sam – Sea cucumber

This is a nutritious delicacy, does not contain too much grease, more fiber good for health. Sea cucumbers are cut into bite-sized pieces combined with shiitake mushrooms, spoon vegetables and a few spices for a tasty dish. When eating sea cucumber crispy and soft taste in the mouth. Sea cucumber is useful for health, preventing kidney stones, body weakness.

8. Nhim Bien – Sea-urchin

a. Grilled sea-urchin

For those who love grilling dishes, sea-urchin grilled with onion is an attractive dish that you cannot ignore. This dish is made quickly but gives you a delicious and refreshing feeling.

The sea-urchin after being cleaned will be cut in half, put in some onion oil and baked on charcoal until the meat turns yellow.

When eating, adding a pinch of lemon pepper to the top of them then using a spoon to put into the mouth to swallow slowly is the best way to try the food.

b. Sea-urchin porridge

In addition to grilled sea-urchin, you should not forget to enjoy the delicious sea-urchin porridge.

To make delicious porridge, one must use fresh sea urchin. For a more flavorful taste, the chef will marinate the meat with spices like pepper and onions. Then, the ingredients will be fried through to add flavor and blend together. Finally, just pour all into the pot of boiling porridge, stir well and scoop out the bowl quickly when it’s still hot.

From Hanoi

Visitor can pick a transportation of different bus companies to reach Bai Tu Long, Cam Pha city, Quang Ninh Province. The ticket price is around 120,000 – 220,000 Vietnam dong. The time on bus is around 4hours 20minutes

Here Are Some Bus Companies:

  • Dai Phat bus – at Luong Yen bus station – Cam Pha bus station
  • Nghia Anh Limousine: Ha Noi – Cam Pha
  • Van Đon Xanh: Ha Noi – Cam Pha
  • Xuan Truong (Quang Ninh): Ha Noi – Quang Ninh
  • Duc Phuc: My Dinh bus station – Cam Pha bus station
  • Đuc Thanh: My Dinh bus station – Cua Ong bus station
  • Anh Quy: Ha Noi bus station – Cua Ong bus station

And some other bus companies.

If traveling within Halong city, visitors can use taxi company: Taxi 886 – Mong Cai (2033.886 886), Halong (203362 62 62), Hon Gai (2033.84 84 84), Mai Linh (2033.628 628)

In order visit the bay, visitor can book a cruise at Bai Chay pier (2033 844 631), Hai Au company (2033 824 779) and some others

However, it is better you book an overnight cruise in Bai Tu Long Bay to get more deeply beauties’ discovery. And the recommend is that you should book cabin in advance to avoid there is no room available. The price according each cruise you choose

We recommend you check the latest bus schedule and price via rome2rio.com

From Hai Phong

It takes 2,5 hours from Cat Bi airport or Hai Phong city to reach Bai Tu Long.

From Ninh Binh

It takes 4,5 hours to reach the bay and you should leave Ninh Binh at 8.00 am to reach Bai Tu Long Bay at noon time for cruise trip

Contact us to get more information

TOUR PACKAGES INCLUDING "Bai Tu Long"

From Mountain to the Sea: 10-Day Trekking Sapa & Cruising Bai Tu Long Bay From Mountain to the Sea: 10-Day Trekking Sapa & Cruising Bai Tu Long Bay

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From Mountain to the Sea: 10-Day Trekking Sapa & Cruising Bai Tu Long Bay
Trek & Hike / 10 days / fr. $1,098

Explore the fairy-tale landscapes of Northern Vietnam in style. Travel to Sapa by comfortable overnight train then spend the days hiking through verdant landscapes to colorful hilltribe villages. S... More

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