Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island

By bus the journey from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island is scheduled to take from 10 to 11 hours depending upon which bus service you take.

Bus Times from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island

There are currently 6 bus services a day from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island available to book online.

Buy Tickets from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island

Use the Search Box below to buy your tickets from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island.

Phong Nha Bus Stop

VietNam Travel Bus services from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island depart from near Central Backpackers Hostel – Phong Nha.

Cat Ba Island Bus Stop

VietNam Travel Bus services from Phong Nha to Cat Ba Island terminate in Cat Ba Town near the Pamela Angel Hotel.

About Travel to Cat Ba Island

Cat Ba Island is the largest of around 400 islands located in Lan Ha Bay. About half the island, which is approximately 285 square kilometres, is designated national park land. A population of approximately 13,000 permanent residents live in the other unprotected half of the island. Unfortunately, a lot of the charm of the island has been taking away with the recent and ongoing construction of a leisure and retail complex on reclaimed land in the bay in front of Cat Ba Town, nonetheless, away from Cat Ba Town the island still has much to offer.

Lan Ha Bay

Lan Ha Bay is one of three areas to the south of Ha Long City which has lots of steep sided limestone islands and islets. Lan Ha Bay is located to the south east of Ha Long Bay. The third area with spectacular limestone karst islands is Bau Tu Long Bay, which is located immediately to the north east of Ha Long Bay.

Lan Ha Bay looks very similar to Ha Long Bay, although it covers a smaller area, Ha Long Bay is over 1,500,000 square kilometres with 1,969 mostly uninhabited small islands, compared to Lan Ha Bay which covers 70 square kilometres and has about 400 islands. The advantage of being smaller and less well known is that Lan Ha Bay attracts far fewer tourists, and there are also far fewer tour boats in the area around Cat Ba than in Ha Long Bay.

Boat Tours from Cay Ba Island

Another of the advantages of taking a boat trip from Cat Ba Island, compared to taking a boat trip around Ha Long Bay from Ha Long City, is price. Boat trips from Cat Ba Island are much cheaper. One of the reason that they are cheaper is that the boats need to travel less far to see the islands. Cat Ba Island is located in Lan Ha Bay itself, whereas Ha Long City is located some distance away from Ha Long Bay. On a boat trip from Cat Ba Island you start to see points of interest almost straight away.

The cost of boat trips from Cat Ba island around Lan Ha varies a lot depending on the tour itinerary, the type of boat, and your negotiating skills. As a rough guide a day tour from Cat Ba Island on a shared boat will cost 500,000 to 600,000 VND per person, compared to 1.5 to 2 million VND for a similar boat tour from Ha Long City.

Staying Overnight

Cat Ba Island has one town, called Cat Ba Town, located in the south of the island 23 km by road to the south of the island’s main car ferry terminal. Until very recently Cat Ba Town was a picturesque small coastal resort town with a very attractive gently curving sea front with a pedestrianised promenade and a row of restaurants and bars on the other side of a coastal road running through the town. Unfortunately, the idyllic seafront views have been replaced with a large retail and leisure complex now being constructed in the bay itself on land reclaimed from the sea.

We recommend that visitors now look for one of the many resorts, hotels, and guesthouses, located on the western side of the island to the north of Cat Ba, or immediately to the south of Cat Ba Town.

Other Attractions on Cat Ba Island

Cat Ba island has, in past years, attracted around 3 million visitors a year most of whom were Vietnamese holiday makers. One of the main attractions for these holiday makers is the island’s beaches.

The most popular three beaches are referred to as Cat Co Beaches 1, 2 and 3. These three beaches are located in a row on the southern side of a small peninsular close to Cat Ba Town. The Cat Co Beaches are very nice, but they are also small and very busy with lots of restaurants and tourist oriented shops behind each beach.

For a quieter beach we recommend trying Chut Chit Beach, which is located 10 km by road to the north west of Cat Ba.

Cat Ba National Park

Cat Ba National Park is a hilly and heavily forested area covering the north eastern half of the island. The park is a reserve for several rare creatures, including the critically endangered Cat Ba Langur, civets, deer and giant squirrels. Visitors are also allowed into the park for a modest fee.

There are several different activities to try in Cat Ba National Park. One of these is trekking. There are lots of different trails to follow, some signposted and others not. The more popular trails vary in length from 3 to 9 km, the most popular being the relatively short Ngi Lam Peal Trail which leads to a viewpoint.

Another popular activity in the park is visiting caves. There are 5 caves you can visit, although only 2 of those are easily accessible, Hospital Cave and Trung Trang Cave. Hospital Cave was used as a medical facility during war, first with the French and later American armed forces, and the operating rooms, accommodation and other amenities have been well preserved.