Getting to Cat Ba: why you always need a boat
Cat Ba is the largest island in the Halong Bay area, just off the coast near Hai Phong. It sits close to the mainland, but there is no bridge to it. The Tan Vu to Lach Huyen bridge only reaches Cat Hai, the flat, industrial island next door. To get from Cat Hai across to Cat Ba, you still have to cross the water. So no matter how you arrive, the last stretch onto the island is always by boat or by cable car. You cannot drive the whole way.
That last stretch is what people mean by the Cat Ba ferry. There are two main routes, and they start from completely different places.
- The first runs from the Hai Phong side, from Dong Bai pier on Cat Hai over to Cai Vieng pier on Cat Ba. This is the busy, everyday route that most travellers use, and it is what most of this guide covers.
- The second runs from the Halong side, from Tuan Chau over to Gia Luan on the north of the island. It runs less often and takes longer, but the crossing is far more scenic, more like a short Halong Bay cruise than a transfer. If you are coming straight from Halong, that is the one to take, and there is a full section on it below.
There is also a way to skip the ferry completely: the Cat Ba cable car. It runs from Cat Hai over to Phu Long on the island, right beside the Dong Bai pier. It is quick and the views are good, but it only runs a few set times a day and drops you well outside town, so whether it makes sense depends on your plans.
Getting to Dong Bai pier
Before you plan anything, get the pier right. Until 2024, the ferry from Hai Phong left from Got pier, and you will still see that name all over the internet, in schedules, on maps, in guides that were never updated. Got pier is finished. It closed to public ferries in March 2024 and now only handles buses and tours. The public ferry moved to a bigger, newer terminal called Dong Bai, about 3 to 5 km away, right next to the Sun World cable car station.
This matters because the wrong information still sends people to the wrong place. Grab drivers and Google Maps both still drop travellers at old Got, where there is no public ferry and where touts will happily sell you an overpriced speedboat or a “tour” and tell you it is the only way across. It is not. When you set your destination, use Dong Bai pier, not Got. If your driver heads for Got, tell them you want the ferry by the cable car station, and watch for the large “Sun World Cat Ba” sign on the expressway. That exit is the right one.
The ferry from Dong Bai lands at Cai Vieng on Cat Ba. One thing to be clear about early: Cai Vieng is not the town. It sits on the north of the island, and it is another 22 to 25 km, roughly 30 to 45 minutes by road, to Cat Ba town where the hotels, restaurants and beaches are. More on that later. First, how to reach Dong Bai in the first place.
From Hanoi
Most people come from Hanoi, and the easiest way is a through ticket that covers the whole trip, bus plus ferry, so you never deal with the pier yourself. That is worth its own explanation, and you will find it further down under travelling by bus. If you would rather sort the pieces yourself, you can take a coach from Hanoi to Hai Phong, around 250,000 to 300,000 VND and about two to two and a half hours, then continue to Dong Bai by taxi, local bus, or rented vehicle. For most travellers the combined ticket is simpler and usually cheaper, so unless you have a reason to stop in Hai Phong, take that.
From Hai Phong
If you are already in Hai Phong city, you have a choice, and the obvious one is not always the best.
Dong Bai pier is 15 to 20 km out of the city, across the bridge on Cat Hai. You can get there by taxi (roughly 250,000 to 350,000 VND), by motorbike, or by local bus 16C, which runs from the Thuong Ly area out toward the pier for around 13,000 to 15,000 VND. From Dong Bai you take the ferry, land at Cai Vieng, then still need transport across the island to town.
But if you are travelling light and on foot, there is a faster option that skips all of that: the direct hydrofoil from Ben Binh pier, in the centre of Hai Phong, straight to Cat Ba town. No trip out to Dong Bai, no ferry, no cross-island transfer. It costs more and runs only a few times a day, but it drops you where you actually want to be. There is more on it in the speedboat section. For anyone without a vehicle, it is often the smarter call.
From Cat Bi airport
Cat Bi is Hai Phong’s airport, and it is a useful way in if you are flying up from the south rather than routing through Hanoi. It is not close to Dong Bai, though. A taxi straight from the airport to the pier runs around 300,000 to 400,000 VND, and then you still have the ferry and the road across the island.
Two things usually work out better. If the timing lines up, take a short taxi into the city and catch the direct Ben Binh hydrofoil to Cat Ba town. Or book a bus-and-ferry transfer that will pick you up near the airport or the Tan Vu bridge and carry you all the way to your hotel. Both save you from paying for a long airport taxi and then piecing the rest together on your own.
From Cat Ba town (leaving the island)
Going the other way, you do the same trip in reverse. From Cat Ba town, get to Cai Vieng pier, cross to Dong Bai, then continue to Hai Phong or beyond. The cheapest way to reach Cai Vieng is local bus 14, which runs from Cat Ba town out to the pier and stops at the cable car station on the way. It goes about every 45 minutes and costs around 13,000 VND. A taxi will do the same run for up to about 300,000 VND. If you are on a through ticket back to Hanoi, none of this is your problem, it is all handled.
The car ferry: how it works
This is the workhorse, the Dong Bai to Cai Vieng ferry. It carries everything: foot passengers, bicycles, motorbikes, cars, buses and trucks, all on the same boat. It is cheap, it runs all day, and it is the route almost everyone uses. It is also a genuine car ferry, not a passenger boat, so how it feels depends a lot on whether you are on foot or bringing a vehicle.
Schedule
Ferries run from early morning to evening, roughly every 30 minutes for most of the day. In low season the first sailing from Dong Bai is around 5:30 am and the last is about 6:00 pm. In high season they start earlier, around 5:00 am, and run later, to about 7:30 pm.
Two things are worth knowing that the flat “every 30 minutes” you see elsewhere leaves out. Around the middle of the day the gaps stretch a little, closer to 45 minutes between sailings. And the two latest departures, roughly 6:30 pm and 7:00 pm, only run in the summer peak, from late April to the end of August. Outside those months, do not count on a late boat. Schedules also shift slightly in peak periods, so if you are aiming for a specific sailing, check at the counter when you arrive.
Prices
You pay per person and, if you have one, per vehicle, and you pay in cash at the counter. Prices are set by the pier and are low. As a guide:
- Foot passenger: around 12,000 to 14,000 VND
- Bicycle: around 12,000 VND
- Motorbike with rider: around 44,000 VND
- Car under 9 seats: around 194,000 VND
- Buses: around 215,000 to 336,000 VND depending on size
- Trucks: priced by weight
These change over time and by season, so treat them as a guide and confirm at the booth. The takeaway is that as a foot passenger the crossing costs almost nothing, and even with a motorbike it is cheap.
How long it takes
The crossing itself is short, about 20 minutes across the Cat Hai strait. That is the bit you spend on the water.
What actually eats time is everything around it: queuing, loading, and waiting for a boat with space. On a quiet weekday morning you may drive straight on and go. On a busy weekend with a vehicle, you can wait through more than one sailing before you get on, sometimes an hour or more. So plan around the wait, not the crossing. And remember the 20 minutes on the water is only part of the journey, because you still have the 30 to 45 minute drive across the island to town once you land at Cai Vieng.
What the crossing is like
For such a short hop, the boat is better than you would expect. It is a large ferry with three levels, indoor seating for bad weather, and an open deck where you can stand and watch the bay and the working ships go by. There is usually a small kiosk selling drinks and snacks like chips and instant noodles. There are toilets on the lower deck. They work, but they are not pleasant, so use one on land first if you can.
If you are bringing a car, the easiest thing is to stay in it. Loading and unloading is quick but a bit chaotic, and staying put saves the hassle. If you are on a motorbike or on foot, be ready for a slightly disorganised boarding: the queue is not always separated, so foot passengers sometimes line up among the motorbikes, and it gets awkward when the bikes are waved on. One more honest point worth knowing: when it is busy, cars get priority. Foot and motorbike passengers can be held back for a later sailing to make room for vehicles, so if you are on two wheels or on foot at a busy time, get there early.
The speedboat: how it works
“Speedboat” is where people get confused, because two completely different boats get called that, and they are not interchangeable. One is a fast version of the crossing you just read about. The other is a different route entirely, from the middle of Hai Phong straight into Cat Ba town. Here is how each one works and when it is actually worth it.
The Dong Bai speedboat
From Dong Bai, alongside the car ferry, there is a small passenger-only speedboat on the same crossing to Cai Vieng. It costs around 100,000 VND, against roughly 12,000 to 14,000 for the ferry, and it shaves the water time down to about 10 minutes.
Here is the honest part: it is rarely worth it. The car ferry crossing is only about 20 minutes to begin with, so you are paying several times more to save around ten minutes on an already short hop, and you still land at Cai Vieng with the same 30 to 45 minute road transfer ahead of you. It cannot take your motorbike or car either, it is passengers only. Unless you have just missed a ferry and do not want to wait, the ferry is the better call.
The Ben Binh hydrofoil (direct to Cat Ba town)
This is the more useful one, and it is a genuinely different trip. It leaves from Ben Binh pier in the centre of Hai Phong and goes straight to Cat Ba town, dropping you right in the middle of things behind the harbour monument. No trip out to Dong Bai, no ferry, no long road across the island. For a foot passenger coming from Hai Phong city or Cat Bi airport, that is a real saving in time and hassle.
The crossing takes roughly 45 minutes to an hour. Prices are higher than the ferry and vary a lot depending on who you ask and the season, so treat any figure online as rough and confirm at the counter. Buy from the official booth, not from the people milling around the pier.
The catch is reliability. It only runs a few times a day, the schedule changes with the season and thins out in winter, and the times you find online contradict each other constantly, because they genuinely shift. Do not build a tight plan around a departure you read on a blog. Check the same morning at the pier, or the day before. When the timing works, it is the most comfortable and direct way onto the island without a vehicle. When it does not, the Dong Bai ferry is always running.
One thing to clear up, since budget travellers sometimes call this boat a scam: it is not. The “scam” complaint comes from people who wanted the near-free public ferry and were steered onto the pricier direct boat instead. Both are legitimate. They just do different jobs. The ferry is cheap and involves a transfer; the hydrofoil costs more and takes you straight to town. Pick the one that fits your trip, and do not let anyone at old Got pier tell you it is your only option.
Travelling by bus between Cat Ba and Hanoi: one ticket for the whole trip
If you are coming from or going to Hanoi, here is the good news: you do not really need to worry about the Cat Ba ferry at all. The easiest way to make the trip is a single combined ticket that covers the whole journey, bus and boat together, from the city to the island. You buy one ticket, you get on, and someone else handles the ferry. Whether you are going from Hanoi to Cat Ba or from Cat Ba back to Hanoi, the boat crossing is already part of the deal.
The ticket comes in two forms, and it helps to know which you are getting.
The first is the speedboat combo. A bus takes you to the water, you cross as a foot passenger, and another vehicle picks you up on the other side and carries you the rest of the way. You change vehicles, but every leg is included and arranged for you.
The second is the car ferry combo. Here the bus or van itself drives straight onto the car ferry with you still on board. You cross the water sitting in the vehicle, it drives off at the other end, and you carry on. No changing over at all.
Both get you door to door, or close to it, and the main advantage is that you never touch a ticket counter or work out a single connection yourself. It is also usually cheaper than doing it piece by piece. Once you add up a coach to Hai Phong, a taxi out to the pier, the ferry, and another taxi across the island to your hotel, the through ticket often comes out lower, and with none of the waiting around or guesswork. For most people making the Hanoi run, it is the obvious choice.
Going by private car: the ferry is handled for you
If you are travelling by private car, the crossing is simpler than it sounds, because the car goes on the ferry with the driver and you still in it. The driver handles everything: he pulls up at Dong Bai, buys the ticket for the vehicle and everyone in it, drives onto the car ferry, crosses, and drives off at Cai Vieng. There is nothing for you to arrange on the water. The same boats that carry foot passengers and motorbikes carry cars, so your driver just joins the vehicle queue and boards.
Private car vs taxi
This is where a private car differs from a taxi, and it catches people out. A regular taxi will not cross with you. It drops you at the pier and stops there, because taxis are not set up to go over on the ferry and pay the vehicle fare. So a taxi from Hai Phong leaves you at Dong Bai, and you continue on foot from that point, ferry across, then find another ride on the island. A private car, on the other hand, goes on the ferry and stays with you the whole way, from the mainland to your hotel door. If having your own vehicle waiting on the other side matters to you, that is the difference.
It does come with the one honest caveat from earlier: on busy weekends, vehicles wait. Cars queue for space and can miss a sailing or two at peak times, so a private car is at its best midweek or early in the day, and more of a liability on a Friday or Sunday afternoon. If you would rather have someone handle the whole trip, ferry and all, that is exactly what a private car with driver is for.
The Tuan Chau (Halong) to Cat Ba ferry
Everything so far has been about the Hai Phong side. But if you are coming from Halong, there is a better way than backtracking to the mainland: the ferry from Tuan Chau straight across to Cat Ba. It runs less often and costs a bit more, but the crossing is the reason to take it. This is the scenic route, and for anyone travelling between Halong and Cat Ba it is usually the one to choose.
What and where is Tuan Chau
Tuan Chau is an island just off Halong, connected to the mainland by a causeway, and it is the main departure point for boats around Halong Bay. It is where a lot of cruises leave from, and it also has the ferry to Cat Ba. If you are staying in Halong, it is a short drive away. The ferry from here lands at Gia Luan, on the northern tip of Cat Ba, which, like Cai Vieng, is well outside town, so there is a road transfer at the other end.
When to use this ferry
Use it when you are coming from Halong and want to continue to Cat Ba without going back through Hai Phong. That is the practical case. The other case is the view. The crossing runs through the limestone formations of the bay, and reviewers consistently describe it as a mini Halong Bay cruise for the price of a ferry ticket. If you are choosing between routes and the scenery matters to you, this is the better crossing by a wide margin.
What it is not is frequent or fast. If you are coming from Hai Phong or Hanoi, this is not your ferry, the Dong Bai route is quicker and runs all day. Tuan Chau only makes sense from the Halong side.
Schedule and prices
The ferry runs a few times a day, and the frequency depends on the season: around three sailings a day in winter and five in summer. The first from Tuan Chau is usually around 7:30 am and the last back is around 4:00 pm. There is also an occasional hydrofoil, but it runs only a couple of times a day and is far more expensive, with travellers quoting up to around 400,000 VND per person. Given the regular ferry is cheaper and more scenic anyway, the hydrofoil is only worth it if its timing happens to suit you.
Prices on the ferry are reasonable, paid in cash at the booth:
- Foot passenger: around 60,000 VND
- Foot passenger with motorbike: around 80,000 VND
- Car under 9 seats: around 300,000 VND
If you are going over and back in a day, ask for a return ticket, it can save you around 20 percent. As always, treat these as a guide and confirm at the counter, as prices shift with the season.
How the ferry works
The crossing takes about 45 to 50 minutes, longer than the Hai Phong ferry, but that is time spent looking at the bay rather than waiting in a queue. The boat has several decks, plenty of seating, a small shop for snacks and drinks, and basic toilets. It is a comfortable enough ride for the time it takes.
There are two honest things to plan around.
First, reliability. The ferry only sails when it has enough passengers, roughly thirty, and the early 7:30 am departure is regularly about half an hour late while it fills up. Yet on other sailings, if the boat is full or on time, it will leave without waiting for stragglers. So arrive early, take the first ferry of the day where you can since it is the most reliable, and never build a tight connection around this route. One more timing trap: the 7:30 am ferry gets you to Cat Ba too late for the 8:30 am Lan Ha Bay boat tours that leave from town, so do not expect to step off the ferry and straight onto a bay cruise the same morning.
Second, getting from Gia Luan to town. It is about 25 km, another 30 to 45 minutes by road across the national park. There is a minibus that meets each ferry and goes straight into Cat Ba town for around 50,000 VND, no booking, just pay the driver. Worth knowing, because ticket sellers, taxi drivers and even helpful-seeming locals will often tell you there is no bus and try to sell you a taxi for around 400,000 VND. There is a bus. Wait a few minutes by the pier and it will show up. Going the other way, the minibus leaves Cat Ba town’s main square about 45 minutes before the ferry departs, so head over in good time.
Practical things worth knowing about the Cat Ba Ferry
A few loose ends that do not fit neatly above but are worth having straight before you go.
Storms and cancellations
All boats stop in bad weather. When there is a typhoon or strong winds, the port authority suspends every crossing, ferry and speedboat alike, on both the Hai Phong and Halong sides. It is a safety call and it is not negotiable.
This mostly matters in storm season, roughly June to September. If a big system is forecast, check before you travel and keep your plans loose, because a suspension can leave you stuck on the island for a day or more. The cable car sometimes keeps running when the boats stop, but do not count on it. The only guaranteed way off in that situation is the long road route back through Cat Hai and Hai Phong.
Will you get seasick
For most people this is a non-issue. The Hai Phong car ferry crossing is only about 20 minutes and the water in the strait is usually calm, so there is little to worry about.
The longer routes, the Ben Binh hydrofoil and the Tuan Chau ferry, spend more time on open water and can get choppy in poor weather. If you are prone to motion sickness, take something beforehand, sit low and central on the boat, and keep your eyes on the horizon rather than your phone.
Weekends and holidays
This is the big one if you are bringing a vehicle. The Hai Phong ferry gets busy heading to the island on Friday and Saturday, and busy heading back on Sunday, and at those times cars can wait through more than one sailing, sometimes an hour or more. Vietnamese public holidays are worse again.
If you can, cross early in the morning or avoid weekends with a car altogether. On foot it matters far less, but even then an early boat means smaller crowds.
Cash and tickets
Ferry tickets are bought at the counter, in cash, in Vietnamese dong, so bring small notes. There is no real online booking for the public ferries, so ignore sites that claim to sell you a ferry ticket in advance. Just turn up and buy at the pier, and arrive 30 to 45 minutes before your intended sailing on a busy day.
The exception is the combined bus-and-ferry tickets from Hanoi, which you do book ahead, because those include the crossing as part of the package.
On Cat Ba Island
Once you are off the ferry and across to town, here is the quick lay of the land so you know what you are arriving to.
Where everything is
Almost everything you need is in Cat Ba town, on the south of the island. That is where the hotels, hostels, restaurants, bars, ATMs and shops are, strung along the harbour front. It is small and walkable. The two things to remember are that the ferries do not land here, they arrive at Cai Vieng or Gia Luan on the north of the island, with a 30 to 45 minute road transfer to town, and that Ben Beo pier, just outside town, is not an arrival point from the mainland. Ben Beo is where the day boats leave for Lan Ha Bay, Monkey Island and the floating fishing village, so you will likely use it later, but you do not arrive there.
Getting around
The island is bigger than it looks and the good spots are spread out, so you will want your own wheels. Renting a motorbike is the usual choice and the most flexible way to reach the beaches, viewpoints and the national park. If you would rather not ride, taxis are available in town and local buses run the main routes, including bus 14 between town and Cai Vieng pier. For most people a motorbike for a day or two is what makes the island click.
What there is to do
The short version: Lan Ha Bay is the main event, quieter and, to a lot of people, prettier than Halong itself, and best seen by kayak or day boat from Ben Beo. Cat Ba National Park covers much of the island’s interior, with hiking and a lot of green. And there are beaches, the Cat Co beaches near town and quieter stretches further out. It is more than enough for a couple of days.
That is only a taste. For the full picture, where to stay, what to skip, how to plan your days and get around, read the complete Cat Ba Island travel guide.
