Hanoi is wonderful. Celebrity excursions are usually good and this one was. Well selected options of sites to view and a wonderful restaurant to eat at.
The detraction was the distance of the port from Hanoi. Three hours plus from port to city was immensely tiring and not recommended.
Still if you want to see Hanoi from the cruise ship, you endure the discomfort.
Halong Bay Rating:
Most enjoyable. Though it was mid winter and weather could have been better for photo opportunities, the excursion was a pleasure. However I worry about the skills of some of the boat captains and how the seem to ram into each other as it if it nothing at all.
City Tour Rating:
Hanoi is wonderful. Celebrity excursions are usually good and this one was. Well selected options of sites to view and a wonderful restaurant to eat at.
The detraction was the distance of the port from Hanoi. Three hours plus from port to city was immensely tiring and not recommended.
Still if you want to see Hanoi from the cruise ship, you endure the discomfort.
Halong Bay Rating:
Most enjoyable. Though it was mid winter and weather could have been better for photo opportunities, the excursion was a pleasure. However I worry about the skills of some of the boat captains and how the seem to ram into each other as it if it nothing at all.
Hanoi is wonderful. Celebrity excursions are usually good and this one was. Well selected options of sites to view and a wonderful restaurant to eat at.
The detraction was the distance of the port from Hanoi. Three hours plus from port to city was immensely tiring and not recommended.
Still if you want to see Hanoi from the cruise ship, you endure the discomfort.
Halong Bay Rating:
Most enjoyable. Though it was mid winter and weather could have been better for photo opportunities, the excursion was a pleasure. However I worry about the skills of some of the boat captains and how the seem to ram into each other as it if it nothing at all.
City Tour Rating:
Hanoi is wonderful. Celebrity excursions are usually good and this one was. Well selected options of sites to view and a wonderful restaurant to eat at.
The detraction was the distance of the port from Hanoi. Three hours plus from port to city was immensely tiring and not recommended.
Still if you want to see Hanoi from the cruise ship, you endure the discomfort.
Halong Bay Rating:
Most enjoyable. Though it was mid winter and weather could have been better for photo opportunities, the excursion was a pleasure. However I worry about the skills of some of the boat captains and how the seem to ram into each other as it if it nothing at all.
Oh what a place to visit. A charming glimpse of the past, a show put on for the tourists but most enjoyable nonetheless. Also a reasonable distance from the port.
Preferred Hanoi for its authenticity but Saigon is nice enough and very interesting to see. From the point of view that it has more designer label shops in this communist run country than I have seen anywhere else in the world.
A wonderful content managed by a bad guide, who kept losing her participants and didn't seem to care. It was up to us to keep her in sight at all times, and with the crowds, some times that was extremely difficult. Though far from the port, it did not seem quite so bad on the return trip as we returned to port at a good time for Bangkok. Less than two hours on this occasion.
More 
