ハノイ：3D-ハロン、ランハー湾クラシッククルーズ、ニンビン終日

Good communication from Jackie at Dolphin Travel, but it was a bit of a bait and switch. The write up on Viator and the pictures Jackie sent me were nothing like the actual cruise and home stay. Cruise: boat itself was okay and food was fine. Cruise director/ tour guide was a real pain. He told everyone at the beginning of cruise that if there was a problem with our rooms, no problem switching since only 5 of the 10 were occupied. We discovered a problem with the a/c condensation draining straight onto our bathroom floor resulting in a huge water build up and slip hazard in our room. We asked to be moved and the cruise director refused even though he had just told the entire group 15 minutes earlier that moving to another room would be no problem. We spent the entire cruise managing the water problem on our bathroom floor. Ironically I did experience a serious fall on another part of the boat and hit my head with a strong, direct impact on a cast iron pipe. No crew member, including the cruise director ever acknowledged my accident or asked if I was okay! Amazingly I am okay but only a couple of the other passengers checked on me. The staff and cruise director could have cared less. Ninh Bihn: The tour agency that Dolphin contracted with for this part of tour put us up at their home stay (hotel) that looked nothing like the pictures that Jackie sent me. Okay, that was a minor part of the…scam. No hot water for shower; the absolute worst breakfast you could imagine. We had to roust the owner or manager out of bed to get us our breakfast before the tour driver arrived. The result was two cold eggs, over easy and two slices of Wonder bread. What an embarrassment for him and a disappointment for us. So would I recommend Dolphin Travel and their associate Footprint Travel? No Way!!!

Overall, we enjoyed this tour and the many tours/activities we were able to be a part of. We were able to see a lot of attractions and beautiful sights over these few days! The first part of our trip, from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, was great! Awesome tour guide, good activities, and organized. The transfer to Ninh Binh was where the communication was poor and no one seemed to know the plan, with no one to contact regarding everything. We did however end up staying in an awesome homestay and had amazing food, arranged by the tour, but was difficult to find out these plans! Also, when I initially booked the trip I was told there was no availability for the Ninh Binh portion of the tour, so we had made other plans. However, the morning of the Ninh Binh tour a tour guide showed up at our door. We still attended but were quite unprepared. Unlike the Ha Long Bay portion of the trip there was no communication from our tour guide prior to our pick up.

Everything was well executed. From pick up at my hotel in Hà Nội to drop off after the cruise at the hotel in Ninh Binh. The accommodations were great both on the boat and in Ninh Binh. The cruise was perfect for me and I met some very nice people as well. All the staff - boat and hotel, were very nice and helpful. I highly recommend this.

+4

Fascinating locations and experiences mixed with disappointing elements. I would recommend both locations, but the absence of a broad indication of the travelling times to and between locations is warranted. Could not fault the dedication of staff and planning of pick-ups, etc. Promotional material makes no mention of the approximately 5-6 hour bus travel time between Lan Ha Bay and Ninh Binh. on day 2, effectively negating any sightseeing/activity other than visiting a village in Lan ha Bay. Staff excellent.

This is a unique less busy version of hai long bay....Now I did have the issue of being left behind, charged for a tram or gondola I never took, but that happens when you dont speak the language well. Lucky there was wifi as my esim was not working in the area and the tour operator fixed my problem and arranged for me to be picked up and transported to my next destination.

Well organised and good accommodate. Friendly and responsive staff the whole way. Transport was comfortable as well.

Can not fault!! This organised tour was amazing from the food to the way it was organised. The operators are extremely easy to communicate with if you have any questions and they keep you up to date as the trip is progressing. Expect a lot of driving as Hanoi, Ha Long Bay and Ninh Binh are all a couple of hours from each other but the busses that are organised are very comfortable.

Both the guides, Jack for Cat Ba and Chung for Ninh Binh were excellent and the cruise and the food on board were amazing. The transfers between Cat Ba to Ninh Binh and then back to Hanoi were disappointing!

Highly recommended. We experienced great days with a great small group on this ship! Top tour We felt very comfortable, the food was very delicious

It was an up and down experience it started with chaos and ended with chaos We were picked up at 7am instead of 8am as agreed then we drove an hour across town Next we were driven to a sales event there we continued after half an hour so that we had reached the ferry after almost 4 hours where we finally went towards the ship we went to the ship where we stayed until the next day that was really nice for that also praise The next noon we arrived back in the port where the chaos continued we had to wait 1 hour for the bus which then came but which strangely drove only country road and so we took 5 instead of 2.5 hours again to all evil the bus then also remained 15 km before the destination When we finally arrived at the bungalow which already smelled a bit old and also had some mold we went to the food which was reasonably ok The trip in Nimbinh was quite nice also the gide was great On the way back to Hanoi we had to change trains 3 times and the trip ended at the Opera House not as described in the hotel where we were picked up 3 stars are actually already too much they are also only for Halong Bay and nihmbinh I would not book it anymore but only separately by private taxi

+7