Best Time to Visit Ha Long Bay

There is no month that is bad for the scenery and several that are bad for the plan, which is a useful way to think about it.

October and November are the closest thing to a sweet spot: the summer heat has gone, the sea is still warm enough to swim, and the sky is usually clear. April and May are the other good window, warming up and generally dry.

June to August is hot, the water is at its best, and the storm risk is climbing. December to March is cool to cold, frequently grey, and the bay sits under mist that is genuinely beautiful and photographs as a flat white sky.

Pick October or April if you want the postcard. Pick February if you want the bay half empty and do not mind a jumper.

⚠️ Between July and September the Gulf of Tonkin gets typhoons, and when one is approaching the harbour authority stops all boats. This is not a decision your operator makes and not one money changes.

When it happens, the cruise is cancelled and refunded. What it costs you is the day, and if the day was your only one, the trip.

The practical answer is to book Ha Long early in your Vietnam itinerary rather than late, so a lost day can be moved. Putting it immediately before an international departure is the one arrangement that cannot absorb a cancellation.

The bay is busiest when Vietnam itself is on holiday, which is not the same as the Western peak.

The last week of April and the first days of May, and the first days of September, fill every boat in the bay and push prices up sharply. Tet, the lunar new year, empties the business districts and fills the coast.

Outside those, midweek is noticeably quieter than the weekend, and a Tuesday departure in a shoulder month is about as good as it gets.