Choosing a Ha Long Bay Cruise: What the Star Ratings Actually Mean

Every boat in the bay calls itself five-star, and a fair number call themselves six-star, which is not a category that exists anywhere. There is no independent body grading these boats. The number is chosen by the company selling the cabin.

That does not make it useless. It correlates loosely with cabin size, whether there is a balcony, and how good the food is. It tells you nothing reliable about the crew, the route, or how many other boats you will be moored beside.

The things that genuinely change the experience are the number of cabins and whether your cabin opens onto the outside. A twenty-cabin boat unloads twenty cabins' worth of people onto the same small beach at the same time. A ten-cabin boat does not.

Meals on board are almost always included and are usually the high point of the food you eat in the region — set menus, seafood-heavy, served at a fixed time.

Drinks are almost never included, and boat bar prices are what you would expect from a bar you cannot leave. Buying a couple of bottles of water before you board is normal and nobody minds.

Kayaking is sometimes included and sometimes an on-the-day extra. Cave entrance fees are usually inside the price. Transfers from Hanoi are often a separate line, and shared transfers stop at several hotels, which adds an hour nobody counts.

Tips for the crew are expected rather than required, and are collected at the end.

A private balcony is the one upgrade most people say afterwards was worth it, because the whole point of an overnight is the hours when you are moored and everyone else has gone inside.

Lower cabins are cheaper and quieter in swell but have small windows. Upper cabins have the view and the engine noise. Boats with a top sun deck give you the view anyway, so a balcony matters less on a small boat than a large one.

Air conditioning on most boats runs on the generator, and on some it is switched off overnight. If you are travelling in June or July, ask.