Co To Island
Co To Island in Quang Ninh Province is probably the most beautiful and pristine beach in northern Vietnam with transparent blue sea, white smooth sand, golden sunshine, and green mountains and forest.
Tourists who have never been to Co To may hardly imagine how charmingly beautiful it is. Visiting Co To, tourists would not only have a chance to become one with the nature in a relaxing and fresh environment of blue clean seawater at Van Chay or Hong Van Beach, but also to visit primitive forests, Co To Lighthouse, Ho Chi Minh’s Monument, Cau My Rocks Garden, and Small Co To Island.
Co To Lighthouse is the symbol of the island, which offers the most beautiful panorama of Halong Bay. From the lighthouse, tourists will have a great view of a breathtaking picture of the Northern Gulf with unique formation of small islets on emerald water of the bay, the pristine white color of beaches, the lush green color of forests, and yellow rice-fields from a far. On the way to the hill where this lighthouse is located, tourists have an opportunity to go through a romantic forest with a variety of alluring flowers booming along the path.
In Co To, you might feel free to immerse into the clean water while watching flocks of seagull flying above or wandering around the beach to look for their foods. With many options of beaches in Co To, you should never worry about finding a good spot for a relaxing afternoon lying on the beach.
A few years ago, tourism of this small island has not been developed yet so wifi or comfortable hotels almost do not exist. But after the national electrical system reached the place, Co To Island have been changing day by day, many good hotels with full facilities, wifi, free pick up electric car from pier to hotel are born. Co To nowadays is not lacking anything compared to the mainland, all supplies are brought from the mainland by speedboats.
How to reach it?
Co To Island is In the northeast tip of Vietnam, having sea boundary with China. To reach the island, first you need to arrive at Cai Rong port, around 70km from Halong City, to catch a speed boat. The drive to the port will take around 6 hours from Hanoi or nearly 2 hours from Halong City. You can choose among 2 options: Local buses (Kumho Viet Thanh, Hoang Long or Xuan Truong (this one drops you right at the port)) or Private car. Then it takes 90 minutes more on the speed boat to reach the pier at Co To Island. The journey is quite long and tiring so you must prepare your best health condition. Aside from speed boat, you can choose to go with a wood boat but the transfer will take 3 hours and the sea will be bumpy with big waves, thus you can easily have seasick. So Discover Halong does not recommend this option.
For expats, as the island has a sensitive location, you must submit 2 paper forms to the Department of Immigration of Quang Ninh Police to request for overnight stay on the island. For this process, you can ask for help from travel agencies or Contact Us.
Expenses?
The local bus ticket will be 120,000 VND (around 6 USD) plus 200,000 VND (around 10 USD) for speed boat ticket or 90,000 VND (around 4.5 USD) for wood boat ticket, all is quoted for 1 way. On the island, you can hire motorbike for 150,000 to 200,000 VND (around 7.5-10 USD) for a day and freely drive around, discover the whole area. The average price for hotel here is around 400,000 to 600,000 VND (around 20-30 USD) per night, or you can also book a wood bungalow right at the beach at 800,000 to 1,200,000 VND (around 40-60 USD) per night.
