Halong Bay trip for family with children
Halong Bay cruise trip is the best way to enjoy Mother Earth’s gift, but if you want to bring your children with you, you should consider advices below as children tend to be more sensitive and not as strong as adult.
Transportation
The drive from Hanoi to Halong Bay is roughly 4 hours with a break of 15 minutes after the first 2 hours, the road is quite bumpy also. So for the most comfortable option for children, Discover Halong suggests you to book a private car. A shuttle bus of 16 seats is also quite convenient as it only contains up to 8 guests but not a good choice if you need a vehicle that can stop randomly. Company like Indochina Junk even has a luxury private car, which is renovated from a 16 seat-car to a 4 seat-car with super-comfy seats.
Room in hotel or Cabin on cruise with Extra bed
Usually for hotels and cruises, kids less than 12 years old are considered children. In principle, double cabin allows only one child sharing bed with parents. They often offer free of charge for child under 2 years old (considered as infant), and charge around 50% of adult rate for 1 child under 12 years old. Two children below 12 staying in 2 separated cabins are usually charged at 75% of the adult price.
If you are worry about your children, want to keep an eye on them, you can find a triple/connecting room or request for extra bed/mat, but keep in mind that not all rooms can afford the later as it depends on room area. For hotel, almost every 3-5 stars hotel can arrange extra bed but for cruise, it is harder as the rooms are normally smaller. So for cruise, search for connecting/triple cabin. Cruises with connecting cabins are easier to find than cruises with triple cabins. Moreover, connecting cabin is charge similar to two cabins with policy as mentioned in first paragraph. Please refer to our article about triple/connecting cabins to find out some cruises names that you can approach.
Food
If you or your children have any special request for food, you can inform when you book your hotel/cruise/tour. Staff can serve you well according to that pre-request. However, for cruise, when you are with small children, you should prepare snacks or juices before you get in cruise as you cannot find any mart when you are on the bay. But remember that according to the regulation of cruises, snacks and drinks from outside will be charged a small fee, of course no one can monitor small amount of them but if you bring them in large amount, prepare yourself for paying fee. In any cases, don’t worry too much about dining as meals on boat are usually buffet or western style fixed menu so your children won’t find it hard to select out dishes that match their taste.
Activities
If you are going with a cruise trip, you should check specific itinerary with the activities included. Some activities like kayaking and visiting caves will force you to use up energy. Kayaking is not suitable for child under 7 years old. Long trekking route on Cat Ba Island is also too hard for a child under 8 years old. In exchange, calm water of Halong Bay will give your children great time with swimming and other activities such as squid fishing, cooking class and visit attractions by sampan.
Safety
Don’t forget to keep an eye on your children, whether you are on land or on cruise, especially when your surrounding will be vast water. Children are sensitive with weather, prepare suitable clothes up to weather forecast. Besides, you need to prepare basic medicine like vitamin, cold medicine or digestive medicine to make sure everything will be fine, just in case you are unlucky to get some problems when the children are not familiar with the tropical climate.
