for under $4 USD you will take the Ferry from Tuan Chau Island to Cat Ba Island and on the way you will get to see the landscape of Ha Long Bay, you will pass through the gulf where the luxury cruises are anchored and empty during the day while their customers are shoveled to the cave & kayak activities together with the standard day trip tourists. After passing by these ships we will even get to see a small part of the fascinating Floating Village before reaching the port of Cat Ba Island. There you should get off immediately to be one of the first to get to the one bus that transfers people to the Cat Ba Center because the bus is small and people might have huge backpacker luggage and you might get no seat if you are the last one to board the bus. It costs less than $1.5 to get where all hotels are and it will cross the entire island for this taking some 20-30 minutes. There are also taxis and scooters at the Ferry port area but of course the bus is the cheapest option and you should hurry to get the seat.
The nice hotels are facing a bay that at night is filled with pretty lit-up boats fishing for squid. It was the first time that I didn't book a hotel in advance and I walked along the promenade to see with my own eyes what hotel and surroundings i like. So happy to have walked all the way to Draco QK3 Hotel and upon asking the staff if they have rooms on the top floor with bay view, he was so kind to take me see the room before deciding if i should stay there. Very clean and cute room with shower and an unbeatable view allover the bay from the balcony!! And very Quiet!! Read reviews of other hotels close to bars where the party is going on till late and so it was wonderful to be in such quiet area. Most of the locals use scooters instead of walking so there's always traffic and then they aggressively use their hoops to notify each-other to not crash so this hoop sound pollution can be quite annoying when staying at a lower floor and closer to the center of the bay strip. Breakfast included $21 and they cooked delicious dinner for me. Paid everything with credit card, would definitely stay there again, staff spoke English too.

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