Erina Cruise

Erina takes you from Tuan Chau to spend the night in Lan Ha Bay. On the three-day trip a day boat carries you on to Viet Hai village and what the operator calls its less touristy southern route. Several guests describe a private balcony. The crew is what happy guests write about most.

What are you booking on Erina?

A Lan Ha overnight that starts from the Ha Long side. Check-in is at the reception on Dock 36 at Tuan Chau, between 12:00 and 12:30 on the operator’s two-day page, and its Google listing gives the same dock. The ship then cruises south into Lan Ha, and the first activity, kayaking or a swim in the Tra Bau area, starts at 15:30. The operator says Tra Bau was a backdrop for the film Kong: Skull Island.

There are five cabin classes on erinacruise.com: Junior/Senior Double, Junior/Senior Twin, Family Connecting, a Triple Suite with Private Balcony and a President Suite With Private Terrace. Two resellers give the Junior and Senior cabins 36 m².

Guests describe balconies of their own, and both resellers show one on the Junior and Senior classes. The owner names a balcony only on the Triple Suite, so confirm it for the class you are quoted.

On the third deck, at the bow, the operator lists a jacuzzi. Guests find it small. One guest calls it “basically a bath” and another expected more from the photos, while others liked it as a warm soak by the bar.

Are Erina’s cabins kept up?

Not always. The critical reviews on Google keep returning to the same things: stained towels or sheets, a shower drain that smells or will not empty, a fridge or air conditioning that stopped working, no toilet paper on arrival. One guest in April 2025, in a family suite, found both televisions dead and a socket hanging off the wall, and wrote that maintenance could be better.

Check the cabin as soon as you are shown in and report faults at once. One guest says staff ask you to photograph a sheet of room rules on arrival and warn of charges for damage found at check-out, so photograph anything already broken too.

Sleep is the second risk. A guest writing in French in April 2026 says engine vibration was loudest in the rear cabins on the lowest deck, and advises asking for a cabin at the front on the first floor. That is one report.

Dinner is the meal critics pick on: “very basic and bland” in one review, “not great” and “average at most” in others, with the buffet lunches liked better. Drinks are charged on top, and reviews in English, Spanish, German and Polish call the prices high. More on what fares leave out in what is not included.

How does the one-night cruise run?

Short. You board around 12:30 and leave the ship by transfer boat at 11:45 the next day, about 23 hours in all, and guests notice it. Times are from the operator’s two-day page, read on 10 October 2026.

• 12:00–12:30 Check in at Dock 36, Tuan Chau, and the ship sails.
• 13:30 Lunch, then cabin check-in at 14:00.
• 15:30–17:00 Kayaking and swimming around Tra Bau, or the jacuzzi.
• 18:00 Sunset party with a cooking demonstration.
• 19:30 Dinner, then squid fishing from 20:30.
• 06:00 Tai chi on the sundeck.
• 07:30–08:30 Breakfast, which the operator says you can skip.
• 08:30–10:00 Dark & Bright Cave by tender, with an optional rowing boat paddled by local people. You can stay aboard instead.
• 10:30 Check out, then an early lunch at 10:45.
• 11:45 Transfer boat back to Tuan Chau.

What changes on the three-day trip?

The whole middle day happens off the ship, and it is the part reviewers recommend. At 08:45 you move to a small day boat and head for the south of Lan Ha. From 10:30 there is a 5 km bicycle ride to Viet Hai, a village inside Cat Ba National Park, or an electric car if you prefer. Lunch is on the day boat. Kayaking follows at 13:30, and from 15:00 there is time to swim off the small beaches around Ba Trai Dao, the Three Peaches. The day boat brings you back to Erina between 16:00 and 16:30. At 18:15 the cooking class is deep-fried spring rolls.

Day three brings the cave by bamboo boat and the 10:45 lunch, and the ship reaches Tuan Chau at 11:45. The operator puts arrival back in Hanoi between 15:30 and 16:15 if you take its transfer. One guest worked out roughly 46 hours aboard on the longer trip against at most 24 on the short one. More in two days or three.

What does a cabin on Erina cost?

From $148 per person, two sharing, for one night. That is half the $295 a reseller, halongbaytours.com, listed for a Junior cabin on 6 August 2026; Erina publishes no rates of its own. Below are that listing’s highest published rates per cabin; its Junior and Senior rows are the owner’s Junior/Senior cabins.

The second night in a Junior adds $285, so it costs almost as much as the first. The Honeymoon Suite appears only on the reseller’s sheet and is not one of the owner’s five classes. Get a written quote that names the cabin class and whether the Hanoi limousine is in it, because the two-day page lists the limousine among the extras.

What is in the fare, and what is extra?

By the operator’s two-day page: entrance fees, an English-speaking guide, two lunches, a dinner and a breakfast, the classes and sunset party, kayaks, the local boat, wifi, squid-fishing gear and two bottles of water each in the cabin. The three-day page adds a third lunch, a second dinner and breakfast, and insurance on board.

Extra: the round-trip limousine from Hanoi, drinks at the bar and from the minibar, stand-up paddleboards, massage, and tips. Two guests say water with meals was charged, and two found the wifi poor.

What do guests say about Erina?

The crew, first. Reviews name receptionists, guides and the cruise manager, and describe staff taking photographs during kayaking, organising a birthday for a group of 15, and sitting with a guest through two nights of squid fishing. That same group of 15 found only one crew member who spoke English.

On the bay itself, opinion splits. One guest found Lan Ha far less crowded than Ha Long. Another, in December 2025, found the overnight anchorage full of boats, with litter and engine noise. Our Lan Ha Bay guide covers the bay, and the other ships that overnight there are on the Lan Ha cruises page.

One guest says a President Suite booked five months ahead was cancelled in May 2025, less than 48 hours before boarding, for what the operator called scheduled maintenance, with a place on another boat offered. Another guest, in October 2026, spent two nights in the same suite and found it beautiful. If you book the top suite, get in writing what happens if it is withdrawn. Our cancellation policies guide lists what to ask.

Who is Erina for?

Couples or friends with two nights, who want the Viet Hai day and will forgive a tired bathroom for a crew guests name in their reviews. A three-day guest who rated the trip three stars still said the one-night version would not have been worth it without that day.

Who should look elsewhere?

Light sleepers who cannot secure a forward cabin, and anyone travelling for the food, have reasons in the reviews to choose another Lan Ha ship. So does anyone with a single night: about 23 hours aboard and no day boat.

Where are the gaps in what we know?

Erina’s own site is thin. It gives no cabin count, size, build date or price, and its cabin pages are placeholder text. Two resellers list 27 cabins; the operator gives no count. The same two disagree on the year, 2018 or 2023, and on the President Suite, 70 m² or 155 m². One calls the hull steel. Nobody publishes how many guests Erina takes or how long it is. The two itinerary pages disagree on which deck the jacuzzi and reception are on. The dock, itineraries and inclusions are the operator’s words, checked on 10 October 2026.