Indochine Cruise

Indochine is a 45-cabin steel boat on Lan Ha Bay, launched in 2019 by Indochina Sails, and only one boat among the 92 on this site has more cabins. The operator puts her capacity at 100 guests, with a crew of 86, and every cabin has a French balcony. On the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026, a Junior Suite for two was $310 for the night, the highest rate that listing published: from $155 per person, two sharing.

That size is most of the decision, because Lan Ha is the half of the archipelago people choose to get away from other boats. You feel it at the kayak launch.

What is on board?

Four decks, with the cabins on three and the sundeck on the fourth. There is an infinity pool at the stern of the third deck, which the operator’s inclusion list calls an outdoor jacuzzi pool, along with a mini-golf green, a lounge and a spa whose treatments are extra. A guest writes that the main pool is heated as five in the afternoon approaches, and that the heating pulls hot water away from the cabin baths and showers. Their advice was to plan a bath around it.

Which cabin should you book?

For two, the Junior Suite: 32 of the 45 cabins are this class, on the first and second decks. These are the prices for two on the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026, with sizes from the operator and decks and counts from the agencies:

The 54 m² Family Triple and the 80 m² President Suite are sold on request. Under the operator’s terms a child up to four shares free using the existing bedding, with a cot at $25 a night; children from five to eleven pay a surcharge and get no extra bed, and from twelve they pay as adults. A cabin takes two adults and one child or one infant.

The fare includes meals, a welcome drink and snacks, kayaking or the bamboo boat, sunset bruschetta, tai chi and a cooking demonstration, squid fishing, two bottles of water per room per day, an English-speaking guide, entrance fees, insurance and service charges. Drinks, the spa and the Hanoi transfer are extra; one guest also found that drinking water at the table was charged. Booking direct, one or two cabins can be cancelled free more than ten days out, then 50% from nine to seven days, 75% from six to three and the full fare after that. Agencies apply their own scales.

Where does Indochine go?

Into Lan Ha, on a timetable the operator publishes. You check in at the Indochine lounge between 11:30 and 11:45 and are aboard by noon. Lunch is at 13:15. At 15:30 a kayak or a bamboo boat takes you into Dark and Bright Cave, sunset bruschetta is at 17:30 and dinner at 19:15. On the second morning, after a light breakfast at six, the 07:15 excursion is to Trung Trang Cave on Cat Ba on the operator’s tour page, while its June 2026 announcement replaces the cave with a floating fish farm and cultural area. Confirm on your quote which one you will get. Check-out is at nine, brunch at 09:30, and you are back on the pier at eleven.

The two-night trip adds a day on a local day boat to Viet Hai village, where you walk, cycle or take an electric van, with lunch on the day boat at 12:30, the Tai Queo cave area and Ba Trai Dao beach, and you are back aboard at five. If the bay is still undecided, the three bays are further apart than the brochures suggest.

Where do you board?

At the Indochine lounge, No. 22, Port 2, Tuan Chau International Port, where a tender takes you out to the ship. The operator and two agencies give the same lounge number. The operator’s limousine collects from Old Quarter and Hoan Kiem hotels between 08:00 and 08:30 and has you back by about three; its own blog gives the fare as roughly $25 one way or $35 return. Which harbour you leave from explains why the lounge number matters.

What do guests complain about?

What happens, or does not. Two separate guests report that kayaking did not happen on their trip, one of them flatly, one of them saying they would have appreciated the chance. Kayaking is listed as included and agreed across sources, and it is the inclusion most often dropped between the listing and the day. Get it named in the booking.

The one-star review is about pace and pricing. A cave shared with what the writer estimates at a thousand other people, then one beach on the second day for just under an hour, starting at half past seven in the morning. Spirits marked up steeply. A pre-paid airport bus that never appeared for them at disembarkation, which cost them a second fare to make the flight. A three-star review from a French guest describes the pearl farm, the kayak and Cat Ba all being done in groups with no commentary and no French speaker among the staff.

Then the transfer. A Spanish-speaking guest in the bow suite liked the boat and the crew, and spent a long stretch of the trip on the vessel that carries guests out to where the main ship lies anchored, which they describe as dirty and badly ventilated. Ask how you reach the ship, and how long that leg takes.

Reviews filed under this boat on Google also name Indochine Premium and Indochine Grand, so get the ship’s name printed on your confirmation.

Who is Indochine for?

Groups, families booking two rooms, and anyone who would rather have a large restaurant and a sun deck with space on it than solitude. She is on the best-value list and among the Lan Ha boats.

Look elsewhere if your reason for picking Lan Ha over Ha Long was the quiet. With up to 100 guests you have brought the crowd across with you, and the kayak area fills accordingly.

Where these facts come from

The cabin count, capacity, crew, decks, pool, balconies, sizes, the lounge, the timetable, both programmes, the June 2026 route announcement, inclusions, the limousine and the cancellation and child terms come from indochinasails.com, read on 10 August and 14 October 2026. Cabin counts and decks per class are from besthalongcruises.com and halongbaycruises.com, and prices from the halongbaytours.com listing, all read on 6 August 2026. Guest remarks are from Google reviews.