Indochine Grand Cruise

Indochine Grand is a 32-cabin boat that Indochina Sails launched on Lan Ha Bay in 2025, built for 64 guests over four decks, and every cabin has a 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. The longest review we read, three stars from April 2026, praises the room and the deck and then spends its length on the food and on the middle day of the three-day trip.

Three boats trade under the Indochine name and they are different vessels. Indochine dates from 2019 and has 45 cabins on the same Lan Ha programme; Indochine Premium has 37 and sails Ha Long; Grand is the newest and the smallest. All three leave from the same lounge, so put the word Grand in your confirmation.

What is on board?

Four decks, a jacuzzi pool at the bow of the third deck, a mini-golf green and an infinity deck, and the operator promises roughly one crew member per guest. A guest in the President Suite describes a rooftop jacuzzi, and a French couple used a jacuzzi on deck repeatedly.

Which cabin should you book?

For two, the Junior Suite, which is 28 of the 32 cabins. These are the prices for two on the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026, the highest rate it published for each class, with sizes, decks and counts from the operator:

The $250 step from the Executive to the President buys 18 m² more, a living room and a clawfoot tub. One guest who slept in it describes a balcony of its own and a bath placed to look out over the water. What your cabin gets you sets those extras against price.

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. The fare covers meals, kayaking or the bamboo boat, sunset bruschetta, tai chi and the 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 transfer are extra; what is not included lists the usual charges. 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.

Where does Grand go, and where do you board?

You check in at the Indochine lounge, No. 22, Port 2, Tuan Chau International Port, between 11:30 and 11:45, and a speedboat takes you out by noon. The operator names the lounge; which harbour you leave from explains why that matters to a driver. At 15:45 you go into Dark and Bright Cave by bamboo boat, then swim before the anchor goes down for the night in Lan Ha.

On the second morning the operator’s tour page lists Trung Trang Cave on Cat Ba at 07:15, while its June 2026 announcement replaces the cave with a floating fish farm and cultural area, citing the cave’s narrow terrain. Confirm on your quote which one you will get, and if a grandparent is coming, ask how many steps. Check-out is at nine, the speedboat leaves at 10:15 and you are on the pier at eleven. The two-night trip adds a day boat to Viet Hai village, the Tai Queo cave area and Ba Trai Dao beach, and you are back aboard at five.

What do the detailed reviews say?

The French couple took two nights in April 2026 and liked the boat. Their complaint is the food, at length: a dinner sold as European-inspired fine dining that was nothing of the kind, seafood they thought had been frozen, and the worst they ate anywhere in Vietnam; food on board sets out what this bracket usually buys. They also describe the shape of the longer trip. The boat comes back to its starting point each day to collect the next batch of one-night guests, so the middle day is on a plainer day boat. They had expected two nights out in Lan Ha. If the extra night is what you are paying for, settle it against two days or three first.

The German guest, writing in February 2026, was in cabin 212: dirt inside the air-conditioning unit bad enough that they left it switched off, grouting and a shower they thought looked poor, noise from the deck above and below, and walls that carried corridor conversations into the room. A boat a year old can already hold a bad room, so ask for the deck and the cabin number in advance.

The four-star review adds an unguided kayak paddle, a cave stop that lasted five minutes, and internet poor enough that the guest wrote their review on mobile data.

Who is Indochine Grand for?

Couples who want a room built last year, a balcony off it, and the quieter half of the archipelago, and who take dinner as it comes. She sits among the new boats, under best value and on the Lan Ha list.

Look elsewhere if you are paying for the second night: you spend that day on another vessel, and one guest found the boat went back to its starting point rather than further out. Look elsewhere too if the kitchen has to justify the price. And if you have not decided between the three bays, decide that before you decide this.

Where these facts come from

The launch year, capacity, crew ratio, decks, pool, cabin classes with sizes, decks and counts, the lounge, the timetable, the June 2026 route announcement, inclusions and the child and cancellation terms come from indochinasails.com, read on 10 August and 14 October 2026. Prices are from the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026. Guest remarks are from Google reviews.