Peony Cruise

Peony is a twenty-cabin boat, and guests who mention its size keep saying it never felt crowded. Their reviews come back again and again to the crew and the food. On a halongbaytours.com sheet read on 6 August 2026 the Deluxe Balcony for two was $290 for one night, from $145 per person, two sharing. It boards at Tuan Chau Marina and is sold as a Lan Ha Bay boat, but the quieter water out towards Cat Ba Island mostly comes on the second day, aboard a separate day boat. So if Lan Ha is the reason you are going, book three days, as reviewer after reviewer tells you to.

Two nights or one

This is the most repeated piece of advice in the reviews. Guest after guest says outright that two nights is the trip to take, and several who took one night wrote that they wished they had stayed longer. One thought one night was more than enough. A German guest on Peony 1 in January 2026 put it simply: one night is too short.

The second day is spent on the day boat, which leaves at 07:45: about two hours through Lan Ha to Cat Ba Island, a ride on gearless bikes to a village, lunch aboard, then a beach stop to swim and kayak, and back to Peony at 16:30. A group of friends in 2024 called the day boat and the bike ride the part not to miss. Some guests found the island day a disappointment, one of them after four hours on the day boat for thirty minutes in Viet Hai village. Our guide to two days or three sets out the general case, and our comparison of the three bays covers what separates Lan Ha from Ha Long.

What you are actually booking

A small boat, first of all: twenty cabins on a steel hull launched in late October 2018, for about forty guests on three decks. Guests single out the size as the point: a smaller group, a family feel, one guest counting 27 people aboard. The operator, part of the Big Bay group, runs two boats under the name, Peony 1 and Peony 2, with twenty cabins each, so ask which one you are on.

Twelve Deluxe Balcony cabins sit on the first deck and six Premium Deluxe Balcony cabins on the second; listings put them at 25 to 28 m². The two Peony Exclusive Suites on the second deck are 45 m², and families can take two connecting Deluxe cabins. Every cabin has a balcony, and guests often mention the bathtub, usually set under a window onto the water.

The top deck has a jacuzzi and a small pool. The pool is a few inches deep, somewhere to cool your feet with a cocktail at happy hour, when cocktails are two for one.

The crew and the food are what guests write about most, and almost always warmly. Many guests name their waiter. Dinner is a set menu of several courses, lunch and breakfast are buffets, and the kitchen is used to special diets: most guests who mention vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free or allergy meals say it coped well, including a family of seven with two vegans in February 2026.

The day, roughly

Pickup from your Hanoi hotel is between eight and half past, and the road takes most of the morning. You check in at 11:30 at the Peony lounge, No. 34 at Tuan Chau Marina, which it shares with Mon Cheri. From the quay a support boat carries you out to the ship in 25 to 50 minutes, depending on whose account you read, and lunch is served with your room key.

The operator’s timetable has the first afternoon in the Tra Bau area from 15:30, swimming off the boat, with the cave the next morning. Evening brings a cooking class, happy hour, a set dinner at about seven and squid fishing. The catch is time under way: four guests, rating it two to four stars, say the boat spends most of its time at anchor.

The second morning starts early, with the anchor going up between half five and six. From 07:30 to 09:00 you are ashore at Trung Trang Cave, by way of the jetty at Gia Luan on Cat Ba. You leave your room by half past nine, have brunch, and are off the boat between half ten and eleven, back in Hanoi around half two or three. Book no flight before six in the evening.

What it costs

The deluxe balcony cabin is $290 for two days on a listing sheet read on 6 August 2026, so two sharing pay $145 each, and the cabin price is the one to compare. Three days in the same cabin cost $540, or $270 each. The fare covers meals, a guide, entrance fees, tai chi, squid fishing, the jacuzzi and travel insurance. Transfers, drinks and the spa are extra, and card payments carry a 4.5% fee. The operator’s limousine collects from the Old Quarter between 08:00 and 08:30; halongbaytours.com sells the round trip at $35 a person.

Before you book

The cost guests warn about most is the bar bill. Drinks are extra and dear for Vietnam, and plenty of reviews say so; a German guest in January 2026 put house wine at €30 a bottle against about €8 in a shop ashore. Some guests bring their own, and the operator charges corkage of $30 a bottle for wine or spirits and $5 for a beer.

Two guests in the big corner suite, which one places at the stern, noticed diesel when the engine ran. Both still rated the trip four and five stars, but it is worth knowing if that is the cabin you want.

Reviews of Peony 1 and Peony 2 share one Google listing, and two reviews of Mon Chéri, which shares the Peony lounge, have landed there too. Three one-star reviews posted on one day in October 2025 come from guests who expected Ha Long. If weather cuts a night short, which two guests describe, the operator’s terms refund everything before you leave Hanoi and charge only for the services used once you have started. Cancelling yourself, for up to seven cabins, is free more than 15 days out; from 14 to 10 days you lose 50%, from 9 to 4 days 70%, and in the last three days the full fare. How cancellation terms work sets that against the others.

Who it suits

Couples and small groups who can give it two nights and care most about the cabin and the service. Quiet families too: one with children aged 12 and 15 chose Peony in July 2025 for its small numbers and took two rooms side by side. It sits in our Lan Ha list and our family list.

Who should look elsewhere

Anyone who has set their heart on Ha Long itself. Anyone who wants the boat under way for most of the day. Families who need one cabin for five, since the family cabin is sold for four at most. And anyone flying out the same evening, because the road back from Tuan Chau does not reward optimism.