Renea Cruise

Renea is not one boat. Renea Cruises, a Hanoi company running since September 2018, sails three wooden junks under the same name, listed by the operator at 11, 12 and 14 cabins. All three run the same Bai Tu Long programme from the Sun Group terminal at Bai Chay, Ha Long International Cruise Port. You check in at the Renea office at the terminal by noon, and the tender takes you out at half past twelve. On the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026, the cheapest cabin for two was $260 for the night: from $130 per person, two sharing. Renea sits on our small-boats list.

Every junk is built of wood, in the operator’s own words. Only one grade has a balcony: the Suite Balcony, which also has a jacuzzi bathtub. The other cabins look out through ocean-view windows. The operator lists a restaurant, a bar and a sundeck, and in each cabin an internet connection.

Which junk will you be on?

Ask, because the cabin you get depends on it. Two guests in February 2025 say the room they slept in was not the room in the photographs, and both reached the same guess: that the pictures came from a different boat in the fleet. Three junks of different sizes under one name makes that easy to believe.

A guest that month says they booked a Suite Balcony on the operator’s own site and found none of the sitting area or the finish from the photographs. A second booked four Deluxe doubles and says they paced their room out at roughly 3.7 by 2.1 metres including the bathroom. A third, in March 2025, says their suite sat over the engine. The operator’s own room pages give the Deluxe as 16 m², so hold them to that figure and to the name of the junk; what your cabin gets you and how old is your boat explain why those two questions are the ones that pay.

What the cabins cost

These are prices for one cabin, read on 6 August 2026 on the halongbaytours.com listing, the highest rate it showed for each grade. Sizes are from the operator’s room pages.

Two people sharing the Deluxe pay $130 each for the night. For a family there is a connecting Deluxe Family room of 30 to 34 m², priced on request. The operator’s child policy lets one child under five share a bed for free, charges 75% for children of five to ten, and counts eleven and over as adults. A solo traveller on the three-day trip reports paying a $100 single supplement for a lower-deck room with one window.

The fare covers an English-speaking guide, every meal on the programme, kayaking, the cooking demonstration, the sunset party, a welcome drink, two bottles of water, the service charge and insurance. Drinks beyond that and tips are extra, cards carry a 3% fee, and on 24 and 31 December a gala dinner is compulsory at $30 a head. One guest puts a beer at 80,000 dong. Plastic bottles are not allowed on board, so bring a refillable one. What is not included covers the rest.

What goes wrong on board

The cabins, not the people. Three guests in February and March 2025 describe a sewage smell, and the two from February mention the same brand of hanging air freshener put up against it. A 2023 guest found worms coming up the shower drain. Two describe insects in their cabin, one in 2023 and one in September 2025; the 2023 guest was offered another boat and a refund. Two found no wifi and a patchy phone signal. One guest had the air conditioning fail twice on a three-day trip.

A drain problem reported in 2023 and again in 2025 belongs to the boats, not to a bad night, and what guests complain about separates this fleet’s problems from every boat’s.

Now the part that runs the other way. Most of the one- and two-star reviews still credit the crew. Guests give two stars and then name their guide as the reason it was not one. A guide called Cong is named by eleven five-star guests between 2023 and 2026, and others name Vuc, Kenny and Tony. Service is the failure you cannot fix by paying more, and it is not Renea’s.

Where does Renea go?

Into Bai Tu Long, the bay east of the main Ha Long channel, which carries a fraction of its traffic; the quietest bay puts numbers on that. Lunch is served as the junk sails out towards Cong Do. The afternoon is spent at Cap La Island with kayaks, a swim and a beach, followed by a cooking demonstration and a sunset party. Next morning brings Thien Canh Son Cave, then a spring-roll class and brunch. Cabins are cleared by 09:15, and you settle the bill and step ashore between 10:45 and 11:30.

The three-day trip puts a day boat in the middle. You kayak and swim at Cong Dam, take a bamboo boat through Vung Vieng, the floating fishing village, and go into Thay Cave when conditions allow. Thien Canh Son moves to the last morning. Vung Vieng is the stop most guests here say they came for. A guest in November 2023 gives one star because the village was dropped from the programme; another, in March 2025, felt the third day returned to water they had already seen. If the extra night is your reason for booking, two days or three is the page to read first.

Give your driver the full name of the terminal, as the harbours here are easy to confuse. Renea runs its own limousine from the Old Quarter, leaving between 07:30 and 08:00 and getting back to Hanoi in mid-afternoon. It is charged on top of the cruise, so have the fare put on your quote. If the port authority closes the bay before you leave Hanoi, the operator refunds in full; once you have arrived, you pay for what you used.

Who it suits

Couples and small groups who want the empty bay more than they want the fittings, who are happy on a junk of a dozen cabins, and who will spend ten minutes getting the junk and the grade named in the confirmation. Among the Bai Tu Long boats few cost less for a night on that water.

Who should look elsewhere

Anyone booking on the strength of the photographs. Three guests in 2025 describe a room that did not match the pictures, and no grade on this rate sheet fixes that. If the room is the half of the holiday that has to come good, make the junk’s name in writing the condition of the booking. Anyone who would rather not gamble on a drain should read the one-star reviews on Google first.

Where these facts come from

The fleet of three junks, the hull, the pier, the times, both programmes, the room sizes and the inclusions, child and weather terms come from reneacruiseshalong.com, read on 14 October 2026; halongbaytours.com and besthalongcruises.com name the same pier. Prices are from the halongbaytours.com listing read on 6 August 2026 and move with season, so confirm yours on the quote. Guest remarks are from reviews on Google.