Which airport for a Ha Long Bay cruise?

By road distance, Cat Bi, the airport at Hai Phong, is the closest airport to every harbour our 92 boats leave from. It is 42 km from Tuan Chau Marina, where 68 of them board, against 65 km from Van Don and 169 km from Noi Bai; and 47 km from the Ha Long International Cruise Port at Bai Chay, where 23 board, against 53 km from Van Don. Noi Bai in Hanoi is where the long-haul flights land. Van Don’s own flight board, read on 22 October 2026, showed a single route, from Ho Chi Minh City.

Which airport is closest to my boat?

Cat Bi, at each of the three harbours our boats use. The table gives road distance from each airport terminal on our routing over OpenStreetMap, run on 22 October 2026, with the number of boats we publish at each harbour.

Departure harbour	Boats	Cat Bi (HPH)	Van Don (VDO)	Noi Bai (HAN)
Tuan Chau Marina	68	42 km	65 km	169 km
Ha Long International Cruise Port, Bai Chay	23	47 km	53 km	174 km
Beo Harbour, Cat Ba town	1	51 km, with ferry	133 km, with ferry	173 km, with ferry

Bai Chay is where the gap narrows. Van Don is second there, six kilometres further than Cat Bi, and that port takes 13 of the 15 Bai Tu Long boats we publish, so for that bay the two airports are close on the road and the choice comes down to flights. At Tuan Chau, Cat Bi’s lead is 23 km. Lan Ha Bay does not change the answer: 44 of the 46 Lan Ha boats we publish board at Tuan Chau, and the one that boards in Cat Ba town, Venezia, is 51 km from Cat Bi including the ferry. None of the 92 uses the Got or Gia Luan piers on the Hai Phong side. Your own confirmation names the harbour, and which harbour you leave from explains each one.

Drive times come from the operators. From Cat Bi to Tuan Chau, Indochina Junk quotes 45 minutes to an hour and Mon Cheri 45 to 75 minutes. For the Bai Chay port, Aime’e quotes about an hour from Van Don and about an hour and a half from Cat Bi, so on its figures the two airports trade places there. Bhaya quotes 2.5 to 3 hours by car from Noi Bai.

Who flies into Cat Bi?

Mostly domestic flights, plenty of them, on the Airports Corporation of Vietnam board we read on 22 October 2026. For 23 October it listed 33 departures and 32 arrivals. Ho Chi Minh City dominates, flown between 21 and 23 October by Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet, Sun PhuQuoc Airways, Pacific Airlines and Vietravel Airlines. Between 21 and 23 October the board also showed Da Nang, Phu Quoc, Cam Ranh for Nha Trang, Da Lat, Can Tho and Buon Ma Thuot. Two international routes ran on all three days, both with Vietjet: Seoul and Macau. Nanning appeared on two of the three, and Guangzhou, Kunming and Lijiang once each.

The timings suit a cruise. Five flights were due into Cat Bi before 10:00 on 23 October, among them Vietnam Airlines from Ho Chi Minh City at 09:40, and that leaves time for bags and the drive before 11:30, the most common lounge time (36 of the 72 boats that print one). On the way home, 19 of that day’s departures left at 14:00 or later, comfortably after a late-morning return to the pier.

Can you fly into Van Don?

Only from Ho Chi Minh City, on the airport’s own board read on 22 October 2026. Vietnam Airlines suspended its Van Don route from 1 April 2026, the airport announced in March. Sun PhuQuoc Airways opened the same route on 15 June (VnExpress, 16 June 2026) and scheduled it daily from 4 August to 24 October, by the airport’s notice of 24 August. The board showed only flights 9G1560 and 9G1561: landing at 10:55 and leaving at 11:35 on 23 October, and landing at 11:30 and leaving at 12:10 from 25 October.

That timetable is the catch with Van Don. Landing at 11:30, with an hour’s drive to the Bai Chay port by Aime’e’s figure, misses most boardings: 83 of the 86 boats we publish with a boarding time have boarded by 12:30, and the last three board at 12:45. Flying out is as tight. Most two-day cruises are ashore at about 11:00, the middle of 72 boats’ times, which leaves little room to drive an hour and check in for a 12:10 departure. If Van Don is your airport, book a night in Ha Long before the cruise and another after it.

When does Noi Bai make sense?

When you are flying in from outside Vietnam, or the cheapest fare goes there. ACV’s board for Noi Bai, read on 22 October 2026, listed 240 departures for 23 October, to 63 destinations from Paris and Frankfurt to Sydney and Tokyo. The cost is the road. Bhaya, whose cruises leave at noon and are back at Tuan Chau at 10:00, tells guests to land at Noi Bai at least five hours before departure and to book flights home at least five hours after they step ashore.

Several boats’ shuttles skip the airport. Dragon Legend, Dragon’s Pearl, the three Indochine boats and Rosy do not stop at Noi Bai, by their operators’ own terms, though Indochina Sails will send a private car to the airport on request. Cycad prices the airport run directly, at 850,000 VND a seat (about US$33, read October 2026), and La Regina sells a four-seat car from Noi Bai for US$95 (August 2026). Our guide to getting from Hanoi to Ha Long has the full list of shuttle fares and pick-up times.

Which boats collect you from the airport?

Twelve of the 92 name Cat Bi in a price or an offer on their operators’ own sites, and five of those name Van Don as well: Genesis Regal, Majesty Prime and the three Indochine boats.

Operator	Boats	Airport transfer, as the operator prints it	Read
La Regina	Classic, Grand, Legend, Royal	Cat Bi US$65 per four-seat car each way; Noi Bai US$95	Aug 2026
Orient Legacy	Orient Legacy	Cat Bi US$65 per four-seat car each way; Noi Bai US$95	Sep 2026
Hermes	Hermes	Cat Bi US$60 seven seats, US$95 nine or sixteen, per car each way	Aug 2026
Genesis Regal	Genesis Regal	Sells transfers from Noi Bai, Van Don and Cat Bi	Oct 2026
Majesty Prime	Majesty Prime	Sells transfers from Noi Bai, Van Don and Cat Bi	Aug 2026
Indochina Sails	Indochine, Indochine Grand, Indochine Premium	Private car from Noi Bai, Cat Bi or Van Don on request	Aug 2026
Mon Cheri	Mon Cheri	Pre-booked private car from Cat Bi, extra charge	Aug 2026

Nostalgia, a Lan Ha boat at Lot 33 in Tuan Chau, also sells an airport run, priced from US$22 a trip for four seats (August 2026); its page gives the run as 35 km and 45 minutes, which on the map is Cat Bi.

How current are these figures?

The flights on this page are what the ACV and Van Don airport boards showed when we read them on 22 October 2026, and airline schedules change by season. Transfer prices are what each operator printed on the date in the table. Check your flight with the airline, and confirm the fare, the vehicle and whether it is per car or per seat in writing before you fly.

Common questions

Which airport is closest to Ha Long Bay? Cat Bi in Hai Phong, for every harbour the 92 boats we publish leave from. By road it is 42 km from Tuan Chau Marina and 47 km from the Ha Long International Cruise Port, which between them take 91 of the 92 boats; Van Don is 65 and 53 km from the same two, and Noi Bai about 170 km. The last boat, Venezia, boards in Cat Ba town, 51 km from Cat Bi including the ferry.

Can I land on the morning of my cruise? At Cat Bi, usually yes: five flights were due in before 10:00 on 23 October 2026, by the ACV board. At Noi Bai, Bhaya’s advice is to land at least five hours before a noon departure, so by about 07:00. At Van Don the one scheduled flight lands at 11:30 from 25 October, and with about an hour’s drive that reaches the pier after 83 of the 86 boats that print a boarding time have boarded.

Do cruise boats pick up at the airport? Some sell it as an extra. Twelve of the 92 boats we publish price or offer a car from Cat Bi, US$60 to US$95 a car where a price is printed (Hermes, La Regina, Orient Legacy, August and September 2026), and five of them also offer Van Don. Several Hanoi shuttles do not stop at Noi Bai, so a car from Noi Bai is usually a separate booking.