Best time to cruise Ha Long Bay, by guest reviews

Go in July if you want the best odds. Of the 1,147 guest reviews posted in July, 34 give one or two stars, 3.0%, the lowest share of any month in the 13,074 reviews of 76 boats we counted on 28 October 2026. Its average of 4.78 sits a hair under October’s 4.79 and level with September’s, and July’s share stays the lowest when you count only the three complete years from 2023 to 2025.

The weakest month depends on how you count. On every review we hold, it is March at 6.4%, with December a whisker behind. On 2023 to 2025 alone, it is September at 8.5%. The usual advice of October to April describes the weather in northern Vietnam well enough. In our reviews those months do not score better than the summer ones: 4.9% of 7,223 October to April reviews give one or two stars, against 4.0% of 5,851 from May to September, and on 2023 to 2025 the half-point gap, 5.4% against 6.0%, is small enough to be chance.

Which month do guests rate best?

July, with 3.0% of 1,147 reviews at one or two stars. March is the weakest on the full count at 6.4%, and September on the three complete years at 8.5%.

Month	Reviews	Rated 1 or 2 stars	Average	1 or 2 stars, 2023 to 2025 only
January	808	5.3%	4.68	5.4% of 352
February	581	4.8%	4.66	5.8% of 328
March	1,006	6.4%	4.65	4.9% of 567
April	1,234	4.6%	4.73	5.9% of 608
May	956	5.2%	4.65	5.9% of 426
June	897	3.7%	4.76	6.2% of 370
July	1,147	3.0%	4.78	3.1% of 520
August	1,469	4.5%	4.75	6.8% of 651
September	1,382	3.5%	4.78	8.5% of 364
October	1,985	3.7%	4.79	6.5% of 664
November	778	4.9%	4.69	4.4% of 723
December	831	6.3%	4.65	5.4% of 757

Across all 13,074 reviews, 587 sit at one or two stars, 4.5%, about one in twenty-two. On 2023 to 2025 the rate is 5.6%. The two counts disagree mainly because 2026 has been a mild year, and only some months have 2026 reviews yet; the last section explains how to read that. Three boats whose full Google history we hold count only their 700 most recent reviews, so no single boat outweighs the rest.

Small gaps between months mean little. July and September sit about half a point apart on the full count, some seven reviews’ worth, and September drops to the bottom on the three-year count. March and December are 0.1 points apart, which is a tie.

July: the best record, in a wet month

July’s lead holds on both counts: 34 of 1,147 reviews at one or two stars overall, and 16 of 520 on 2023 to 2025. Only 2 of the 1,147 mention a cancellation or a schedule change.

Two partial explanations fit, and both are our reading. Heat is predictable in a way that storms are not. And the things a July guest wants, swimming, the water slides and the kayaking, are what the boats are set up to deliver, whereas a January guest is buying a view that fog may or may not provide.

The catch is the weather itself. Ten years of modelled data for the bay give July 354 mm of rain over 22 days with at least a millimetre, daytime highs of 31.0°C and a sea at 31.8°C, and 5.7 days a year with gusts of 50 km/h or more, second only to June. Storms reach July too. For the first storm of 2026, overnight boats stopped being licensed from 12:00 on 3 July. A July booking needs the same written cancellation policy as a September one.

September: bad in some years, fine in others

September is the worst month on the three complete years, 31 of 364 reviews (8.5%) at one or two stars, and that is the figure we would plan on. Its full-count figure of 3.5% rests heavily on September 2026: 975 of the month’s 1,382 reviews were posted in 2026, only 15 of them at one or two stars. One boat’s listing, whose reviews we hold almost entirely from September and October 2026, adds 148 of those, all five stars; without it, September runs at 4.0% across all years. The year-by-year numbers:

September of	Reviews	Rated 1 or 2 stars
2023	58	9
2024	80	4
2025	226	18
2026	975	15

Storms do not explain the bad years. September 2023 had none of the decade’s 50 windiest days in our modelled data, and four of its nine bad reviews were posted on one day by three guests. September 2024 brought Typhoon Yagi and ran at 4 bad reviews out of 80. In that month a guest describes being evacuated from a boat because of Yagi and praises the crew for staying calm; another, three weeks later, writes that tourist numbers were down after the typhoon.

Seven of September’s 1,382 reviews mention a storm or rough sea, and four of those seven give five stars. Of September’s 49 one and two-star reviews, one mentions a storm, from a guest posting on 27 September 2025 whose cruise was cut short as the typhoon approached; that guest blames how the day was organised. Our September guide has the breakdown.

September does bring real storms, and when licences stop, cruises do not sail. Quang Ninh’s Department of Agriculture and Environment asks the port authorities to stop licensing boats from a stated hour; for Typhoon Ragasa it was 10:00 on 24 September 2025, reported by Lao Động that morning, with no restart until the final bulletin on the storm. If your dates are fixed in September, book a boat with a written cancellation policy and read it before you pay. If they are movable, we would still move them, because of the storm risk.

December and March: the weakest on the full count

December has the second-highest share of one and two-star reviews on the full count, 52 of 831 (6.3%), and an average of 4.65 that ties March and May for the lowest. It has no 2026 reviews yet, and on 2023 to 2025 it falls to 5.4%, mid-table. Our December guide takes that month apart.

Cold is the winter subject. December and January carry 21 mentions of cold weather between them, twelve and nine, the most of any two neighbouring months. A Vietnamese guest writing in January 2026 describes a cold snap of around ten degrees in the north and notes that the itinerary ran in full anyway. January is the coldest month on the modelled data, 19.5°C by day and 15.6°C at night, and has its own January guide.

March has the highest share on the full count, 64 of 1,006 (6.4%), and nearly half of those were posted in 2026: March 2026 ran at 30 of 413 (7.3%). On 2023 to 2025 it falls to 4.9%, third best after July and November. It draws more remarks about fog and haze than any other month, five of the nine in our whole set, and guests split on it: some describe the mist as the best part, others booked a view and did not get one. Our March guide looks at that month in detail.

The catch in winter can be the cabin. Two guests, writing in December 2022 and February 2024, report no hot water, one of them in cold weather. If you are going between December and February, ask whether the cabin has heating and hot water through the night, and get the answer in writing.

Spring and autumn: the months most guides recommend

April, May and November score in the middle on the full count, between 4.6% and 5.2% at one or two stars, and October looks better at 3.7%. April draws 1,234 reviews, with 4.6% at one or two stars and an average of 4.73; the modelled data give it 26.5°C days and 68 mm of rain. May runs at 5.2%, and it is where the rain starts, at 177 mm. Our guides to Ha Long Bay in April and Ha Long Bay in May cover each month.

October sits at 3.7% on the full count and 6.5% on 2023 to 2025, with 182 mm of rain, more than May. Of October’s 1,985 reviews, 1,254 were posted in 2026, so the three-year figure is the safer guide. November is the steadier of the two: 4.9% on the full count and 4.4% on the three complete years, second only to July on that measure, with 45 mm of rain, highs of 24.9°C and 8.2 hours of sun a day. The October guide and November guide go month by month.

August: watch how cancellations are handled

August has more reviews mentioning a cancellation or a schedule change than any other month, 10 of 1,469, and nine of the ten give one star. On our reading, most of them are about how the cancellation was handled. One guest was driven three hours to an office and kept waiting an hour and a half before being told the cruise was off; another checked in at a lounge in Ha Long before finding out.

Before you pay in summer, ask the operator what happens to a sailing cancelled for weather: where you are told, and whether you get a refund or a new date. On each boat’s page, read the one-star reviews too.

Are review dates the same as travel dates?

No. The dates are posting dates, not travel dates. People write reviews days or weeks after getting home, so the month buckets lean late. A trip in the last days of August often lands in the September column. This blunts every finding here, and it is the main reason we present the months as a comparison.

2026 has been a mild year. Of the 6,245 reviews posted in 2026, 2.9% give one or two stars, against 4.8% in 2025 and 6.2% in 2024. Our 2026 reviews run to 25 October, so every month from January to October has some of that mild year in its total, and November and December have none. That flatters most months with many 2026 reviews and leaves December looking worse; January and March are the exceptions, because their 2026 reviews ran worse than their earlier years. The 2023 to 2025 column gives each month the same three years, which is why we read it alongside the full count.

Weather is rare in reviews. Of 13,074 reviews, 31 mention rain (0.2%), 9 fog (0.1%) and 22 a storm or rough sea (0.2%). Most people describe the food, the cabin and the crew. The monthly differences come from scores. Weather mentions are too few to carry them.

For the weather itself, use the weather page. Our Ha Long Bay weather page sets ten years of modelled data for one point in the bay beside these same reviews.

Common questions

So what is the single best month? July on our numbers: 3.0% of 1,147 reviews at one or two stars, and 3.1% of 520 on 2023 to 2025. The runner-up depends on the count. September comes second on every review we hold, at 3.5%, yet it is the worst of the three complete years; November is second on those, at 4.4%. If you want cooler days, November is the one we would pick; our November guide covers that month on its own.

Is the rainy season really that bad? Not for scores. June to September are the four wettest months on our weather page, from 235 mm in June to 456 mm in August, yet July has the best record of the year. September is the summer month that scores badly, and only in some years. Just 31 of our 13,074 reviews mention rain at all.

What happens if a typhoon closes the bay? Quang Ninh’s Department of Agriculture and Environment asks the port authorities to stop licensing boats from a stated hour, and the stop ends only with the final bulletin on the storm. For the first storm of 2026, overnight boats were to stop being licensed from 12:00 on 3 July. What happens to your booking next, a refund or a new date, is the operator’s own policy, so get it in writing before you pay. Our guide to what changed on Ha Long Bay in 2026 sets out the summer closures.

Does the month change the price? Around the holidays it does. Sleep aboard on 24 or 31 December and many boats add a holiday charge; on this season’s dollar figures, read on 15 October 2026, it runs from $30 to $100 an adult. Our Christmas and New Year guide lists them. For the trip itself, which bay you sail, Lan Ha, Ha Long or Bai Tu Long, and which caves and islands are on the route are worth settling before the month.