Ha Long Bay in November: least cloud, a cooler sea

Yes, November is one of the better months for a Ha Long cruise on our numbers. Of the 569 reviews posted in November, out of 8,536 dated reviews of 51 boats that we counted on 9 October 2026, 4.2% give one or two stars, against 5.0% across all twelve months. Ten years of weather data give November the least cloud of any month. Rain averages about 45 mm. The catch is in the trip itself: two guests posting in November 2025, on different boats, describe about 45 minutes of sailing and then a night at a crowded anchorage.

What is the weather like in November?

Dry, and the least cloudy month of the year. On ten-year averages from ERA5 reanalysis, November days reach 24.9°C and nights fall to 20.7°C, with 45 mm of rain spread over about eight days of 1 mm or more. That is roughly a quarter of October’s rain. Cloud cover averages 52%, the lowest of the twelve months, and the sun is out for 8.2 hours a day.

	October	November	December
High / low, °C	27.8 / 23.5	24.9 / 20.7	20.9 / 16.7
Rain, mm (driest–wettest year)	182 (45–487)	45 (18–80)	19 (3–68)
Days with 1 mm of rain or more	13.1	8.0	3.9
Sunshine, hours a day	8.4	8.2	6.8
Cloud cover	58%	52%	60%
Sea surface, °C	28.3	25.1	21.1

Even the wettest November in the decade, at 80 mm, stayed under half of an average October. Wind is the variable to watch. Ten Novembers produced 33 days with gusts of 50 km/h or more: 7 in the first ten days, 12 in the middle ten and 14 from the 21st. None of them ranks among the 50 windiest days of the decade, so expect a choppy afternoon now and then and little worse. Typhoons are rare this late, but when one comes, the province’s environment department asks for sailing permits to be suspended for overnight and sightseeing boats, as it did from noon on 3 July 2026, and the maritime port authority decides on permits from the weather; our Ha Long Bay weather by month covers how that works.

What the grid cannot tell you is whether a morning will be misty. The reanalysis has no visibility data, and nobody publishes a fog record for the bay itself.

Can you still swim in November?

Yes, if you can take water about six degrees cooler than midsummer. The modelled sea surface averages 25.1°C across the four Novembers we hold, about three degrees below October and four above December. Pack a warm layer for the deck at night: the coldest November night in ten years dropped to 11.1°C.

November reviews barely mention temperature. No November review complains of feeling cold, and hot comes up in five, one about a gym without air conditioning and one about hot chocolate. A guest posting in November about a Lan Ha boat found the sea too dirty to swim in.

How do November guests rate their cruises?

Well, and steadily. November sits at 4.2% one and two star reviews, level with August and January after rounding, and only July is clearly lower.

	November	All months
Reviews posted	569	8,536
One or two stars	24 (4.2%)	426 (5.0%)
Five stars	84.2%	85.0%
Average rating	4.70	4.69

The month is thin, tenth of twelve by number of reviews, so check it year by year. In every year with 20 or more November reviews, November came in below its own year: 5.0% against 5.8% in 2019, 5.0% against 13.9% in 2022, 6.4% against 8.1% in 2023, 2.9% against 6.0% in 2024 and 4.4% against 5.1% in 2025. Late November looks slightly better than mid-month, with 6 low scores in 194 reviews posted from the 21st against 11 in 205 from the 11th to the 20th, though counts that small do not make a pattern.

A review appears after the trip, sometimes weeks after. A guest posting in early November may be writing about late October, and we cannot pin the trip dates any closer than the posting date.

What goes wrong on a November cruise?

Mostly the itinerary. Of the 20 low November reviews we have classified, 11 (55%) say the trip was cut, changed or thinner than sold, against 29.3% of low reviews across the year. The weather is rarely the reason. Two guests posting in November 2025, on different boats, describe the same pattern. On Alisa Premier, lunch was served during about 45 minutes of sailing, then the boat moored with what the guest counted as 50 others for the rest of the stay. On Doria in Lan Ha, a 45-minute run ended at a crowded anchorage with karaoke from nearby boats late into the night. Two French reviews of another Lan Ha boat, posted the same day, say it barely moved. A guest posting in November 2023 about a Bai Tu Long boat had chosen it for a fishing village stop that never happened.

On classified subjects, November looks like the rest of the year:

Subject mentioned	November	All year
The crew	85.4%	81.3%
The food	51.5%	52.0%
The cabin	31.5%	30.6%
Crowding	8.9%	6.6%
Itinerary changed or cut	5.6%	4.3%

A mention is not a complaint, except in the itinerary row, which only counts problems. Cleanliness is the subject that drops: it comes up in 3 of the 20 low November reviews, against a third of low reviews across the year.

How busy are the caves and anchorages in November?

A little more than average, by what guests write. Crowding comes up in 8.9% of classified November reviews against 6.6% across the year. The complaints split between busy stops and crowded anchorages. A Catherine guest posting in November 2024 found Sung Sot so packed that they skipped Ti Top Island afterwards, and an Alisa Premier guest posting the same month called Ha Long’s main stops crowded while crediting the boat’s schedule.

Bay	November reviews	One or two stars	All year
Ha Long	177	10 (5.6%)	5.2%
Lan Ha	342	13 (3.8%)	4.8%
Bai Tu Long	50	1 (2.0%)	5.4%

Lan Ha and Bai Tu Long both come in below their own yearly rate in November, and Ha Long a little above. Fifty reviews is too few to rank Bai Tu Long on. Our three bays compared sets out what each day looks like.

Which boat should I book for November?

Two Lan Ha boats went through November without a single low review, on 50 or more each. The table adds the strongest Ha Long boat and the only Bai Tu Long boat with 25 or more November reviews.

Boat	Bay	November reviews	Low scores	November average	Five stars, all reviews we hold	From, per person, two sharing
Stellar of the Seas	Lan Ha	50	0	5.00	99.4% of 500	$366
Orchid Trendy	Lan Ha	51	0	5.00	97.0% of 400	$165
Alisa Premier	Ha Long	31	1	4.87	92.3% of 400	$155
Renea	Bai Tu Long	25	1	4.84	89.2% of 259	$130

Prices are one-night trips: Stellar of the Seas and Orchid Trendy read on 8 October 2026, Alisa Premier and Renea on 6 August 2026. They move with dates, so ask for the figure on yours.

For the strongest record and a bigger budget, Stellar of the Seas cruise leads our guest-score ranking, and two of its November reviewers describe rain handled well: raincoats handed out and umbrellas held over guests boarding the speedboat, and a kayak trip to the Bright and Dark caves on the last day of a longer trip. At less than half the price, Orchid Trendy is a 20-cabin Lan Ha boat with the same clean November record, though the listing we track raised its cheapest cabin from $285 to $330 between August and October 2026. If Ha Long’s caves are the point, Alisa Premier has the best five-star share of the Ha Long boats in that ranking. One of the 45-minute reviews above is about Alisa Premier, so ask how long it sails before anchoring. Catherine, the most-reviewed boat of the month at 80, had four low scores and averaged 4.74.

What should I check with the seller first?

Ask about the route, because that is where November trips disappoint. Before you pay, get these in writing:

• How many hours the boat actually sails on day one, and where it anchors overnight.
• Which bay the overnight anchorage is in, since guests on Lan Ha boats often call the trip Ha Long.
• Whether the price quoted is for your date or a “from” figure.
• What happens if the port authority stops issuing sailing permits on your date, and what comes back if a two-night trip is cut to one.

A guest posting on 9 November 2024 says their trip was cancelled a week before departure, with an earlier typhoon given as the reason, and the refund came through the booking site. Our cancellation policy guide shows how far the ordinary terms differ.

November cruise FAQ

Is November a good month for a Ha Long Bay cruise? Yes. Of 569 reviews posted in November, 4.2% give one or two stars, against 5.0% across the year, and November beat its own year in every year with enough reviews to count. Weather records give it 45 mm of rain, 8.2 hours of sun and the least cloud of any month. The sea is cooler than in summer at about 25°C, and the complaint to watch for is a boat that sails briefly and anchors in a crowd.

Is November too cold for a cruise? Not by day. Average highs are 24.9°C and lows 20.7°C over ten years, and no November review in our set complains of the cold. Nights on deck can feel cooler, and the coldest November night in the decade was 11.1°C, so bring a jumper. The sea averages 25.1°C, against about 21°C in December.

Is early or late November better? There is little between them. Low reviews run at 4.1% for posts in the first ten days, 5.4% in the middle ten and 3.1% after the 20th, on fewer than 210 reviews each. Gusty days are more common late in the month, 14 of 33 in ten years, though none of them ranks among the decade’s 50 windiest.