Along with the acknowledgement to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, number of Halong cruises is increasing rapidly. The guide below will show you few efficient ways to book for a Halong Bay Cruise.
Online
Booking online seems to be the best choice thanks to the convenience it brings to tourists. You may just type the combination “Halong bay tours” or “Halong bay cruises”, there will be millions results from thousands travel agency websites.
Most of the Halong Cruise online booking websites are very well designed with user friendly interface, beautiful graphic, and detailed information about cruise package like prices, itinerary, cruise amenities description, etc.
The outstanding feature of online booking is safety with quick booking process. With just a few clicks, your ideal trip will be at service coming alone with easy online payment through common method like credit cards and bank transfer. Payment can be paid in US dollar. For each transaction, it usually takes around 1-2 business days, or up to required time for bank transfer at your local place.
Telephone
There are much to talk about pros and cons of phone booking. Although you might have to spend more on your phone bill, you can ask for any information about the trips directly, as well as any queries you may have about Halong Bay, and instead of filling required information on your own, travel agents are pleased to help you complete all the process.
However, the method does have some the drawbacks. Firstly, you still need to complete the payment process on your own for security reason. Secondly, your information might not be correct due to the some common mistakes such as misspelling. Nevertheless, the problems could be handled with more considerable pronunciation and slow speaking. Telephone booking requires exactly the same payment process like online booking.
Tour operator
A lot of tourists choose to book for a Halong cruise as part of a longer Vietnam tour through tour operators. This seems to be much more convenient since the only thing you need to do is paying for the whole tour. However, depending too much on tour agencies might reduce the flexibility of your trip.
Direct booking
The traditional way to book for tour or cruise is to go directly to a travel agency office when you arrive at Vietnam. This gives you a much more comfortable and reliable feeling, as well as the complete information and instruction about the cruise trip, and direct payment. The price chart is in US dollar and it is the most preferable by many of the cruise operators. Vietnam Dong might be accepted (with equal currency exchange).
Consulting the locals or expats in Vietnam before venturing into the land of rocks is always supposed to be better than booking from far away with only seemingly beautiful information on the internet.