By:
Kirsty Blakeley
2016-08-17 22:00:00
We have carefully selected a range of different junk boats to use on Halong Bay. Details of our favourites are given below.
Ginger Junk provides a traditional experience of life in the bay, without compromising on comfort, service and privacy. Ginger’s 8 standard rooms are all traditionally designed with private bathrooms and a choice between double and twin rooms. The 2 deluxe rooms each have their own private balcony, the perfect spot from which to enjoy this stunning landscape.
Number of passengers: 20
Details of the cabins:
10 rooms overall, consisting of 8 standard and 2 deluxe.
Itinerary overview:
Ginger has the option of 2 cruises – 2 days, 1 night and 3 days, 2 nights. Both remain in Halong Bay.
Launched in 2009, Paradise is one of the newest luxury junks cruising in Halong Bay. The well appointed cabins are spacious and all have private balconies. The emphasis is very much on luxury, with a range of beauty and massage options on board. Evening entertainment ranges from movie nights to night fishing, as well as providing morning tai chi classes and complementary kayak and snorkelling equipment.
Number of passengers: 34
Details of the cabins:
Paradise I: 6 Superior (16.2m²), 9 Deluxe (18.2m²) & 2 Suites (19.2m²)
Paradise II: 6 Superior (16.2m²), 7 Deluxe (18.2m²), 4 Suites (23m²)
For a more intimate experience of Halong Bay, we can also offer 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom junk boats, Princess and Prince I. The accommodation is comfortable and traditional, the service outstanding, and the food divine. Princess and Prince I take a less travelled route away from other junks and have access to areas other boats do not. They also moor in private and secluded bays. These boats are ideal for families of four or honeymooners.
Itinerary overview:
2 options – 2 day, 1 night and 3 day, 2 nights.
Note: Unless your party has chartered the whole boat, you will normally join with other travellers for this section of the tour. This includes a shared transfer between Hanoi and Halong Bay.
Need some travel inspiration or looking for some handy travel tips? Our blog provides excellent insight into our travel destinations - from tour updates to country guides, packing lists to little known things to do, you'll find it all in our travel blog.
By:
Martin Hosie
2026-06-09
Morocco isn't just a destination to observe; it is a country that demands to be actively experienced. Discover the best places to visit in Morocco in our honest travel guide. From scrambling through Ait Benhaddou and trekking through Todra Gorge to camping among the Erg Chebbi dunes, find out what makes this Encounters Travel journey truly extraordinary.
By:
Martin Hosie
2026-06-05
We booked a Uganda safari holiday, half hoping it would be good. What we did not expect was to stand in a rainforest in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, barely three metres from a mountain gorilla, completely speechless. This post is about that moment, and everything that led to it, from tracking chimps in Budongo Forest to watching the Nile thunder through Murchison Falls. If you have been wondering whether gorilla trekking in Uganda is worth the journey, the permits, and the mud on your boots, read on. We are going to be honest with you, the way a friend would be, not the way a brochure would.
By:
Martin Hosie
2026-06-04
Lebanon is one of those destinations that quietly rewrites everything a traveller thinks they know about the Middle East. This Lebanon travel guide is not a list of monuments. It is the story of how a single trip wove together Phoenician harbours, Roman ruins, cedar-scented mountain air, and a table that never seemed to empty, from creamy goat cheese fresh out of a Bcharre factory to wood-fired SAJ flatbread at dawn and bold reds poured straight from a Bekaa Valley winery. If you have been searching for a travel guide to Lebanon that treats food as seriously as archaeology, read on.
By:
Martin Hosie
2026-06-03
Finding the best time to visit Cape Town depends on what you want from the trip, and for us, the answer was September, without a shadow of a doubt. We weren't just visiting Cape Town for the city itself. We were using it as the launchpad for a 20-day overland journey north through the Cederberg, across the wildflower-dusted plains of Namaqualand, and deep into Namibia and Botswana. Choosing the right month mattered enormously, not only for Cape Town's weather, but for everything that followed.
By:
Martin Hosie
2026-06-02
Planning a trip and trying to figure out the best time to visit Botswana for a safari? Whether you are drawn to the vast floodplains of the Okavango Delta, the raw wilderness of the Kalahari, or the legendary elephant herds along the Chobe River, timing your visit can make all the difference. This month-by-month guide breaks down what visiting Botswana looks like across every season, including why one August morning on a boat safari in Chobe National Park became the single most jaw-dropping wildlife moment of an overland journey from Namibia to Victoria Falls.