Ha Long Bay in the rainy season and winter: which cruises to book

Ha Long Bay has two off seasons, and each gives you something autumn cannot. From May to September the sea is at its warmest, about 27 to 30 °C, every month has at least 165 hours of sunshine at Bai Chay, the cruise town on the bay, and the islands are at their greenest. From December to March the bay is calm: no storm or tropical depression made landfall on the Quang Ninh to Thanh Hoa coast in those months in the official 1961 to 2017 record, rain is light, and the limestone towers stand in soft grey light and drifting mist.

The weather in the two seasons is different, so the right cruise is different too. The table sets them side by side for a day on the water, using the official Bai Chay climate normals from Vietnam’s building climate standard (QCVN 02:2022/BXD) and sea temperatures from World Sea Temperature, the same figures as our month-by-month guide to the best time to visit Ha Long Bay, which has the full month table, the storm landfall table and the Tet dates.

In short: in the rainy season, choose a ship with room to shelter and good swim stops; in winter, choose warm water on board. The Elite cruise with a four-season pool, a spa and a sauna covers both seasons, from €113.39 a person and rated 4.9 from more than 3,100 reviews (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

A wet day on Ha Long Bay rarely means a lost day. Summer rain usually comes as a heavy shower or a thunderstorm that passes, and winter rain is a fine drizzle that softens the view rather than hiding it. The boats have plenty under cover: the Taliya day cruise to Lan Ha Bay serves lunch in an air-conditioned dining room with wide windows onto the bay and offers an outdoor hot tub at sunset, from €51.79; the Elite ship has a spa, a sauna and evening karaoke in its restaurant (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

Quang Ninh’s rules set how a boat behaves in poor weather. Under Decision 43/2024, which has governed tourist boats on Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bays since 20 October 2024, when there is rain, fog or strong wind the captain takes the helm in person, an engineer stays in the engine room, crew keep watch on deck, and guests come in from the sides, bow, stern and wheelhouse roof (Art. 7.5). If the weather is not safe to carry on, the captain tells the guests, takes the boat to a safe shelter and reports its position to the port authority (Art. 7.6). On a grey afternoon, then, expect photos from the sundeck between showers, and lunch, the cooking class and the bar under a roof.

The same decision sets winter hours: from 1 November to 31 March boats may leave port from 05:30 and must be back by 19:00, and overnight ships must be at their anchorage by 18:30 (Art. 14). Winter sunsets, between about 17:10 and 17:50, fall while a day cruise is still on the water, as our guide to a day trip or an overnight cruise shows, so a winter day trip gets the sunset that overnight guests get all year. The most-booked Ha Long day cruise is from €35.90, rated 4.8 from more than 14,900 reviews, and the luxury-or-standard day trip, whose luxury boat has a jacuzzi, is from €37.22 (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

For winter the deciding feature is warm water on board. Four of our listings say so in plain terms: the Elite ship’s four-season pool, the Amethyst day boat’s four-season jacuzzi for up to 20 adults, the heated jacuzzi on the Ha Long to Lan Ha day tour and the outdoor hot tub on the Taliya yacht. The balcony ships add a bathtub with a view of the bay in the cabin, the warmest seat on a misty evening.

In the rainy season the same ships win for a different reason: space. A balcony cabin is a private place to watch a shower cross the bay, and the bigger ships have rooms to spend it in. The 6-star balcony cruise has a pool, a spa, a gym and a film in the evening, from €162.74; the Elite ship adds a sauna and a gym to its pool.

The best value for a winter night is the balcony and bathtub cruise, from €99.79 with a bathtub in every room and a pool or jacuzzi on the sundeck. For a day, the Amethyst day cruise is from €46.35, and the Ha Long to Lan Ha day tour, with its heated jacuzzi, a floating pool and Trung Trang Cave on Cat Ba Island, is from €44.56 (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

Caves are the bay’s wet-weather sights, and most of our cruises visit one. The classic Ha Long day route walks through Sung Sot, the Surprise Cave, for about an hour and paddles or rows into the lagoon at Luon Cave; the Taliya yacht takes a bamboo boat through Dark and Bright Cave in Lan Ha Bay, and the Ha Long to Lan Ha day tour stops at Trung Trang Cave on Cat Ba Island.

Kayaking goes ahead in rain; a storm or rough water is what stops it. The Cat Ba kayak and snorkelling boat tour says it runs rain or shine and is cancelled only if there is a storm, from €31.17 and rated 4.6 from 493 reviews. On the most-booked 5-star balcony ship, kayaking and swimming at Ba Trai Dao go ahead if the weather allows, and otherwise the kayaking moves to another area. The small-group Lan Ha kayak day from Cat Ba, from €29.34 and rated 4.8, keeps to lagoons and channels where the big cruise ships are not allowed (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

In winter, dress for the paddle: one listing advises warm clothes from December to March and a spare set in case you get wet kayaking. Our guide to kayaking in Lan Ha Bay has the routes and which tours paddle where.

Vietnam’s National Centre for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) is the official source, and its site has English pages. Its Tropical cyclone page carries the storm bulletins for the East Sea. Each bulletin gives the storm’s position, its strongest winds on the Beaufort scale, a forecast at 24, 48 and 72 hours with the danger zone at sea and the natural disaster risk level for each area affected, an outlook to 120 hours and the time of the next bulletin: the bulletin for storm number 15 on 28 November 2025 was issued at 14:00 and named 17:00 for the next. NCHMF also publishes a point forecast for Ha Long (Quang Ninh), with today’s and tonight’s weather and the next ten days, and a 24-hour marine forecast.

For the bay itself there is now a closer view. Since July 2026 the Northern Regional Hydro-Meteorological Centre has run a thunderstorm and lightning warning service for Ha Long and Bai Tu Long Bays at halong.navy01.com, built to be read on a phone. It splits the bays into 9 zones and follows 6 shipping channels, among them the Tuan Chau to Gia Luan route, and shows the chance of lightning, rain in the next hour and the track of storm cells over the next two hours, with warnings 10, 30, 60 and 90 minutes ahead (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, 7 August 2026). The ministry counts about 350 to 400 thunderstorms a year over Ha Long Bay, mostly small cells that build quickly, and the 9 zones let the authorities warn or hold boats in one part of the bay instead of across all of it.

In the rainy season, check the NCHMF Tropical cyclone page in the week before your cruise and again two days out, while the free-cancellation window on all our cruises and tours is still open.

No tourist boat leaves port on Ha Long Bay without a permit from the port authority, and each boat follows the route written in it (Decision 43/2024, Art. 7.4; the provincial transport department directs the port authority to issue them, Art. 18.5). Quang Ninh’s earlier rule set out that the permit is refused when dangerous weather is forecast or the wind is above what the boat is built for (Decision 4088/2015, replaced by Decision 43/2024 on 20 October 2024). Closures are announced the day before or the morning of a storm: for Typhoon Maysak on 3 July 2026, overnight and evening boats lost their permits from 12:00 and all other boats from 17:00, with permits back after the final storm bulletin, as reported in the press (Thanh Nien). Hai Phong closes Lan Ha Bay by its own order. If a trip has to end earlier than agreed, the guests must consent, and a representative of the guests confirms it in writing to the port authority (Decision 43/2024, Art. 7.7).

Your booking is protected by its terms. All 28 cruises and tours we list can be cancelled up to 24 hours ahead for a full refund, and all offer reserve now, pay later (GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026). The Taliya listing goes furthest: it may be cancelled without notice in major climatic events, and you are offered a full refund if it is. None of the 28 listings sets out a separate rebooking policy, so the simple way to move a storm-month date is to cancel inside the free window and book the new day. The table gives each listing’s own weather wording; our guide to how to choose a Ha Long Bay cruise covers the rest of the small print.

Choose the rainy season if you want the warmest swims and kayaking, long sunny spells between showers and the greenest islands. Choose winter if you want calm water, no storm-season risk, mist on the karsts in February and March and, on a day trip, a sunset on the water.

For one night in the rainy season, the Elite cruise is the all-rounder, from €113.39 with a pool, a spa and a sauna for the wet hours; for a day, the Taliya yacht in Lan Ha Bay, from €51.79, gives you about 7.25 hours aboard. For one night in winter, the balcony and bathtub cruise is the best value at €99.79, and the Elite ship’s four-season pool is the step up. For a winter day, take the Amethyst boat’s four-season jacuzzi from €46.35 or the Ha Long to Lan Ha tour’s heated one from €44.56. If you want to paddle whatever the sky does, the Cat Ba kayak and snorkelling tour runs rain or shine from €31.17 (all GetYourGuide, 15 Nov 2026).

Book with free cancellation, watch the NCHMF forecast, and pack for the season with our list of what to pack for a Ha Long Bay cruise. Then compare dates across all our cruises and tours.