Cat Ba Island, lying in the Gulf of Tonkin, off the northeast coast of Vietnam, is a favourite travel destination for foreign and domestic tourists alike. With this popularity comes some familiar problems: crowds during peak times, over-development in concentrated areas, pollution, noise, threats to the natural environment. However, Cat Ba is still a great place to explore as an independent traveller, and you can avoid the crowds and tourist paraphernalia if you choose.
Below is my full travel guide to Cat Ba Island. Below is my full guide to Cat Ba Island, including a detailed map. Between November and March it can be misty and sometimes surprisingly cold. Plan to spend between days on Cat Ba Island. During the Tran Dynasty, three women were killed and their bodies washed up one by one on the beaches of the island.
Each body was discovered on a different beach beaches Cat Co 1, 2, 3 today. Legend aside, humans have being living on the island for at least 6, years; the earliest archaeological evidence being in the southeast, not far from where the main settlement is today. Cat Ba had a sizable Chinese population, but most fled in during the brief but violent and bitter Sino-Viet War. Hospital Cave , among others, is one such place that visitors can still see today.
An amorphous island owing to the thousands of tiny islets and rocky outcrops scattered close to its shores , Cat Ba is situated just east of the port of Hai Phong, and, indeed, is part of the municipality of the same name. Geographically, though, Cat Ba is essentially the southernmost extent of the string of limestone islands stretching all the way from the Chinese border near Mong Cai down through Halong Bay.
Although Cat Ba is one of the largest islands in Vietnam, because the terrain is so rugged, its population is only around 16, However, each year some 2. This means, of course, that tourism is a big deal on Cat Ba. This has largely saved Cat Ba so far from over-development for tourism and industry. With the exception of Cat Ba town and the surrounding beaches at the southern tip of the island, most of Cat Ba is fairly pristine.
