To be honest, Cat Ba is far from my first choice for a beach vacation in Vietnam. During low season, it’s too cold for the beach; in high season, it’s absolutely crawling with families with young children. There are only 3 swimmable beaches, and in high season the sole road to access them is overrun 4x/day by hotel shuttles ready and willing to mow down pedestrians (I saw them hit a person and a motorcycle!)

The beaches are not accessible by bike; there are plenty of stairs to go from beach to beach. When I was there in high season, Cat Co 2 (the beaches are named 1,2, and 3) was covered with construction debris and inaccessible; the combination of construction noise and hundreds of screaming children made it undesirable to visit the beaches at all.

These photos and videos were taken during low season, in sweater weather. A few brave locals dared swim, but the hotel beach bars weren’t even open. Even so, it’s worth spending an evening walking from the main strip, along the harbor, up the hill to the beaches, along the elevated walkway, and back. On a sunny day the scenery is beautiful, and the sunsets are really pretty too.