What‘s Included

Meeting and Pickup

What To Expect

Reviews

• Beautiful…great family holiday.

  625traceyi,

  Jul 16, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  3.00

  The bay is very picturesque, although noticed quite a bit of rubbish floating around as we were anchored. The day excursion to Viet Hai village was fun and swimming in the cleaner waters was nice. The boat was nice, food mostly ok - was disappointed that we were charged for cups of tea and water with dinner. Can’t fault the crew - they were amazing!

  

  

• Best bath ever

  PhilG-UK1,

  Apr 29, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  I loved this. The rooms are phenomenal. Pretty big for a boat, and the bath is just stunning. I could never get bored of laying there, gazing out at the scenery. The ship seems very new and everything was spotlessly clean. The pool is fantastic, as are all the common areas. Definitely do the 2 night/3 day cruise. Every person that did the 1 night instantly regretted it. It’s just not long enough. The whole thing was very well organised. It’s worth noting that the boat is not actually moored in Halong Bay, so you have to get a tender boat out to it, which takes nearly an hour each way. The full day excursion on our middle day was also done on a smaller (shared) boat so you don’t actually spend much time on Doria, which is the only real negative, as the small boat has no privacy, balconies, swimming pool etc The staff are brilliant. A special mention to Kim, Ashley and Miley, who go out of their way to ensure you have a good time. But standout for me was the lovely Luna, who looked after us every day in the restaurant. She really is just a delight, and a real asset to your company. The food was pretty good. I loved the taster menu format, with the chicken, sea bass and prawn dishes being the stand outs. The buffet on arrival was also particularly good, as was the lunch on the excursion to Cat Ba. The drinks were pretty expensive, but given the location, I guess that was to be expected. They do a 3-4-2 offer on cocktails before and after dinner, but it’s still not cheap. Also, as a solo traveller, having to buy drinks in multiples of three is annoying - 30% offer would have been better. Good to see them stop serving alcohol and close everything down at 10:30pm. This ensures everyone can get a good nights sleep. I would have loved the option to add another night, just so I could spend a day doing nothing/chilling on the boat. As much as loved all the excursions, one more day, just sitting around the pool, would have been awesome. It definitely gets a massive thumbs up from me. I’ve never done a Halong Bay cruise before, so I have nothing to compare it too, but loved every minute of it.

• 3D2N cruise with a young family

  Alison B,

  Apr 15, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  4.00

  After no shortage of research we booked on Doria cruise. We ended up using our Hanoi hotel to book, becoming bewildered by the different websites and WhatsApp conversations that we got involved in. It is the same company that owns Doria, Doris, Dora and Elina. They all looked similar - with the exception of Elina that from the outside looked a bit older. Doria is an old boat, but newly kitted out - only 3 months ago - and the fixtures and fittings are of very high standard. The staff are similarly excellent, with the main host Kim, very friendly - and excellent with our two kids (aged 6 and 8). She really added to the trip. The food was very good, and whilst a 7 course dinner is a bit unnecessary, it is served quickly. We enjoyed the pre dinner drinks (even if buy 2 get 1 free is a bit of an odd deal), the cooking class was nice (spring rolls) and squid fishing entertained the kids and adults alike for a while. The heated swimming pool was great for a dip in - and an alternative to the sea (see below). We choose the 3 day 2 night option - and are glad we did so - the full day in the middle, with some cycling, a visit to a local village, and some kayaking/swimming around the less busy parts of Halong was worthwhile. I suspect the 2 day, 1 night package would have felt very rushed - and it is really only 2 half days at most you end up getting. A trip to Halong Bay isn’t as serene as it could be tho - and there are some things to bear in mind. (1) parts of the bay are strewn with floating rubbish - others have said it, but it is striking, and something really needs to be done. It does detract from the scenery. (2) this is such a popular activity that in the Bay’s sleeping area you can easily count 40 other ships. Similarly most of the attractions will have other boats in the vicinity, so our trip at least wasn’t as secluded as we might have hoped. As mentioned the middle “full” day helped offset this. (3) during the 3D2N option you effectively overlap with two lots of guests doing the 2D1N option - albeit this isn’t a problem per se, and they don’t get to do the full day tour. (4) the full day involved a transfer onto a smaller - much less salubrious boat, it has a nice top deck which everyone shares - but the majority of your trips sailing is done on this day boat - so e.g. you aren’t enjoying the views from your balcony. (5) similarly the transfer from the marina to Doria (c.45 minutes) is done by a separate boat - we did see some some other boats that picked you up directly in the marina. (6) as with any boat, it gets pretty noisy early in the morning. All together - we very much enjoyed our trip, and whilst an expensive part of any trip to Vietnam - the size and luxury of the room relative to its cost is fairly unique in our experience. We did see other smaller and well equipped sleeper ships that were doing the full days activities (ie no need to transfer onto a day boat) - which given our time again we would likely favour. As an alternative - but missing the “experience” of staying overnight on the boat - it might be possible to do day trips from a land based hotel.

• Excellent

  Explore37687231399,

  Mar 26, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Everything is perfect. Our group had two great days, thank you Julie for being so enthusiastic and helpful with us. We will always be grateful to her, she was amazing.

• Excellent service from Julie

  132 nhd,

  Mar 26, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  The trip was great but it was even better when we had Julie. Despite the language barrier, Julie, our waitress, enthusiastically attended us. He also paid special attention to my food problems.

• Julie.

  leconghonga,

  Mar 26, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  We had a fantastic night on the Dora cruise, Julie was very friendly and very attentive to all our needs, a very nice time:) We had a fantastic night on the Dora cruise, Julie was very friendly and very attentive to all our needs, a very pleasant time. We love Julie

• Dora Crew

  melbau2025,

  Mar 25, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Excellent cruise, amazing attention, especially from our salonera Julie and friendliness of all the staff, and exquisite food. Super recommended.

• Special mention about Julie.Her service was very good

  FrequentFlier282734,

  Mar 24, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  We are happy with the cruise's cleanliness.Food is very limited. Most of the items were finished just a few minutes after the dinner started. We mentioned the food preference but we couldn't find chicken or eggs in the dinner. The cruise was standing quite far from the boarding area. But Julie was wonderful .. * * * * * for her. She took care of very well.

• Overall it was nice

  717amland,

  Mar 24, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  4.00

  Julie was very nice to us.We can give 5* to her .she did whatever she can, but in some case there were limited food and it was finishing early.No chicken in dinner.

• Enjoyable

  shvetabhagat,

  Mar 2, 2025

  - Review from Tripadvisor

  5.00

  Really enjoyed everything, especially the service! Would like to mention Ashleys good work! Like the dining experience, deck and environment!

• Load more reviews