What is the closest airport to Halong Bay?

When planning your trip to Halong Bay, choosing the right airport to land will save you both time and money. In this article, let’s find out which airport close to Halong Bay will fit your travel plan.

Closest airport to Halong Bay: Cat Bi International Airport (HPH)

• Location: Cat Bi Ward, Hai An District, Hai Phong City (Google Maps)
• Best if: You’re flying from big cities in Vietnam.
• Don’t if you’re traveling from outside of the country.
• Distance to Halong Bay: Only 45 kilometers (~28 miles)

Cat Bi International Airport (HPH) is the closest airport to Halong Bay. The airport is in Cat Bi Ward, Hai An District, Hai Phong City, and only takes 50 minutes by car to the bay. The airport has served more than 2 million customers so far and has become the second busiest airport in north Vietnam, beside Noi Bai.

If you’re looking for flights from other parts of Vietnam, Cat Bi will definitely be an ideal choice. It has many daily routes connecting to big cities in the country, like Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, or Danang.

However, Cat Bi only have few international routes.  As of writing, there’s only 1 flight from Seoul, Korea to this airport, operating by Vietjet Air. 

How to Get From Cat Bi Airport to Halong Bay

You can easily go to Halong Bay from Cat Bi International Airport. There are numerous taxi and bus routes available.

Buses are the most efficient way, and there’s plenty of them. Hoang Phu Limousine provides a route from Cat Bi Airport to Halong Bay every hour for only $15 USD per person per way.

If you’d love to put your comfort first, then opt for a private taxi. There are numerous taxis willing to transport you to Halong for about 40–50 USD per way. However, make sure to negotiate a fixed price before getting into one. Don’t trust meters; scam taxis will know how to cheat over that small machine.

Read more at: Hai Phong to Halong Bay: How to travel in 2023

Other airports near Halong Bay

If you struggle to find a flight to Cat Bi Airport from where you are, consider other airports such as Van Don or Noi Bai. These are not the closest, but they have more available flights and getting from there to Halong Bay is not difficult at all.

Van Don International Airport (VDO)

• Location: Doan Ket Ward, Van Don, Quang Ninh Province (Google maps)
• Best if: You’re traveling from domestic Vietnam or some big Asian cities.
• Don’t if you’re flying from Western countries.
• Distance to Halong Bay: About 60km (~ 38 miles)

Van Don International Airport (VDO) is the second closest airport to Halong Bay with a bit more than 1 hour drive. The airport is built specifically to cater to tourists wanting to see Halong. Van Don is newest and also the sixth largest airport in Vietnam, with an area of 2,900,000 square meters with capacity of serving 2,500,000 travelers per year.

A good point is that if you flight internationally to Van Don, you could get a free way of bus (Bus No.14) from the airport to Halong City’s center. If you don’t want to line up and waiting for the bus, taxi could also be a good option for only 40USD ~ 50USD per way. 

There’re plenty domestic flights from several provinces in Vietnam, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, and Nha Trang. But just like Cat Bi Airport, it’s very limited when come to international flights. Even though it has some routes connecting Asian cities such as Seoul, Bangkok, and Taipei, keep in mind that they won’t’ be available on a daily basis.

Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)

• Location: Phu Minh, Soc Son, Hanoi (Google Maps)
• Best if: Choose this as your entry point to Vietnam
• Don’t if: You want to travel right away to Halong
• Distance to Halong Bay: About 197km (~122.4 miles)

Noi Bai International Airport (HAN) is the main airport in North Vietnam. Despite being the furthest, many travelers choose this airport when it’s time to visit Halong Bay, thanks to its widely used flight networks, which serve more than 20 million passengers per year. From Noi Bai Airport, it would take approximately 3 hours to ride to Halong Bay.

There’re various domestic and international flights from and to Noi Bai daily, and you could easily fly from any other country to this airport.

Normally, travelers won’t’ go straight to Halong right after landing at Noi Bai but ill spend one nnight exploring Hanoi. Then the next morning, you could take a tourist bus to Halong Bay, which is pretty cheap, only about 10–12 USD per way. These buses will leave hourly from Hanoi and offer pick-up at your hotel in the Old Quarter.

References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Bi_International_Airport

Last updated: 16th Dec 2023