Lan Ha Bay - the better choice - Halong Bay or Lan Ha Bau - that's the question! As it turned out going the less travelled route was just the right choice. We had the beautiful bay almost to ourselves, a great kayaking/ swimming experience an interesting village tour and a fantastic meal on a polished wooden boat. Naomi, our charming tour guide, made us feel very welcome and gave us important insider information on countryside, food, villagelife and herbal medicine. Naomi even shared a kayak with me as I travelled solo. What a great experience!

Good experience !! - The trip was amazing with reasonable price, I loved the fun activities (kayak, fish massage...), very recommend this tour! The tour guide Ms Naomi was great, the had good attitude and she supported us enthusiastically. I'd love to have another trip here maybe !

Chillin trip - The food was good and plenty. For me its the highlight of the tour, but I didnt take any photo. The guide Đô Nguyễn was friendly and helpful. I felt like one day was not enough I would like to go even for one week lol. Definitely will come back for more.

What a day! - Booking with Cat Ba Panorama was exactly what we needed. Everything went smoothly, boat was nice and comfortable. The crew were fantastic, absolutely delighted by the food and the guide( Truong ) who told us some facts about the bay as well as the village( Viet Hai ). The most well spent money ever. Definitely will do it again.

Relaxing Day - Great day on d’Charne Cruise, experienced guide and crew Lunch on board, kayaking swimming etc. Plus relaxing in the sunshine

Just do it! - Through our friend's recommendation, we went with Cat Ba Panorama team. The tour met all our expectation, nice boat, nonstop lunch with lovely seafood. Kayaking was the best and our tour guide, Truong, played a significant role during the day. Do not hesitate, go with them!

Fantastic experience! - This was my second year taking a day trip from Catba island- this time returning with my family. This boat was incredibly nice and comfortable- beyond what most boat tours have to offer. There were plenty of spaces to lounge. The staff was very helpful and gave clear instructions- nice to meet you Trinh! We really enjoyed the bike ride through the local village, trying interesting flavors of rice wine, and kayaking around the bay. It was above and beyond other boat tours in the area. Thanks for a great experience!

Brilliant! - A great tour, the boat is very luxurious and the route is great! The food was absolutely amazing! Our tour guide Turong was very kind and informative and spoke very good English. Highly recommend

Great Lan Ha Bay tour - We had a great day visiting the Lab Ha Bay with Cat Ba Panorama team. Everything is excellent, the staffs is so friendly, great lunch with a variety of local dishes Thank you for all

Avoid this tour for now... - It's baffling to see all these positive reviews of this operation. We took the one day "luxury" cruise on D'Charme and it was quite simply disastrous. If it wasn't for the guides who were friendly and tried their best I'd give only one star. I almost wondered if they put me on a bad copycat boat with the same name. But no, it's the same boat as advertised just a lot more shabby. We were promised when booking that things are quiet at the moment and it wouldn't be too busy and that coupled with the fact that this was touted as the luxury option made me book the tour in the first place. What a mistake that was. The boat was packed, they had people sitting on extra plastic chairs for lunch and it wasn't even the weekend. The boat is in deplorable condition, the toilets can't be locked and the upper deck had zero shade because the canopy was broken. This actually turned out to be a saving grace since none of the other guests wanted to sit there, so we got some privacy. But it obviously meant that the lower floors were even more packed. The boat would be comfortable for maybe 20 passengers, fewer than that on a "luxury" tour, but we had at least double that amount. Coffees in the morning and other beverages had to be paid extra and were overpriced (luxury after all). The romantic sunset with complimentary wine started at 2:30 pm and consisted of a small glass of watermelon juice which may or may not have contained a little rice wine. The beach where we stopped for swimming and corals had no corals and it was dirty. 2 stars because lunch was alright (seafood, but the cheap variety) and the guides and staff were nice and professional. But whoever is in charge of this operation should be ashamed to call it a luxury cruise, it would have made just about barely adequate budget tour. Amendment : Panorama Travel contacted me after reading this review and tried to explain the situation. It seems that due to the Covid19 situation they changed the tour to be more suited to Vietnamese domestic tourism which certainly explains the large number of passengers and less focus on activities such as cycling and swimming. This might change again once the country reopens to Westerners, so take my review as an 'as is' which might improve again in the future