Monday, January 9, 2012

Top Island for honeymoon in Vietnam


Catba Island
A trip to Catba (Cat Ba) island can be separated or combined with a visit to Halong Bay . This is the largest island in the Cat Ba Archipelago that consists of 350 limestone outcrops adjacent to Halong.

This is an oasis where you can be apart for one or a few days during a long voyage. If starting from Halong Wharf it will take you 4 hours by a tourist boat, with stopovers for swimming, visiting spectacular karsts and having fresh sea food. In a single word, you can contemplate the beautiful scenery of Halong before reaching the island. You can also buy a ticket of the hydrofoil departing from Hai Phong Seaport to reach Cat Ba if your itinerary saves Halong for another visit.

With an area of 356 square km wide, Cat Ba encompasses forested zones, coastal mangrove and freshwater swamps, beaches, caves, and waterfalls. In 1986, the Northeast side of the island was designated a National Park, including a protected marine zone. Cat Ba Island supports a population of over 20,000, most of who live off fishing or farming in the South, in and around Cat Ba Town. The town is small and ancient, with clusters of fishing boats and inspiring sunsets across the harbor. You can check out the catch of the day in the early morning, see cuttlefish dried over hot charcoals, or stroll around the old town. It's a short hike from Cat Ba town through a tunnel to Cat Co Beach, whose mountains look like a throne holding a marvelous sandy coast, or if you hike further along, you will reach the rockier Cat Vang Beach.

As transportation o­n the town is not so well-developed, motorbikes is the most helpful means to get you to the larger Trung Trang Cave with many chambers, or to the National Park, or to discover other beaches around the island. A tour guide is necessary to help you communicate with the local drivers and introduce these viewpoints. The national park contains stringy trees, thick undergrowth and slippery vines. There is a great view that includes a French, now Vietnamese, farming village from the top of the mountain and a lake in the middle of the park that takes a half day to reach.

Co To Island
Co To Island is about 3 hours by boat from Cai Rong Town, Van Don Island District, 150km from Halong City. The Quang Ninh province's tourism sector has surveyed potential to develop tourism on the island, especially eco-tourism. Co To Island includes 40 large and small islands, of which the three largest are large Co To, Thanh Lan and Tran.

Co To Sea is beautiful both day and night, sunrise and sunset, bright moon and dim moon. Beaches in the large Co To Island are deserted and not polluted by modern industrial society. Trinh Sat Beach is typical with white sands and blue water as clear as crystal.

The forest is also appropriate for ecotourism tours. You can walk or catch "xe om" (motorbike taxi) to visit a lighthouse o­n a high hill. It's about 10 minutes by "xe om" from centre of island to the foot of hill, and then you'd better walk along a path to the lighthouse. This path is about 1km and lies among pine tree forest together with thousands of violet wild flowers. The light house is o­n the highest peak of the CoTo Island, 70 meters above sea level.

Large Co To Island has an abundance of seafood such as shrimp, cutlet fish..., price is very cheap. You can bring gas cooker and cook your own meal or hire a native to cook.

From large Co To Island, hiring a boat to the islands around, you will discover things such as kinds of water sports: snorkeling, fish stabbing... on Thanh Lan Island, oranges are a special harvested fruit. During harvest time, the island turns a splendid orange-yellow color.

Charming landscape with fresh air make Co To become an attractive place for visitors who are keen on exploring.

Con Dao Island
The Con Dao Islands (also known as Poulo Condore) are an archipelago of 15 islands situated in the South China Sea, around 250 kilometers, or a 45-minute flight, from Ho Chi Minh City.

The island is famed for its grizzly past: due its remoteness, the French used the main island of Con Son (the largest island in the group) to keep anti-colonial protestors prisoner. The South Vietnamese continued the tradition, sending political dissenters and activists to the 11 prisons which were also used in the American War. One third of the current 6,000 population are Vietnamese soldiers based in barracks dotted around the island.

Con Son is largely mountainous and covered in forest, with ample opportunity for hiking through the jungle and looking for wildlife. The island is also home to a coastline of steep, rocky hills and long sweeping coves, boasting some excellent spots for swimming and snorkeling.

The best source of information is the National Park Headquarters, located about five minutes' drive from Con Son town on Vo Thi Sau Rd. From here you can organise trips to other islands in the archipelago, hire a guide for trekking (required) and get permits to enter certain parts of the forest. Three tourist hotels are available on Con Son, all on Ton Duc Thang Rd which follows the beach and the harbour around Con Son town.

One of only two terrestrial and maritime National Parks, the Con Dao archipelago became a national park in 1993 and five years later the park was expanded significantly into the surrounding waters. Because of this protective status, the waters escaped some of the destructive fishing practices that have marred many other marine areas in Vietnam.

Partly as a result of this protected state, the island is very popular with divers with over 1,000 hectares of coral reefs and over 1,300 marine species so far identified. Rainbow Divers is the only dive-shop on the island.

Phu Quoc Island
It's rare to find an island as unspoilt and yet so bursting with possibility as Phu Quoc Island (Phú Quốc), which rises like an emerald from the waters off the south-west coast of Vietnam. Gorgeous scenery might be dime a dozen in Vietnam, but the landscapes on Phu Quoc belong to a different order of loveliness altogether. This is due to the island's isolation and low population, and its location smack bang in the middle of the sublimely beautiful Gulf of Thailand. Here you will find is solitude, and gorgeous scenery piled on in spades.

Imagine soft secluded beaches, the water a thousand different shades of turquoise. Stunning sunsets, thunderclouds heaped on the horizon. Palm trees protruding perpendicular over the gentle waves. That's Phu Quoc. Everywhere you look you'll want to take a photo.
Beaches

More than a dozen stunning beaches with a total length of 150km calm and near transparent seas, a whole armada of pristine islets massed off the southern coast. Pristine and blessedly uncrowned, the beaches are Phu Quoc's main draw card. Fishermen roam the waters at night, their lights dancing on the horizon. By day you will have the waves largely to yourself.

Coral reefs swarming with tropical fish, of every possible color and design. Phu Quoc is a Shangri-La, one of those dwindling number of locations that are truly unspoilt. But it won’t be unspoilt for long. Phu Quoc is a place where you can swim on beaches which until a few years ago were not only off the radar of foreigners; they were totally off-limits by the military authorities. You could have been arrested just for strolling on these fine sandy shores. Those days are over, but with the ending of isolation come a new urgency, the need to see this island before it is too late. The innocence of Phu Quoc will not last for long.

This article written by Lanh Nguyen from Vietnam Heritage Travel
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