By Mr. Phoenix – Hoang Anh Nguyen, Cat Ba Nomad · Last updated 1 September 2026 · Written on Cat Ba Island

Beyond the beaches next to town, Cat Ba’s best stretches of sand are the ones you can only reach by boat or kayak. Here’s where to find them.

Cat Co 1, 2 and 3 compared

Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 3 are the two most developed beaches, both within easy walking or a short ride from Cat Ba Town, with sun loungers, beachside restaurants and the most facilities. Cat Co 3 tends to be slightly quieter than Cat Co 1. Cat Co 2 sits between them and is mostly private resort frontage, less useful if you’re not staying there. For most visitors, Cat Co 1 or 3 covers what you need, close, easy, and pleasant enough for a swim and a few hours in the sun.

Monkey Island beach

A short boat ride from the harbor, Monkey Island (Cat Dua) has a genuinely nice small beach and, as the name suggests, a resident troop of monkeys that will absolutely try to take food out of your bag if you leave it open. It’s a common half-day trip on its own or combined with a boat tour through the bay.

The hidden beaches you can only reach by boat or kayak

The beaches most people remember from a Cat Ba trip aren’t the ones next to town, they’re the small pocket beaches tucked between limestone cliffs inside Lan Ha Bay, only reachable by boat or kayak, often with nobody else on them. These are the beaches we build our kayaking and cruise tours around, since they’re genuinely difficult to find on your own without local knowledge of the bay.

Best time of day to go

Mornings before around 10am are calmer and cooler, both in town and out in the bay. Afternoons get busier at the accessible beaches near town, especially on weekends with domestic visitors. The hidden beaches inside the bay don’t really have a bad time of day since boat traffic there is naturally limited.

If a proper beach day inside the bay, away from the crowds near town, sounds like what you’re after, that’s exactly what our kayaking and cruise tours are built around. Message us your dates.

What it actually costs

Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 3 both charge a small entrance or parking fee at the gate, this is standard for developed beaches across Vietnam and goes toward upkeep of the loungers and facilities, not a tourist markup. Monkey Island has its own small boat and entry cost bundled into whatever tour or boat you take out there. The hidden beaches inside Lan Ha Bay have no entrance fee at all since nobody runs them, your only cost is the boat or kayak to reach one. For a fuller breakdown of what a day on the water tends to cost, see our Cat Ba prices and fees guide.

Water safety at each beach

Cat Co 1 and Cat Co 3 are sheltered and generally calm, fine for casual swimming and for kids under supervision, though neither has a formal lifeguard service in the way you might expect from a resort beach, so use your own judgment rather than assuming someone’s watching. The hidden beaches inside the bay are almost always calm too, Lan Ha Bay is well protected by the surrounding karsts, but you’re swimming without any supervision at all, so this isn’t the place to test your limits if you’re not a confident swimmer. Jellyfish do turn up seasonally, mostly over the summer months, ask your boat crew or hotel on the day if they’ve seen any recently rather than relying on a blanket rule.

Which beach fits your trip

If you’re traveling with young kids and want facilities nearby, shade, food, a bathroom within reach, Cat Co 1 is the easy choice. If you want something quieter without arranging a boat, Cat Co 3 is the better version of the same idea. Couples or anyone after a proper postcard beach day should budget for a boat or kayak out to one of the hidden beaches, it’s a different experience entirely from anything reachable on foot. Budget travelers who don’t want to pay for a boat can still have a good day at Cat Co 1 or 3 for the price of the entrance fee alone.

What to bring for a beach day here

Cash, small notes if possible, since none of the hidden beaches or boat crews take cards and even Cat Co’s beachside stalls mostly prefer cash. Reef shoes or old sandals are worth packing if you’re doing a boat or kayak day, entry at the hidden beaches is sometimes over rock or coral rubble rather than clean sand, and you’ll thank yourself later. Shade is limited or nonexistent at the hidden beaches inside the bay, so reef-safe sunscreen and a hat matter more there than at Cat Co, where a few beachside restaurants offer umbrellas. A dry bag is genuinely useful if you’re kayaking, phones and cameras don’t survive an unexpected splash well.

Booking a boat to the hidden beaches

You can technically arrange a private boat yourself at the harbor, but most visitors book through a tour that already knows which pocket beaches are calm that day, since conditions and which spots are pleasant can shift with the tide and the season. A half-day kayak and beach combo is usually enough time for one or two hidden beaches plus some paddling through the karsts, a full day gives you more beaches and time to actually relax rather than spending most of it in transit.

Our honest pick

If you’ve only got time for one beach on Cat Ba and want the version most people picture when they imagine this trip, skip straight to a hidden beach inside the bay rather than settling for Cat Co because it’s closer. The extra effort of a boat or kayak is small compared to the difference in the actual beach you end up on.

Related Reading

• Tour: Lan Ha Bay Kayaking
• Tour: Ha Long Bay Day Cruise from Cat Ba
• Best Sunset and Photo Spots on Cat Ba Island

Common questions