Swan Cruise

Most of the pictures published for Swan are of Bai Tu Long rather than of Swan. When a human on our side went through the whole set, roughly three images in ten had the boat in the frame at all, and the rest were water and limestone. That matters here, because the guests who complain about this trip complain about the boat itself. One of them puts it plainly: it is not like the photographs.

Start from what it costs, because the price is honest about what it is. The cheapest cabin on the listing we read on 6 August 2026 is the deluxe at $270 for two. The suite is $290, the same suite with a balcony $320, and the connecting family room takes four at $525, which works out at $131 a head and is the cheapest way onto this boat. The per-person figure the listings advertise is $135, which is $270 halved to the dollar. That is an arithmetic artefact rather than a quoted fare, and we have not been able to corroborate it anywhere. The cabin figures come off a listing rather than an operator tariff, and they are the highest published rate rather than a starting one, so treat them as a ceiling.

What you are booking

Eighteen cabins, confirmed independently. That is small enough that the tender makes one run and the dining room seats everybody at once, which is most of the argument for a boat this size.

Four grades are published: a deluxe, a suite, the same suite with a balcony, and a connecting pair sold to families. Only one of those four lists a balcony in its amenities, so the balcony ticked at ship level belongs to a single grade and you have to ask for it by name. The jacuzzi is stranger. Sources agree the boat has one, and not one of the four cabin descriptions contains it. One photograph shows a corner jacuzzi beside a stone basin, so it is real, but it is shared or it belongs to a bathroom nobody has named. A spa is confirmed. Kayaking is confirmed, which is worth stating because it is the inclusion most often dropped between the listing and the day.

No source mentions a pool or a gym. On an eighteen-cabin boat we read that as meaning there are none, and we want to be clear that reading it is what we are doing: nobody publishes a straight answer either way.

Cabin size is a dead end and we would rather say so than pick. Two sources say 18 m² and two say 28 m², with one at 25 and one at 36. Two against two is a tie, and no honest process gets a single number out of a tie. Somewhere between 18 and 36 m², depending on a grade nobody names. Passenger capacity, deck count and hull length are all unpublished. So is any refit. The 2015 launch year and the steel hull each come from one source, and on a hull now around eleven years old the refit is the number that would actually tell you something.

The reviews you should read before booking

We collected 240 reviews and read them. Forty-four are in English. The split is 198 five-star, twenty four-star, ten three-star, six two-star and six one-star, so twelve at the bottom of the scale, five per cent, under a 9.7 average. Five per cent is not a scandal. It is also not nothing, and the low reviews here agree with each other enough to be worth twenty minutes.

Two guests, writing separately, report bed bugs. One says the bites lasted days. The other was given an embroidered souvenir by way of apology and no refund. We cannot tell you whether that was one cabin in one season or a standing problem, and we are not going to guess. It is the most repeated complaint on this boat.

Condition is the second theme, and it arrives in two languages: outdated in English, vieillissant in French. One guest in a balcony cabin found a gap where the window met the balcony door, which made the air conditioning useless and let the mosquitoes in. Several mention there is no Wi-Fi on board. The fine print half-confirms that: the listing that includes the road transfer advertises Wi-Fi on the shuttle bus and in the waiting office, and says nothing about the boat.

Three guests describe the kayaking beach as dirty, with rubbish in the water. That is Bai Tu Long as much as it is Swan, and no operator mentions it.

The three-day trip is where this boat loses people, and the reason is structural. New passengers join partway through, so day two repeats day one: kayaking again, the same cave, and an anchorage guests say was the same spot twice. Two reviews describe exactly that. A third says the second day is worth three stars against five for the first. One guest spent much of the longer trip on a smaller boat with a handful of other people and loved it, so it is not fixed. If you want two nights, ask which vessel you are on for the second one and where it sleeps.

Two guests report the overnight leg cancelled in bad weather and dispute what they were refunded afterwards. We have not seen the operator’s own cancellation terms and we are not in a position to say who was right. One guest also reports being pressed to leave a five-star review on the way back, which is worth knowing if the 9.7 is doing your deciding for you. There are harsher claims than any of these in the one-star reviews, about how the company conducts itself, and we cannot test them, so we will neither repeat them nor pretend they are absent. Read the one- and two-star reviews yourself. There are twelve.

Against all of that: the guides. Sunday, Marcus and Mike are named and praised repeatedly in the good reviews, and the pattern is a tired boat with people on it who are trying.

Route, pier and the bridge

The loop is the argument for the boat. Thien Canh Son cave, which boats visit in ones and twos rather than in fleets; the Cong Dam area of drowned karst; the floating village at Vung Vieng; and the water around Cap La. None of those names will be familiar from a search for Ha Long Bay, and that is the reason to consider this trip at all. If you have not settled on a bay yet, the comparison of the three should come before any boat.

Boarding is at the Ha Long International Cruise Port, stated by one source, so confirm it. This is the useful part: most Bai Tu Long boats leave from Hon Gai, which is over the Bai Chay bridge on the far side of the city, and Swan does not. Tuan Chau Marina is the pier drivers confuse with the international port, and the two are about twenty minutes apart. Say which one you want twice.

Included: kayaking, the guide, tai chi, a cooking class, a welcome drink, and two free bottles of cabin water. Excluded: massage, tips, a peak-season surcharge. Drinks and the road transfer are disputed, two sources saying included against three saying not, and the bay entrance fee splits evenly, so get the total in writing.

Who it suits

Second-time visitors who have already seen the main channel and want the quiet water instead, on one night rather than two, at a price that does not pretend the boat is new. Within the best-value bracket it is one of the cheapest ways into Bai Tu Long.

Who should look elsewhere

Anyone who will be looking closely at the cabin. Two bed bug reports and a chorus about maintenance is a pattern rather than an unlucky night, and the other small boats include ones with a cleaner condition record at similar money.