Excellent, flexible and enjoyable tour by Hiem!
Our tour guide Hiem was fantastic. We chose the full private tour and were picked up from our hotel in Hanoi. We headed to the ferry terminal and quickly got on our private boat, which was huge and really comfortable for us. Immediately after setting off we were served a sumptuous array of Vietnamese food which was really delicious.
Throughout the journey we could enjoy the beautiful view of the rock formations of Ha Long Bay. We stopped by Fighting Cock and Incense Burner Islets, then visited Ba Hang floating village (not so much a village anymore, just a platform for big boats to park and for tourists to get on sampans/small boats). We got on a small boat and were brought through two caves to enjoy the brilliant scenery of Dao Go Island. After that, we visited the famous and touristy Thien Cung Cave, and we were given a choice whether to visit the second Dao Go cave. The first cave was already amazing - Hiem gave us a really good explanation of the various rock formations and the different animals / things the rocks looked like. We decided to go to the Dao Go cave and it was even better - there were 0 other tourists in the half an hour we were there, and Dao Go cave was unreal. It was HUGE and had much more impressive rock formations, and we could just take our time to admire them rather than having to care about other people around us. That was the end of the tour, and we headed back to Ha Long city, and were driven back to Hanoi. We really enjoyed the tour and especially the privacy and flexibility we were offered by Hiem. Highly recommend especially for a family or group of friends wanting to see Ha Long Bay!