Cruise Port Guide
Chan May Cruise Port Guide 2026/2027: Hue, Da Nang or Hoi An?
Where your ship actually docks, the real drive times to Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An, and the port’s own 2026/27 schedule.
Chan May is a working cargo port between Hue and Da Nang with nothing to do at the gate: every destination is a drive. Hue is 60–65 km north (1 hr 20–1 hr 30 each way), Da Nang 45–55 km south (about 1 hr), Hoi An about 76 km south (1 hr 40–2 hrs). Ships dock alongside, not by tender. Pick one direction and plan it backwards from your all-aboard time.
Last checked: September 2026.
Table of Contents
I have lost count of the guests who learnt the name of this port only on the morning their ship docked there. Their itinerary said Da Nang, or it said Hue; more than once I have opened the cruise line’s app with a guest to work out where they actually were. The ship docks at neither city. It docks at Chan May, a working cargo port on a quiet stretch of coast roughly halfway between the two, with a wooded hillside behind it and no town attached to it.
That is not a problem with the port — but it does shape your whole day. You cannot step off the ship and simply be somewhere: you have to pick a direction first, and that choice decides what kind of day you get.
This guide is about making that choice with real numbers in front of you.
How far is Chan May Port from Hue, Da Nang and Hoi An?
Chan May Port is 60 to 65 km from Hue, 45 to 55 km from Da Nang and about 76 km from Hoi An, so every destination is a drive:
- Chan May Port to Hue Imperial City — 60 to 65 km north, 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30 each way on National Road 1A.
- Chan May Port to Da Nang city centre — 45 to 55 km south, about an hour through the Hai Van tunnel.
- Chan May Port to Hoi An Ancient Town — about 76 km south, 1 hr 40 to 2 hrs each way.
- Chan May Port to Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge — 48 km, about an hour.
- Chan May Port to Lang Co and Lap An Lagoon — 18 km, about thirty minutes.
Taking the Hai Van Pass instead of the tunnel adds about thirty minutes. There is no train, no scheduled bus and nothing within walking distance, so your transport has to be arranged before you dock.
Where do cruise ships dock at Chan May Port?
Ships tie up at the quay itself. Chan May is not a tender port — you walk off down the gangway when your ship is cleared, rather than transferring ashore by small boat. The quay is long enough and the water deep enough for the largest ships that call here — Spectrum of the Seas, at 348 metres, among them — so this is true whatever ship you are on.
The port has two gates. The Internal Gate is about 200 metres from the gangway — a flat three-minute walk — and only tour operators holding the port’s written permission may collect guests there. From the gangway to the External Gate, where taxis and unpermitted drivers wait, is a flat, paved walk of about 750 metres — ten to fifteen minutes, depending on your pace — and vehicles wait at the gates. In the years I guided for other companies, the question I heard most on that stretch was some version of: why could you not come in and collect me? The short answer: where a vehicle may wait inside this port is decided by the port and the border guard, not by the tour company — whatever a listing may say.
Two things about that walk are worth knowing before you sail. You share the road with lorries and coaches. And there is no cover and no trees along it, so I ask guests to bring a wide-brimmed hat in the hot months and a light waterproof from October. That is not a fussy suggestion here: most of the guests I meet at this port are older, and 750 metres in the September sun feels much longer than it sounds.
What is near Chan May Port?
Almost nothing is near Chan May Port. There is no cruise terminal building, no ATM, no public Wi-Fi and no town within walking distance of the gate. What there is, along the quay as you walk off, is a short row of stalls selling drinks, snacks, breakfast and coffee — and that is the extent of it.
The nearest stop that repays the drive is Lang Co beach and Lap An Lagoon, thirty minutes each way. Everything else people come to central Vietnam for is an hour or more: Da Nang, Ba Na Hills, Hue, Hoi An. Wherever you choose, it is a drive, not a stroll — and that is why this guide exists. All the distances and drive times are in one table a little further down.
Where is Chan May Port?
Chan May Port is in Phu Loc, Hue province, on the coast just south of Lang Co, with a wooded headland behind it. It sits between the two cities your itinerary may have named — Hue and Da Nang — and National Road 1A and the Hai Van tunnel connect it to both.
Da Nang also has its own cruise port at Tien Sa, out on the Son Tra peninsula — a different port on the far side of the city, and people mix the two up all the time. The distances table below covers Tien Sa alongside every other drive from this port.
Things to do at Chan May Port itself
When a guest asks me straight out — is there anything to do at this port? — the answer I give is no. The port sits away from any town and away from anything worth visiting; it is a commercial port handling timber chips, containers and bulk cargo, and passenger handling is set up temporarily for each call and taken down again afterwards. Once your ship is at Chan May, the day means driving: north to Hue and the monuments of the Nguyen dynasty, or south towards Da Nang and Hoi An.
If your call is too short for the cities — three or four hours ashore, say — the outings that still fit are Lang Co beach and Lap An Lagoon, with the Hai Van Pass just beyond them when the sky is clear.
Distances and realistic travel times
| From Chan May Port to | Distance | Realistic drive time, one way | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hue Imperial City | 60–65 km | 1 hr 20 – 1 hr 30 | north on National Road 1A |
| Da Nang city centre | 45–55 km | about 1 hr | south through the Hai Van tunnel |
| Hoi An Ancient Town | ~76 km | 1 hr 40 – 2 hrs | south, past Da Nang |
| Ba Na Hills / Golden Bridge | 48 km | about 1 hr | the road turns inland before the city |
| Lang Co / Lap An Lagoon | ~18 km | about 30 min | the only genuinely short outing |
| Tien Sa cruise port, Da Nang | 51 km | 1 hr 20 | through the city, out to Son Tra |
| Hai Van Pass instead of the tunnel | — | add about 30 min | scenery in exchange for time |
Two things this table does not show. The first is that some listings advertise Hue as “one hour from the port”. It is not, in normal conditions — and if you plan your return around that number, you will spend the late afternoon anxious in the back of a car. The second is that the Hai Van Pass occasionally backs up, so if your route uses the pass rather than the tunnel, allow at least the extra thirty minutes — sometimes more.
And look at Tien Sa and Ba Na together for a moment. Tien Sa is 51 km away but takes 1 hr 20, because the road runs through the city. Ba Na is 48 km and takes only about an hour. Kilometres tell you very little here — the road decides.
Hue, Da Nang or Hoi An from Chan May Port?
When a couple asks me — and it is usually a couple — we have one day — which way should we go? — I answer with questions of my own. The right direction depends on what you care about, not on any ranking. Hue is history: a dynasty, its architecture, the culture underneath both. Da Nang is the opposite — newer, brighter, built for photographs and an easy afternoon. Hoi An is an old merchant town you walk through at your own pace, with lunch in the middle of it.
Chan May Port to Hue: the imperial capital
Hue was the seat of the Nguyen dynasty from 1802 to 1945, and it is the reason this stretch of coast has a heritage road running through it at all. The Imperial City, the royal tombs along the Perfume River, Thien Mu Pagoda: these are not just photo stops. They are what is left of a royal court, and they come alive when somebody explains them.
That is also the warning about Hue. With a good explanation, it gives you more than any other direction from this port. Without one, walls and courtyards are just walls and courtyards.
Physically, Hue is easier than people expect. The Imperial City involves the most walking of the three directions, but the ground is level and there is real shade inside the walls. If covering the whole complex on foot is a concern, there is an electric buggy service within the Citadel. It runs set circuits — forty-five minutes, an hour, or an hour and a half, matched to the stops inside — and for guests whose walking is limited it protects both the visit and the time back to the ship. It costs extra and, more importantly, it has to be booked ahead, so say so when you arrange your day rather than on the morning itself.
The one place steps become unavoidable is the tomb of Khai Dinh: 127 steps in five tiers, with no way around them. When I meet a guest at Chan May and can see the walking will be hard, I raise it there and then — not at the foot of the staircase. Khai Dinh is not the tomb for that day, and we swap it for Tu Duc or Minh Mang: both are flatter and both sit under mature trees, which matters a great deal in this climate. I also say plainly that we will move more slowly and see fewer places. What I promise instead is that everything we do see will be explained properly, and that the day is built around your comfort, not around a checklist.
How do I get from Chan May Port to Hue Imperial City?
By road, and only by road. There is no train from the port, no scheduled bus, and no ride-hailing coverage you can rely on at the gate. In practice you have three options: your cruise line’s own coach excursion, which is arranged for you; a private car or guided tour booked in advance; or a deal negotiated on the day with a driver waiting outside the main gate, at a price that is not fixed. Allow the full 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30 each way, and build your return around your all-aboard time.
One distinction is worth making before you compare anything. Roughly seven in ten half-day listings sold for this port provide an English-speaking driver: transport to the gate of a site, and a wait in the car park. A licensed native guide, not a driver, holds a national guide card, comes inside the Citadel with you, and grew up here. An English-speaking driver is exactly that: someone who drives and speaks English. He is not trained to walk into the Citadel with you and explain what you are looking at. On the Hue direction, that is the difference between seeing the walls and understanding them. On the Hoi An direction it matters far less — and we say so again further down.
→ What that day actually looks like, from the gate at 07:30 to the gate at 15:15: a Hue shore excursion from Chan May, hour by hour.
→ The version where somebody explains what you are looking at: a guided full day tour in Hue. Prefer to compare all the options first? See every day we run from this port.
Chan May Port to Da Nang: the modern city
Da Nang is the shortest drive, which leaves the largest margin if your call is a short one.
It is also the most contemporary of the three: new bridges, a long beach at My Khe, seafood restaurants, and the limestone outcrops of the Marble Mountains. This is modern Vietnam rather than historic Vietnam, and for guests who have already seen the heritage sites on an earlier trip, it is often the right answer.
Two practical notes. The Marble Mountains have a lift, but the lift does not remove the steps. Most visitors come for Am Phu Cave, and reaching it means going down a fairly steep flight of steps, then climbing back up roughly as many from the other side.
If knees are a consideration, the easier substitute is the Linh Ung Pagoda on the Son Tra peninsula. A small thing worth knowing: Da Nang has three pagodas of that name — at Son Tra, at the Marble Mountains and at Ba Na — which is a common source of confusion when people compare itineraries. In my experience guests do not mix the three up; they simply never knew there were three until somebody says so in the vehicle. The Son Tra one is the least demanding to reach and it has the view over the bay.
Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge sit in this direction but not beyond Da Nang: the road turns inland before the city, which is why the drive — about an hour to the car park — is shorter than people expect. Between the cable car and the site itself, this fills a day on its own rather than fitting alongside the city.
Chan May Port to Hoi An: the walkable old town
Hoi An is the longest drive and the easiest destination on foot once you are there.
The old town is a compact grid of merchant houses, an assembly hall or two, the Japanese covered bridge, tailors, lanterns and a great deal of food. Walking is moderate. Vehicles cannot enter the core, so you are dropped at the edge and you walk in — and that is exactly why the town is so pleasant.
Here is the part we would rather you knew: Hoi An does not need a guide the way Hue does. It is a town you can read by walking through it. If your instinct is to be left alone with a map and a coffee, this is the direction that rewards that instinct, and saying otherwise would be selling you something you do not need.
What I will add, after years of walking guests in: on a port call, what you are short of in Hoi An is not explanation — it is time. What eats your two or three hours is searching: for the right lanes, the right old house, a good lunch. So whoever brings you, ask to be dropped at the right edge and pointed towards the right places before you are left to wander. Then spend your hours enjoying the town, not looking for it.
One thing worth knowing before you walk in. The tailors and the lantern makers are not a show put on for visitors. These are the trades the town was built on, still run by the same families; the old shophouses have simply changed what they sell. Hoi An is not a museum town. It is a working town that kept its buildings.
The route south also passes Lap An Lagoon and, if you take the pass rather than the tunnel, the Hai Van Pass itself — a 21 km climb with the coast opening up below. On a clear day you see Da Nang and its bay on one side of the summit and the Lang Co coast on the other, and it is a fine place to stop for ten minutes. In rain or sea fog there is nothing to see, and the tunnel is the right call. That is the trade in the table above: about thirty minutes longer, in exchange for coastline you never see from inside the tunnel.
→ The full-day version of this drive: Hoi An via the Hai Van Pass. Prefer to compare all the options first? See every day we run from this port.
Can you visit both Hue and Hoi An in one day from Chan May?
No, not sensibly. Hue and Hoi An lie in opposite directions from Chan May Port: Hue is 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30 north, Hoi An is 1 hr 40 to 2 hrs south. Doing both puts the best part of seven hours behind the windscreen, out of a port call that typically runs eight or nine hours — before anybody gets out of the vehicle, and before any margin for getting back to the ship.
Take out the driving and a sensible safety margin, and what is left is not two cities. It is two car parks.
I have had guests ask for both, and I understand why: on the map the two look like neighbours. But once we count the driving out loud — nearly seven hours of it — the idea answers itself. Pick one direction and do it properly. You will see less of central Vietnam and remember more of it.
If you are choosing between the two cities for a longer stay rather than a port call, that is a different question — see Hue vs Hoi An: which should you visit?.
Hue, Da Nang or Hoi An: which to choose from Chan May Port
| Traveller | Best direction from Chan May Port | Why |
|---|---|---|
| First-time visitor drawn to history | Hue | the Nguyen court is the deepest thing within reach of this port, and it needs explaining to become anything |
| After food, shopping, photographs and free time | Hoi An | a town you can read on foot, no interpretation required |
| On a short call, or has seen the heritage sites before | Da Nang | shortest drive, largest timing margin, contemporary rather than historic |
| Steps are the problem, not distance | Hue, with two adjustments | the Citadel is level and shaded, and there is a buggy if you book it ahead; the only real climb is Khai Dinh’s 127 steps, and Tu Duc or Minh Mang replaces it — provided the hours are there; if not, see the row below |
| Steps are the problem and the hours are tight | Da Nang, Son Tra | Linh Ung Pagoda at Son Tra asks least of you, and the drive back is the shortest; the Marble Mountains have a lift but still have the steps |
| Cannot manage a long walk at all | Da Nang, Son Tra | the shortest drive and the least ground covered on foot at the far end |
| Family with teenagers | Hoi An | they can be let off the leash; the old town is small enough to be safe and busy enough to be interesting |
| Not sure how many hours you have | work out your hours ashore first | a full day needs roughly six to seven hours ashore in any direction; below that, the shorter drives hold up best |
Chan May cruise port schedule 2026/2027
Ships scheduled to call at Chan May Port in 2026 include Adora Magic City, Adora Flora City, Odyssey, Dream, Royal Princess, Viking Sea, Viking Orion, Navigator of the Seas, Celebrity Millennium, Spectrum of the Seas, Diamond Princess, Sapphire Princess, Silver Muse, Regatta, Celebrity Solstice and Norwegian Jade. The table below is checked against the port authority’s own published operating plan rather than copied from a travel site, and we re-check it monthly.
Table last checked against the port’s plan on 4 September 2026.
One thing to understand before you read it: Chan May publishes departure times, not arrival times. The hour shown is when your ship is scheduled to leave the berth. Your arrival time comes from your cruise line, and your all-aboard time is earlier again — usually by thirty to sixty minutes.
| Date | Ship | Scheduled departure |
|---|---|---|
| 10–11 Sep 2026 | Odyssey | 19:00 |
| 14 Sep 2026 | Adora Magic City | 23:00 |
| 22 Sep 2026 | Dream | 15:00 |
| 4 Oct 2026 | Dream | 21:00 |
| 10 Oct 2026 | Dream | 21:00 |
| 13 Oct 2026 | Royal Princess | 17:00 |
| 17 Oct 2026 | Viking Sea | 18:00 |
| 18 Oct 2026 | Dream | 21:00 |
| 26 Oct 2026 | Navigator of the Seas | 19:00 |
| 3 Nov 2026 | Dream | 21:00 |
| 4 Nov 2026 | Viking Orion | 18:30 |
| 17 Nov 2026 | Celebrity Millennium | 18:00 |
| 18 Nov 2026 | Spectrum of the Seas | 19:00 |
| 25 Nov 2026 | Adora Magic City | 20:00 |
| 5 Dec 2026 | Diamond Princess | 17:00 |
| 7 Dec 2026 | Adora Flora City | 20:00 |
| 16 Dec 2026 | Diamond Princess | 17:00 |
| 21 Dec 2026 | Sapphire Princess | 19:00 |
| 26 Dec 2026 | Silver Muse | 23:00 |
| 27 Dec 2026 | Regatta | 20:00 ※ |
| 27 Dec 2026 | Celebrity Solstice | 18:00 |
| 30 Dec 2026 | Norwegian Jade | 15:30 |
※ Regatta, 27 December: this call currently appears on both the Chan May and the Da Nang (Tien Sa) schedules, and neither port has withdrawn it. If you are sailing on this ship, ask your cruise line which port you are actually docking at.
Why the table stops at 31 December. Chan May publishes its operating plan to the end of the current calendar year only, so the 2027 calls are not public yet. Anywhere showing you a firm 2027 Chan May list today is not working from the port’s own figures. We re-check the page monthly and add the 2027 dates here as the port releases them.
A worked example, because the table alone will not tell you what you have. Say your ship is scheduled out at 19:00 and your cruise line’s itinerary shows you arriving at 08:00. All-aboard will be around 18:00 to 18:30 — your daily programme will confirm it. That gives you roughly ten hours between the gangway and all-aboard, comfortably more than a full day needs. Take off the round trip — two and a half to three hours of driving — and a safety margin for the road, and the day works. Do the same sums for a ship leaving at 15:30 and you get a very different day.
Two dates on the list are worth noticing early. 27 December brings two ships in at once, so guides and vehicles across the province are booked out sooner than usual. And 30 December is the shortest call of the season.
Short calls: when a full day will not fit
A full day ashore — in any direction — needs roughly six to seven hours between the gangway and all-aboard, not to the ship’s published departure time. Below that, the long drives are the first to stop making sense: Da Nang still works on hours that no longer fit Hue or Hoi An, because so much less of the day goes to the road.
To work out what you have: take your arrival time from your cruise line’s itinerary, subtract thirty to sixty minutes from the departure time to get all-aboard, then subtract the round-trip drive for the direction you want. If the answer comes out short, write to us on WhatsApp or by email. There is usually a version of the day that still works — shorter than the full one, but real. Finding it for you is exactly our job.
Your ship’s daily programme is the document that settles all of this — it carries your berthing time and your all-aboard time in one place, and it is more current than any schedule published in advance. Send us your ship and your date and we will work the arithmetic through with you.
What the weather actually does
The best cruise months here and the most demanding weather months are the same months. August and September are about heat; October to December is about rain.
Heat is the one people underestimate. Humidity sits around 81 to 84 per cent in September, and that is what catches visitors out — not the temperature on its own, but that nothing dries and nothing cools. That is why the shade and the buggy inside the Citadel matter so much, why a wide-brimmed hat beats a cap, and why on a September day I add more stops than the itinerary strictly needs.
Rain is easier to plan around. For the month-by-month picture, see our best time to visit Hue. Hue gets more of it than Da Nang, which is a real factor in choosing a direction late in the year — but how much more varies from year to year, and we are not going to pretend to know exactly. What we would ask is that you do not cancel the day over it. A royal tomb is not one building but a walled compound of a dozen, and inside the Citadel there is nearly always a roof close by. A wet day works when somebody has prepared for it: while the worst of a downpour passes overhead, you are standing under a pavilion roof listening to the stories. When a guest writes a week out — the forecast says rain all day, should we cancel? — I always say the same thing: cancelling is the real loss. You may only come this way once; the sites have their own shelter and we bring the rest. Pack a light waterproof rather than a folding umbrella — umbrellas and old stone steps are a bad combination.
Either season, the vehicle does some of the work: air-conditioned throughout, low enough to step into rather than climb into, cold water and cold towels aboard in the hot months, ponchos from October, and a service stop on the long legs whenever you want one.
Timing your day around all-aboard
Your ship’s departure time is not your deadline. All-aboard is your deadline, and it is typically thirty to sixty minutes earlier. Every calculation in this guide should be measured against it.
Guests who have sailed before know this already. The first thing I hear as the vehicle pulls away is almost always some form of do you know what time we must be back? — and when a guest does not ask, I ask them, because the whole day is planned backwards from that number.
For our own excursions we build in a seventy-five-minute buffer before all-aboard. Why seventy-five and not thirty? I tell guests at least an hour; seventy-five is the margin I trust completely — with it, we have never once brought a guest back late. We also publish the order in which we drop stops if the day runs behind, so that the decision is not made in a panic on the road. One example: on a Hue day, the Imperial City is the last thing we would ever cut, because it is the one place that holds the history, the architecture and the court in a single visit.
Whatever you book, and with whomever, ask this one question: what buffer do you build in, and what do you cut first? An operator who can answer that has actually planned your day. One who only says “back to ship guaranteed” has only planned the slogan.
Frequently asked questions
Where do cruise ships dock in Chan May?
Alongside, at the wharf itself. Chan May is not a tender port, so you walk off down the gangway at whatever time your ship clears. The port has two gates. The Internal Gate is about 200 metres from the gangway — a flat three-minute walk — and licensed tour operators with the port’s written permission may wait for their guests there. The External Gate is about 750 metres out — ten to fifteen minutes on foot — and that is where taxis and operators without a port permit wait.
Is there a cruise terminal at Chan May Port?
There is no cruise terminal building yet. Chan May serves two purposes — it is a working cargo port and a cruise gateway for central Vietnam — but passenger handling is still set up temporarily for each call and taken down again afterwards, and investment in proper cruise facilities is planned for the years ahead. For now, what people mean by “Chan May cruise terminal” is the wharf plus a temporary gate area — a row of simple stalls selling drinks, snacks and coffee, with no ATM and no public Wi-Fi.
Is there anything to do at Chan May Port itself?
Almost nothing. A few stalls by the wharf sell drinks and coffee; beyond that the port exists for cargo, and there is no town within walking distance of the gate. Everything you would want to see is between thirty minutes and two hours away by road, which is why the choice of direction matters so much.
Is Chan May the same as Da Nang cruise port?
No. Many cruise lines list this call as “Da Nang” or “Hue”, but Da Nang has its own cruise port at Tien Sa on the Son Tra peninsula — 51 km from Chan May and 1 hr 20 by road. If your itinerary says Da Nang, check which port you are actually berthing at.
How far is Hue from Chan May Port?
60 to 65 km, which is 1 hr 20 to 1 hr 30 by road each way in normal conditions. Some listings advertise an hour; that is optimistic, and planning your return around it is a mistake.
How far is it from Chan May to Hoi An?
About 76 km south, taking 1 hr 40 to 2 hrs each way. The route passes Da Nang. Taking the Hai Van Pass rather than the tunnel adds roughly thirty minutes and a 21 km climb with the coast open below you.
How far is Chan May from Da Nang?
45 to 55 km to the city centre, roughly an hour through the Hai Van tunnel. It is the shortest of the three drives, which is why Da Nang suits short port calls.
How far is Chan May Port from Ba Na Hills and the Golden Bridge?
48 km, about an hour each way to the car park. The road turns inland before Da Nang, so it is shorter than people expect — but between the cable car and the site itself it fills a day on its own rather than fitting alongside the city.
Can I visit both Hue and Hoi An in one day from Chan May?
Not sensibly. They lie in opposite directions from the port, and doing both would put the best part of seven hours behind the windscreen in a day that typically runs eight or nine hours. Choose one.
Do cruise ships have free shuttles from Chan May Port to a train station or city?
No. The port runs no shuttle of its own, and there is no train station, scheduled bus or taxi rank there. Any shuttle is your cruise line’s own, arranged ship by ship, and where one runs it generally goes no further than the gate — the nearest town is 18 km away. Do not plan your day around a shuttle the ship has not confirmed to you in writing.
Five ways to spend the day from Chan May
We are Vietnam Legacy Tours, based in Hue. From Chan May we run five fixed-route days, sold only on this website, because the question this guide asks has more than two right answers:
- Chan May to Hue Shore Excursion — a full day in Hue with a licensed native guide from the gangway back.
- Chan May to Hue by Private Car — driver for the day, licensed guide inside the Imperial City, one royal tomb at your own pace.
- Hue Countryside Shore Excursion: Thanh Toan & the City of Ghosts — living heritage rather than monuments: An Bang cemetery, Thanh Toan village, then the Imperial City.
- Chan May to Hoi An Shore Excursion — Hoi An first, the Hai Van Pass on the unhurried drive home.
- Chan May Port to Hoi An Private Car — straight to the old town and back, no guide, your day.
All five start and end at the port and are planned backwards from your all-aboard time. To compare them on one page, see our shore excursions from Chan May and Tien Sa.
If you have been let down by a tour company before and want to know why you should trust this one, that is a fair question and it deserves a plain answer rather than a slogan. This company was built by a guide who has worked in Vietnam — above all in this central region — since 2013. It holds an international tour-operator licence issued by Vietnam’s national tourism authority, and that licence is not just a certificate on a wall. To hold it, the company signs commitments to the state on the safety of its guests, and it must keep a substantial deposit lodged with the state — money set aside to pay guests if something goes wrong. So if we ever fail you, there is a real authority to complain to and real money already set aside to answer for it. That is what “licensed” means here, and it is worth checking with any operator before anything else.
Two things we would rather you heard from us than found out on the day. From this port we run full days only: if your call is short we will say so and point you at the shorter version, not sell you a compressed one. And on 27 December, with two ships alongside, we run out of licensed guides before we run out of vehicles — on that date the straight answer may be that we cannot take you.
Either way: message us on WhatsApp or email us at [email protected] — we answer both — and include your ship’s name and your call date. That is what lets us check your day against the port’s own schedule, and work out your hours ashore, before we quote you anything. We also set up payment around a cruise guest’s one real fear — the ship. A US$39 deposit holds the day, with no card fee. The balance is paid on the day — in Vietnamese dong at the bank rate of the day, or by secure card link — and if your ship cannot dock at all, the deposit comes straight back automatically.
If your call is short, or falls on 27 December, say so early. Those are the days worth planning first.
