3 Best Sights in Halong Bay and North-Central Vietnam, Vietnam

Shady and green, this park is the site of early morning tai chi classes and nighttime strolls, where locals sit at sidewalk stalls drinking fruit shakes and eating sweets and roller skaters zoom by. Near the southwestern edge stands a massive statue of local heroine Le Chan, and there's a colorful daily Flower Market. Kids enjoy the playground and amusement rides in the attached Children's Park.

This giant theme park has taken over much of Halong City bay and runs a cable car over the ocean next to the Bai Chay bridge. There are two main areas to the park: a beach water park and the Mystic Mountain complex, which includes the large Ferris wheel you can see from the boats. Tickets for the cable car and sun wheel are 300,000d.

Van Long offers shorter boat rides than both Tam Coc and Trang An (they only take an hour or so), but they're far more secluded and serene. This wetland reserve has 32 grottoes and 39 animal species, including rare monkeys and birds. In the dry season, Van Long is the wintering place of migratory birds from the north, making this a great spot to bring those binoculars.