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Vietnam VietnamCat Ba ArchipelagoIslandUNESCO World Heritage

Cát Bà Island

155 km² of land in the Gulf of Tonkin.

When to go

Cát Bà Island seen from space, cut out from the sea (Sentinel-2)
Cát Bà
N 2 km

Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX (CC BY 4.0). Outline and points © OpenStreetMap contributors / Natural Earth. North up.

In numbers

155km²

Area

101km

Coastline

measured on a simplified outline

322m

Highest point

18,934

People

30°C

Warmest sea

August

3km

To the mainland

When to go to Cát Bà Island

Best for the beach from October to November.

The sea is warmest in August (30 °C) and coolest in February (19 °C). Comfortable swimming (21 °C or more): from April to December.

Sea temperature (the water level) Air: night low to afternoon high Wet days Best months

Averages 1991–2020. Sea: NOAA OISST, the water within 35 km of the coast. Air, rain and sun: NASA POWER. Best months weigh warm afternoons (23–30 °C), sea of 24 °C or more and few wet days.

Island in Haiphong, Vietnam

Cát Bà Island is an island in Vietnam. It belongs to Cat Ba Archipelago. It covers 155 km², with 101 km of coastline. Its highest point rises to 322 m. About 18,934 people live on it. The nearest mainland is 3 km away. It is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Read more on Wikipedia

Getting there

  • Cat Bi International Airport (HPH)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 29 km in a straight line
  • FerriesĐình Vũ - Cát Bà, Cát Bà - Long Châu
  • 3 km from the mainlanddistance to the nearest continental coast
  • From October to Novemberbest months to go (from 30 years of averages)

Plan the trip

Ferries, stays and things to do

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

On the island

What you find on Cát Bà Island.

  • 29beachesPublic Beach Cat Co 3, Public Beach Cat Co 1, Public Beach Cat Co 2 and 26 more
  • 24viewpointsThe Forest Palace, Viewpoint and Ruins of Cannon Battlements, View on the bay and 21 more
  • 1lighthouses
  • 7ferry terminalsBen Beo, Viet Hai harbor, Cai Beo Terminal For Tourists and 4 more
  • 1marinas
  • 3named peaksNgu Lam peak, May Bau
  • 1castles and fortsCannon Fort
  • 2ruins and archaeological sitesBunker
  • 1waymarked walking routesdi Ao Ech
  • 4campsitesWoodstock Beachcamp, Camp for money and 2 more
  • 141hotels, guesthouses and apartments
  • 106restaurants, cafés and bars

Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, inside the island's outline. A low number may only mean nobody has mapped it yet.

The shape of the land.

On average the island stands 77 m above the sea. 97 % of it is below 200 m.

  • 41 %0–50 m
  • 56 %50–200 m
  • 3 %200–500 m

Share of the island's area in each altitude band, from the Copernicus DEM (30 m, read at 30–240 m on large islands).

Size, for real

Next to islands you may know.

Cát Bà Island155 km²
Malta247 km²
Santorini76 km²

10 km

All outlines drawn to the same scale (Natural Earth and OpenStreetMap).

Towns on the island

  • Cát Bà30,000 people

Month by month

The weather on the island.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Afternoon high (°C)202224283030303030282521
Night low (°C)121417202426262624211813
Sea (°C)201920232729303029282522
Rain (mm)392550691682133023382401225128
Wet days56101018232425191275
Sun h/day1.21.20.82.24.44.84.84.55.04.43.92.6
Wind (km/h)141413121212121011131314

Averages 1991–2020 for the ~55 km NASA POWER cell over the island; the sea from NOAA OISST.

Recent years

Warmer and cooler years at sea.

Each month's sea temperature compared with its 1991–2020 average, in degrees.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
2020+0.9−0.1+1.1−0.2+1.2+0.4+0.7+0.5+1.6−0.4−1.0−1.0
2021−0.7+0.1+1.3+1.3+1.5+1.0+1.2+0.6+0.8+0.9−0.2+0.3
2022+0.9−0.6+0.3+0.1−0.8+0.5+1.2+1.0+1.0+0.1+0.7−0.1
2023−0.3±0.0+1.2+0.5+0.7+1.4+1.8+0.6+0.5+1.0+1.1+1.2
2024+1.1+0.4−0.4+1.0+1.0+1.2+0.8+0.2+0.4+0.2+0.3−0.1
2025−0.4−1.6−0.5+0.1+0.5±0.0+0.7+0.7+0.5+0.9−0.3+0.6

+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual

About these numbers

Names, area, populationWikidata (Q993402) · CC0
OutlineNatural Earth · public domain
Sea temperatureNOAA OISST v2.1 · 1991–2020
ClimateNASA POWER · 1991–2020
Relief, 3D modelCopernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA
Beaches, ports, lighthouses, trails© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
TownsGeoNames · CC BY 4.0
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons

Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.

The family

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