Halong Bay and Cat Ba island

Halong Bay is definitely nice: the islands, the caves, the floating villages... but it's also very touristy. We spent 1 night on Cat Ba island which is the largest island of the bay and was less crowded because most tourists sleep on boats in Halong Bay. Cat Ba island is very nice, there is a national park in the middle (which we didn't have time to visit), a cute harbour with colorful boats and a floating village and 3 nice and almost empty beaches. The island gets more crowded on week-ends when Vietnamese from Hanoi want to relax a couple of days at the beach.