Sailing on The Emeraude, a 37-cabin, junk-style ship, has been a travel bucket list entry since it became the first luxury cruise ship to navigate the waters, floating villages and karst landscape of Halong Bay in northern Vietnam in 2003. Now, under new ownership with Openasia, it’s in the final stages of a three-year refurbishment.
Retaining its nostalgic exterior (polished hardwood decking, brass fittings, paddlewheel), come April this year, all cabins and their bathrooms will have been made over. En-suites will feature rain showers and mosaic work for an aesthetic that’s less old-school nautical, more high decor; while the cabins will have new beds, wall coverings and linens.
It will also be adding passage through Luon Grotto – reached by bamboo boat through a 60-metre long, four-metre wide passage into an enclosed salt-water lake, shaded by fig trees and orchids – to its already magical cruise itinerary.
The Emeraude sailing Halong Bay
The mosaic work in the deluxe cabin’s en suite
The Emeraude’s new deluxe cabin
Halong Bay, north Vietnam
by Natalie Egling
For more information and to a book a two-day, one-night cruise, visit here