Ecolodge Cat Ba

+ Nous avons passé deux jours dans ce lodge. Accueil déplorable… une croisière devait être organisée et rien ne l’était alors que nous avions une confirmation 6 semaines auparavant. Il nous est proposé une croisière de une journée ( avec une nuit de plus au lodge…) en prétextant qu’il n’y avait plus de place pour les croisières avec nuit sur le bateau. Ce qui est faux car nous avons trouvé deux agences à Cat Ba où il y avait de la place… Repas presque imposé un soir avec le personnel. Ce qui était très sympa… repas vendu hors de prix… Le lodge est très loin de tout, piscine sale, petit déjeuner quelconque… on a le sentiment que le lieu est à l’abandon, ou/et que quelqu’un cherche à gagner de l’argent sur votre dos. Le clou : j’ai oublié mes AirPods dans le lit… la géolocalisation indiquait qu’ils se trouvaient a 2 km du lodge dans une toute petite rue… et là explications sans fin avec le directeur de l’hôtel…

- J’ai payé deux fois

- Hartes Bett auf Bodenhöhe. Abfluss der Dusche liegt zu hoch deshalb steht das Bad konstant unter Wasser. Fenster und Türen schließen nicht komplett. Es kommt fast kein Wasser aus dem Wasserhahn des Waschbeckens.

+ Super vriendelijk personeel! Veel humor en je voelt je er echt thuis. Bij alles wat je wilt, wordt meegedacht.

- De hut is verouderd. Weinig onderhoud geweest de laatste jaren. Na het douchen is alles nat inclusief het toilet. Eten is niet bijzonder, neem de tijd en heb geen haast. De prijs/kwaliteit verhouding klopt naar ons mening echt niet.

+ Not much

- Information on the website was misleading. It wasn’t 4 star. It was isolated, rundown and no activities. Once you’re there, there’s nothing to do. No hiking trails as expected

+ The location was lovely. Staff were friendly and the local staff worked hard

- - First impressions: On arrival, we were told that one of the dogs might bite which was quite concerning, especially as the dogs were off the lead, and allowed to go everywhere including the restaurant - The website said all staff hail from the island, but the woman who greeted us (and was not local) was pleasant but had very limited knowledge of the area. She said she had never been to the National Park for example, so wasn't able to tell us much about it - While the local staff made an effort when asked, and were friendly, service was never pro-active, and staff didn't appear to be trained. Sometimes they weren't present when they should have been. We felt however, that this was probably down to the owners and poor management - There was very little food available on site, and on our first evening we were told most food (main meals) had to be ordered in advance so supplies could be purchased - On more than one occasion, things we had ordered in advance didn't turn up eg a papaya salad for one meal and fresh mango for breakfast -The whole site felt uncared for and poorly maintained, and not very clean. For example, there was rubbish on the ground and 3 dog turds outside our accommodation; the outside table was dirty; and our window was broken _ 'Buttterfly Valley' which was presented as a local walk from the lodge, was inaccessible (the path was completely overgrown after a short distance) and strewn with litter - The description implied this was in an idyllic location, and while it was in a beautiful setting, it felt isolated, lonely, shabby and unloved. With all the problems we therefore found ourselves having to pay to travel 8 kilimetres into town, for example to go out for meals, which completely defeated the object of going to soemwhere described as a perfect getaway

+ Gentilezza del personale

- Stanza spoglie, scarsa pulizia del bagno, un solo asciugamano in tutta la stanza, tesso con legno rotto in alcuni punti: nell’insieme aspetto non curato. Idem per il giardino

+ Peaceful and quiet spot. Had all the necessities, could use some updates. One young man was very helpful- brought us duvets when it was a cold night and helped the best he could.

- Had bugs in our room which resulted in them getting on our clothes. We told the staff and nothing was done. They even tried charging for our laundry to get the bugs out right after we had just cleaned them. The lady said the laundry would be done in the morning after dropping it off more than 24 hours before. Check out was at 11am and we still hadn’t received it. The lady and she said it would be done in a couple minutes. When we got the laundry at 12pm had to put it in our bags outside and some of it was still wet. Overall not impressed. Food took over an hour to get to us after ordering. One night, we had been waiting for 1 hour 15 mins for our food. All while the staff was eating freshly cooked meals. Had to ask when our food was coming to get it. We had also asked for our room to be cleaned while we were out for the day, and came back to it not done.

+ El entorno natural y la habitación.

- Buscábamos la tranquilidad que uno espera al alojarse en medio de la naturaleza, y nos encontramos con el alojamiento con más ruido de todo Vietnam. Han puesto un lugar donde celebran bodas al lado del Lodge, y nosotros tuvimos la “suerte” de encontrarnos con dos. El día que llegamos, estuvieron cantando en el karaoke con micrófono a todo volumen hasta las 10 de la noche, y por la mañana pusieron música de nuevo a las 6 de la mañana, porque estaban preparando otra boda. El dueño no tuvo ningún gesto hacia la situación que vivimos. Así que pagamos más que en cualquier otro hotel de Vietnam y nos encontramos con la peor situación de tranquilidad. El desayuno muy justo.

+ Location is in a stunning valley. We hiked on a overgrown path to the nearby Butterfly valley which was beautiful. Staff very friendly

- The standard of the room we received (not the room booked, but apparently an upgrade…) did not meet our expectation - although it had a very nice view, it was tiny, very basic, and unfortunately we had ants in our room which meant we couldn’t leave the door open (despite screen) for ventilation. Very uncomfortable. The location is also far away from everything and therefore renting a scooter or using taxis is necessary. We decided to check out early. The owner did refund the remaining nights.

+ Sehr zuvorkommendes Personal. Gute Küche mit Homedinner. Wandern möglich, Fahrräder/ Motorbikes vor Ort. Lage sehr ruhig

- Abgelegen. Über Feldweg ca 20‘ zu Fuß von Haltestelle. Komfort eher gering, doch alles vorhanden

+ Location is in a stunning valley. We hiked on a overgrown path to the nearby Butterfly valley which was beautiful. Staff very friendly

- The standard of the room we received (not the room booked, but apparently an upgrade…) did not meet our expectation - although it had a very nice view, it was tiny, very basic, and unfortunately we had ants in our room which meant we couldn’t leave the door open (despite screen) for ventilation. Very uncomfortable. The location is also far away from everything and therefore renting a scooter or using taxis is necessary. We decided to check out early. The owner did refund the remaining nights.

+ The rooms were very big, the bed comfortable and it feels lovely and quiet at night. The food in the lodge and on the boat trip they offered was good and plenty.

- This place is better equipped for tour groups than for individual travellers and the attention goes to catering for the groups. We also booked a 2 day one night cruise through them as the lodge seems to be run or overseen by a travel company formerly called insider travel, now it’s sunlight tours. It was OK but not the standard expected for the price. The room on the boat was very clean, but falling apart a bit, like the rest of the boat, i.e. handrails not fixed. We had trouble getting to the lodge as no one helped to give us directions and we ended up paying a lot for a taxi that was ordered to get us.

+ The setting was great, so long as you don’t mind being remote. This is made pretty clear in the booking details though. They will book a car to collect you from the main road, free of charge.

- The staff didn’t seem particularly experienced, they struggled to book us a trip and tried to offer us alternative trips, despite us telling them the boat trip was what we wanted. The bathroom also started leaking on the last night of our stay. Thankfully all the other rooms were empty, so we just moved into one of them. When we told them what time we wanted breakfast for, it was never ready then.

+ The location was lovely. Staff were friendly and the local staff worked hard

- - First impressions: On arrival, we were told that one of the dogs might bite which was quite concerning, especially as the dogs were off the lead, and allowed to go everywhere including the restaurant - The website said all staff hail from the island, but the woman who greeted us (and was not local) was pleasant but had very limited knowledge of the area. She said she had never been to the National Park for example, so wasn't able to tell us much about it - While the local staff made an effort when asked, and were friendly, service was never pro-active, and staff didn't appear to be trained. Sometimes they weren't present when they should have been. We felt however, that this was probably down to the owners and poor management - There was very little food available on site, and on our first evening we were told most food (main meals) had to be ordered in advance so supplies could be purchased - On more than one occasion, things we had ordered in advance didn't turn up eg a papaya salad for one meal and fresh mango for breakfast -The whole site felt uncared for and poorly maintained, and not very clean. For example, there was rubbish on the ground and 3 dog turds outside our accommodation; the outside table was dirty; and our window was broken _ 'Buttterfly Valley' which was presented as a local walk from the lodge, was inaccessible (the path was completely overgrown after a short distance) and strewn with litter - The description implied this was in an idyllic location, and while it was in a beautiful setting, it felt isolated, lonely, shabby and unloved. With all the problems we therefore found ourselves having to pay to travel 8 kilimetres into town, for example to go out for meals, which completely defeated the object of going to soemwhere described as a perfect getaway

+ The location is very serve and CG is an amazing host. Even though it was away from the main areas of cat ba, getting to and from was never an issue. Totally worth the peaceful environment if that's what you're looking for!

+ Schönes Zimmer, in einem Tal gelegen, sehr ruhig. Nettes Personal, insbesondere die Volunteer Lima aus Südafrika. Der Manager ist ebenfalls sehr bemüht und freundlich. Sehr abgelegen, aber man kann Roller mieten & so in die Hauptorte gelangen. Hat für uns gepasst, muss man aber mögen.

- Es hat ein paar sehr nette Hunde dort & einer der Angestellten hat zum Spass einen kleinen Hund in einen Ameisenhaufen gesetzt und das Ganze gefilmt. Schlimm, solche Tierquälerei sollte strikt unterbunden werden (ist evtl noch geschehen nach unserer Abreise, wissen wir nicht).

+ La antención del personal y el entorno son excelentes.

+ Stunning location, cheap motorcycle hire

+ Libila se mi lokalita, uprostřed přírody a klid a ticho.

- Snídaně byly chudé.

+ Very comfortable accommodation in a beautiful and quiet nature area

+ Es sieht in Wirklichkeit noch schöner aus als auf den Fotos.

+ La situation dans la nature

- Rien, tout était bien.

+ Gentilezza del personale

- Stanza spoglie, scarsa pulizia del bagno, un solo asciugamano in tutta la stanza, tesso con legno rotto in alcuni punti: nell’insieme aspetto non curato. Idem per il giardino