Monkey Island Resort in Cat Ba Island

The Monkey Island Resort seems to have ceased to exist for a year. Our private boat dropped us off at a deserted beach that COULD be gorgeous. Unfortunately, it was completely littered, some washed up, some left behind by the groups that were brought there every day. I found it shocking because of the trash.

We went on 2nd of January 2023 to Monkey Island to check the resort and see the monkey .. surprisingly when we arrived to the resort point was nothing there, just some trash and a old order book from the hotel.. we checked if we were on the right place and tried to know what happened.. as per our boat guide the resort was shutdown because the land was brought from someone and they needed it to remove everything. Crazy that there is no information at all about it.

We arrived in what I believed was an abandoned resort. Debris and trash all over. My wife was here in 2019 and back then it was a 5 star rated brand new resort. Unfortunately the resort has not been maintained. The first clue was the fact it was empty of both guests and staff. The red flags started going up as soon as the boat started leaving. The manager tried to upsell us into the more expensive room. We discovered later that evening. No properly working bathrooms. No hot water . No water pressure and limited electricity. We stayed in the beach hut and it was full of bugs, ants and small biting variety. We tried the bug net but it was full of mold. The ants were crawling up around us. The hut was literally being eaten with termites.(see photo).The island paths are dangerous and full of trash. We asked for a boat and only stayed one night out of a 2 day reservation. The place is not recommended.

I don’t understand why people give more than 2 stars to this place. Not worth the money at all. The beach is dirty, the bathroom smells like piss (like an old public bathroom where drunk people go), no complimentary water, not even at dinner, shower gel and shampoo smells like soap to wash dishes (plus they use the same small container again and again). You can hear rats battling between the woods of the bangalow. That’s no joke and I am not exaggerating. I usually don’t care about this if I pay a low price, but here it was pretty expensive compared to better hotels that we stayed in Hanoi.