Chi Linh Star Golf Review 2026: Worth a Stop on the Way to Ha Long Bay?

Last updated: 26 September 2026

Ninety minutes east of Hanoi, on the road you are already taking to Ha Long Bay, sits a 27-hole course that Top 100 Golf Courses ranks #14 in Vietnam. That is the case for Chi Linh Star Golf & Country Club in one sentence. This Chi Linh Star golf review answers the question our Ha Long guests actually ask: is it worth stopping for, and how does the day run?

Should you stop at Chi Linh Star on the way to Ha Long?

If Ha Long Bay is already on your trip, yes. The round replaces part of a drive you would be sitting through anyway, which is the best deal golf in northern Vietnam offers.

The Hanoi to Ha Long run takes about 2.5 hours by expressway. Chi Linh sits on that road, so you leave Hanoi early, play 18 holes, eat, and carry on east with the clubs in the back of the vehicle. Nobody drives back to the city, and nobody loses a day to a transfer.

What you get for the stop is a proper championship course. The club spreads across roughly 325 hectares of valley, and the Top 100 panel describes fairways laid out where “plenty of water hazards come into play”. It is not a warm-up course squeezed into a road trip. For how that stop fits alongside the western and airport-side courses, see all the routes we run out of Hanoi.

Chi Linh Star in numbers

The key facts, checked in September 2026 against the club’s website, Top 100 Golf Courses and our own course records. Drive times are the ones we plan transfers around.

Practice facilities, the map and hole-by-hole background are on the Chi Linh Star course profile, with the map and facilities. This page sticks to whether to play it and how to fit it into the drive.

Hill, Valley or Lake: which two nines will you get?

Any two of the three, and the club decides the pairing on the day. We confirm it when we book and pass on any preference you have.

• Hill (A): as the name suggests, the nine that climbs more of the surrounding slopes.
• Valley (B): the nine laid along the valley floor.
• Lake (C): the nine built around the water.

Those descriptions come from the names, not from a hole-by-hole survey, so treat them as a guide. One pairing is worth knowing about. Top 100 Golf Courses ranks the Valley and Lake combination, the B and C nines, which is the one to ask for if you want the round the ranking refers to. On a busy weekend you may not get a choice.

How hard is Chi Linh Star, really?

Harder than most of the courses around Hanoi, mainly because of water. It is a fair test rather than a brutal one, as long as you pick the right tees.

The club bills itself as Vietnam’s most challenging course. That is the club talking, and it is a claim worth taking with some salt, but the layout does back part of it up. Lakes and streams run through the routing rather than sitting at the edges, so on many holes the question is how much water you are willing to carry. At about 7,038 yards from the back tees, length adds to it.

We normally recommend that golfers above about 18 play one set of tees forward of their usual choice here. On a road-trip day, a round that runs long because of lost balls is the thing most likely to push your arrival in Ha Long past dark.

How does a Hanoi to Chi Linh to Ha Long day run?

Early start, golf in the cool of the morning, lunch at the course, and the bay by late afternoon. Here is a sample day; exact times are confirmed for each booking.

This is the day-three shape of the Hanoi–Ha Long itinerary built around this exact stop: GoGolfVietnam plays Kings Island on day two, Chi Linh Star on the drive east on day three, then a morning round at FLC Ha Long Bay before the cruise boards on day four. Three rounds, one transfer east, no backtracking.

Two things we do not do. We do not book Chi Linh on the same day as a cruise boarding, because a late finish would put the boat at risk. And from December to January, when morning fog can hold first tee times by 30 to 90 minutes around Hanoi, we build that delay into the day rather than assume a 7am start.

Is Chi Linh Star worth a day trip from Hanoi?

Usually not on its own. Three hours of driving for one round is a poor trade when there are closer courses of a similar standard.

Chi Linh is the furthest of the courses a Hanoi trip normally uses, which is why the numbers only work when you are heading east anyway. Our count of why we put the realistic number of Hanoi courses at twelve includes it for exactly that reason: it belongs to the Hanoi list, but it earns its place on the road to the coast.

The exception is the golfer collecting ranked courses. If a Top 100 top-15 round matters more to you than a morning in the city, a day trip is reasonable.

When to leave Chi Linh Star off the itinerary

Four situations, and only one of them is about the golf itself.

• You are not going to Ha Long. Then the drive is dead time. Kings Island, Sky Lake or Long Bien give you a strong round much closer.
• Your cruise boards the same day. Play FLC Ha Long Bay, close to the bay, instead, and keep Chi Linh for the day before.
• Your group is mostly high handicappers with little patience for water. A lake-heavy round on a travel day can feel long. A gentler Hanoi course and an easy drive east may suit better.
• You are travelling July to September and the cruise is the point of the trip. Typhoons can stop Ha Long cruises at short notice, as happened twice in 2025. In those months we keep the drive east flexible, and a round at Chi Linh is the easiest part of the day to move or drop.

Price is not a reason to skip it. Rates sit in the middle of the range for courses around Hanoi, and, as everywhere in the north, weekends cost noticeably more than weekdays.

Before you tee off: five practical points

1. Book the earliest tee time you can. It protects the afternoon drive and keeps you ahead of the summer heat.
2. Pack for two stops. Keep a change of clothes and toiletries in a small bag; your main luggage stays in the vehicle.
3. Carry spare balls. With this much water in play, a sleeve more than usual is sensible.
4. Plan golf around the cruise, not the other way round. Our guide on how to fit a Ha Long Bay cruise around your rounds sets out the order that works.
5. Eat at the course. The clubhouse restaurant looks out over the layout from above, and it saves hunting for lunch on the road.

Frequently Asked Questions

GoGolfVietnam is a Vietnam-based golf tour operator arranging tee times, transfers and hotels around Hanoi and Northern Vietnam, including golf on the road to Ha Long Bay.