Ninh Binh overview

Ninh Binh is one of must visit cities in the North of Vietnam. This capital city is famous for boat trip along river, rice fields, limestone karst mountains. A day trip is enough to visit this city.

What to do in Ninh Binh

Boat ride

There are too main areas to do boat ride. The first one is at Tam Coc ( 3 caves). After buying ticket, you will have a seat onboard and enjoy the boat ride around 2 hours long along Ngo Dong river end up.

The second place is Trang An. After settle, local rower will drive you around to see scenery. You will have some stops to visit pagodas, temples. This boat trip is around 3.5 hours long.

Besides, you can also do boat trip at Thung Nham, Thung Nang but these are not very popular. You may need to book in advance to get in.

Biking around countryside

This activity is quite important part of Ninh Binh tours. You will have chance to ride on cycle to go around countryside to see rice fields, mountainous limestone karst.

Ox cart ride

This is totally different experience to tourists. However, this will take lots of time. So it’s not available in a day tour. It’s more suitable for people staying overnight around Tam Coc.

Temple, pagoda visit

On visiting Ninh Binh, you may have chance to visit Hoa Lu temples and Bai Dinh pagoda. It is considered the largest complex of Buddhist temples in Vietnam.

Get to Ninh Binh

From Hanoi, train leaves at 6:00, 9:00, 13:10, 19:30, 20:10 and 22:10 (2 and half to 3-hour ride). If you go by tour bus, it’s around 2 hours drive.
From Hai Phong, it’s longer driver (around 3.5 hours drive). Then private car is the best. Otherwise, just go to Cau Rao or Niem Nghia bus station to get bus ticket.