Excursió d'un dia a Ninh Binh des de Hanoi: Hoa Lu, Tam Coc, Mua Cave

The trip was well worth it. A bit of advice: the road is quite bumpy, so do not sit at the back of the bus. The history lesson at the Hua Lu Temple was quite interesting. The food was a delicious buffet lunch with a wide variety and affordable prices. The bicycle ride is quite disappointing as you stick to the tar road. Rather skip that and sit in the air-conditioned room and enjoy a few more drinks. The Tam Coc boat ride was very interesting and enjoyable, with exquisite scenery and just long enough to save your backside. The scenery and all colors are extraordinary. It would have been worth it to spend more time here. Do not underestimate the climb to the lookout point, as this is very daunting, especially with the high humidity. Our guide, Phuong, was amazing throughout the whole day.

非常難忘的寧平之旅，特別推薦我們的導遊 Duy Anh（Arthur）！ 昨天的寧平一日遊讓我們留下非常美好的回憶。寧平的山水、歷史與文化本身就令人驚艷，而真正讓這趟旅程更加精彩的，是我們的導遊 Duy Anh（Arthur）。 Arthur 是一位非常專業、知識豐富、細心又有耐心的導遊。他一路上用生動而容易理解的方式，介紹越南的歷史、文化、建築、宗教與當地生活，讓我們不只是「看景點」，而是真正開始理解越南。 我特別欣賞他的責任感與細心。每一個活動之前，他都會清楚說明集合地點、時間、安全注意事項以及接下來的安排，也會留意團員是否跟得上。無論是參觀歷史景點、登山、騎自行車，還是長安（Trang An）的乘船行程，他都安排得井然有序，讓我們一路都很安心。 更難得的是，Arthur 待人非常真誠、親切而且尊重旅客。他不會給人強迫消費的感覺，而是真心希望大家能夠享受寧平、了解越南。這份自然與真誠，讓我們留下非常深刻的印象。 Arthur 還告訴我們，他的名字是 Duy Anh，不過叫他 Arthur 會比較容易記，就像《亞瑟王》裡傳說中的 Camelot 國王一樣。😊 這也成為我們這趟旅程中很可愛的一個小回憶。 非常感謝 Arthur 帶給我們充實、愉快又難忘的一天。能遇到這麼好的導遊，是旅行中很幸運的一件事。 非常推薦這趟寧平行程，也特別推薦導遊 Arthur！ 🇻🇳❤️

A day before or 2, your tour guide will message you the pickup details via whatsapp. On the actual day, the bus may arrive slightly earlier than scheduled and the guide may call you a few minutes in advance that they are reaching your hotel. For my limousine tour, my tour guide was Son, young guy 26 years old, able to speak English well. We first stop by a toilet rest stop where it is also a souvenir and quick snack bites shop. The souvenirs are quite common but do look out for those that are only sold here and nowhere else- like some mini owl statues and dried mango in white translucent packaging that i spotted isnt available in Hanoi and Sapa. The break was about 30-45 minutes. Afterwards we head straight to Hao Lu, followed by lunch at their Tour Agency’s buffet restaurant. It’s interesting that this tour agency, Go Asia, has their own restaurant to dine at for their tour groups. The guide will recommend you to try the goat meat, do try at least once in your life. Directly opposite was Tam Coc. so we just cross over after lunch. Apparently the regulations for Tam Coc is more relaxing than Trang An, hence many tourists take out their life jacket midway to take better photos. Unfortunately there was no cycling itinerary in this HaoLu-TamCoc-Hoang Mua. After TamCoc, we head straight to Hoang Mua. You have an hour to do everything here. At the base on the right is a paddy field w timber deckings, on the left deep inside is the Mua Cave, and centre is the stairs to go up the dragon/pagoda. If you’re fit (someone who exercises 3x a week), you can accomplish both left (dragon) and right (pagoda) under 50minutes, and remaining 10 minutes to explore the Mua cave. Avoid trying to climb the summit for the dragon as the rocks there are all disintegrated and loose, huge safety hazard. For me, i had a 2nd day trip to Ninh binh for BaiDihn Pagoda-TrangAn-HoangMua, hence i leave the paddy field exploring and some timelapse video taking for the next visit. Do recommend going twice to cover all areas in time. Also, the tour provides 2 bottles of water, 1 in the beginning and 1 after Tamcoc. Depending on your tour guide, you may either sit where you like on the bus or assigned to a specific seat.

We really enjoyed this trip. I am not a very active person but tjis is all worth it. Mr Ben is a great guide, English is very good and easy to understand l. The views are amazing and the buffet lunch is also great. It was scorching hot when we did the tour so if you are going around April and May make sure you wear comfortable clothes with enough coverage , sunblock, umbrella. The last attractions required getting up a 500 plight of stairs but is completely optional, just prepare for lots and lots of sunshine exposure 😄

We had a lovely tour, the tour guide Happy was amazing and really lovely to spend the day with. Time was managed well and were able to see everything we wanted to. The temple, boat ride, cycle and hike up mua cave were all amazing. Great value for money! would highly recommend this tour.

物超所值的1 day tour。出發前數天，旅行社會以WhatsApp confirm你集合時間及注意事項。我住在舊城區，出發時他們會到你酒店接你。車子有點舊，但舒適，而且座位有usb叉電很方便（但有團友表示不是每一個叉電位也work）。導遊Jenny是個二十來歲的女孩子，有活力而熱情，努力搞好氣氛，也告訴我們很多地方故事。雖然旅行社預先提醒我們對餐點不要有期望，但我覺得是幾好味的，但只是一般越南菜式，不要看到Buffet一字就有錯誤期待。飲品需要自費，平街外買貴了一點但不多，可以接受。小艇遊的時間近兩小時❤，風景宜人，可以盡情享受山水。踩單車遊小鎮也很chill，但出發時附近多車，有點危險，不太建議不擅長踩單車的朋友。行山部份有點辛苦，500級聽來不多，但因為是山上古老石階，不太容易行，有些路段需要手腳並用。山頂龍雕塑的位置極多人，排了長龍，參加旅行團的話，大概不夠時間排到上去影相，只能在就近位置打個咭。回程時，司機也可以在你指定而順路的位置放低你，方便回程另有安排或轉酒店的旅客。總括來講，很推薦這個行程，也很推薦Jenny這位導遊👍🏻👍🏻

I had the best time of my trip on this tour, Luca was an amazing guide so kind and friendly from the beginning to end (I couldn’t remember the drivers name but he was great too). I would highly recommend the tour, it was a really hot day but Ninh Binh was so beautiful I loved the cycling and long boat ride. 10/10!

Honestly very happy and satisfied with the experience. Our tour guide Day was super friendly and very helpful. The driver was extremely professional the drive felt like floating cloud. Coming to the actual location, the place is beautiful. We did cycling, boating through tam coc and in July it was beautiful and green, although couldn’t go all the caves coz water level was too high but that’s okay. The climb to Mua Cave mountains was great the view was great.

There are 3 major stops in this tour. The best one for me was the last stop/hike to a mountain overlooking Nihn Bihn. I wish the boat trip (2nd stop) includes at least 10-20minutes swim where the water is clean before returning to the starting point. I got back pain sitting for more than an hour but I totally enjoyed the view. The lunch buffet was execeptional.

One of the best tours I did. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a day trip from Hanoi. Make sure you're fit enough to do a quick hike to the top of Hang Mua as the view there is spectacular!