Excursió a Hoa Lu - Tam Coc des de Hanoi

I enjoyed the Tan Coc boating, it's just that i was not able to see the rice field beside the river coz it was already harvested. Paddlers in Tam Coc offered a handmade pictures of Tam Coc sceneries @ 200k dong to tourist before the tour ended, and there were also photographers who offered to took pictures cost 30k per pictures, 150k for 5 pictures put in an album.

the tour starts at bai dinh temple where the old temple of the dinh king is located as well as the new temple of the lei king is settled. afterwhich, the tour stops at the resto where lunch is served. but before lunch, the guide will take you around on a short bike tour around the village and lotus fields. last stop is tam coc river, a natural river situated in the valley of rice paddies.

Although our team are all Vietnamese, but I really enjoy the tour with lots of fun, informative & majestic scenary. Our tour guide is divoted, full of historical knowledge. Highly recommended this tour.

It was a very nice experience. You get to hike +/- steps to reach the top. The views from the top are breathtaking. You should try to reach the dragon statues. The way though are not so safe, people should put hand railings. I enjoyed the boat tour. They even let us row the boat, looks easy but definitely not. Lunch is okay. It’s what you paid for, so don’t expect so much. Drinks are not included btw. 😉

Tam Coc is like halong on the land. View over the boat is nice. Just sit on boat and enjoy the view for 1.5 hours. Just note that the boat man will request tips from you. 20k tips is the average we give to them.

Had a wonderful and amazing time exploring Hoa Lu, Tam Coc and Bich Dong. Our tour guide is full of energy and enthusiasm from the get go and feed the group with lots of historical information and never fails to make things fun and easy to listen to.

Had it not been for our wonderful tour guide Loi, we would’ve not enjoyed this tour. Add to that his great sense of humor and the willingness to help. He speaks good English and can also speak Japanese. On our way to Nin Binh, he gave us an interesting introduction of Vietnam and its topography. When we are out and about, Loi always make sure that we are together and safe. On our tour to Hoa Lu we learned the difference of a temple and a pagoda in Vietnam, as well as history of Hoa Lu being the ancient capital of Vietnam during the 10th and 11th century. The weather was very hot and humid during our tour on July 26th but he gave us choices whether to go ahead and climb or stay at the entrance of Mua caves and just enjoy the surroundings and nature. The boat ride in Trang An was also a great experience. Enjoyed the sights and sounds of nature while our strong and kind rower took us around for more than 30 minutes. Everything was well taken cared of. Best of all, Loi shared with us a video he edited from the videos he took of us during the tour. It was indeed an unforgettable experience for all of us who participated in the tour. ( I would like to add that all the participants were very nice people). If you like nature, history and meeting nice people, this is a good tour to book.

The tour guide with us on 08 Oct's was very helpful and able to explain the history of places we visited very clearly. the best part of the trip was the boat ride! highly recommended.

I messaged the operator one day (in the morning) before as I was worried I did not get any message from them and they said they have many tours and not sure which one I was on. then later in the evening, received a message from another person informing me the pick-up timing. The guide was rushing us to get on the bus and we saw someone was getting off the bus with luggage, which puzzled us. After seated, I was asked to move to another seat, “you sit there!” It was unprofessional how he direct me as a person who pays for the tour and his salary. Nevertheless, his timing on the tour timing was accurate. first stop was Mua Cave with 3 options (pay 100K to climb up, or free bicycle ride or hang around an hour with nothing to do in the area). then it was buffet lunch in a huge restaurant (buffet options) with NO drinks at all, not even a glass of water. the tour just provided one bottle of water each of us for a 12 hours tour duration (cheap tour agency)! Then to the Hao Lu temple which the guide explained the history of it and he was knowledgeable and lastly was the “boat ride” for 90 mins. It was a beautiful day for the ride. There’s some stores where you can buy snacks after the boat ride before the 2 hours journey back to Hanoi. Hope my reviewed helped.

We were picked up in our accommodation as promised and it was on time. A separate coordinator assisted us to get in our bus. The tourguide was good but was rushing us all throughout the tour. It was an excellent experience, still.