Ninh Binh Day Tour from Ha Noi: 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.

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.

A great value for money 1 day tour. A few days before departure, the travel agency will confirm your meeting time and precautions via WhatsApp. I live in the old town and they pick you up at your hotel when departure. The car is a bit old, but comfortable, and the seats have USB power outlets, which is very convenient (but some group members said that not every power point works). The tour guide Jenny is a girl in her twenties who is energetic and enthusiastic. She works hard to create a good atmosphere and tells us many local stories. Although the travel agency warned us in advance not to have any expectations for the meal, I thought it was quite delicious, but it was just ordinary Vietnamese food. Don't have wrong expectations when you see the word "Buffet". Drinks need to be paid for at your own expense. It is a little expensive to buy outside the street, but not much, so it is acceptable. The boat tour lasts nearly two hours❤, the scenery is pleasant, and you can enjoy the mountains and rivers to your heart's content. Cycling around the town is also very chill, but there are many cars nearby when setting off, which makes it a bit dangerous. I don’t recommend it to friends who are not good at cycling. The hiking part is a bit strenuous. Level 500 does not sound like much, but it is not easy to walk because of the ancient stone steps on the mountain. Some sections require both hands and feet. The dragon sculpture on the top of the mountain is crowded with people and there is a long queue. If you join a tour group, you may not have enough time to queue up to take a photo, so you can only call in at the nearest location. On the return trip, the driver can also drop you off at a designated location along the way, which is convenient for passengers who have other arrangements for the return trip or are transferring to a hotel. All in all, I highly recommend this itinerary and Jenny as a tour guide👍🏻👍🏻

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!

Tour guide Tyson is very friendly, polite and engaging. The duration of the tour was just nice and fortunately the weather was good. The rowers at tam coc are quite pushy when it comes to selling things on the boat. But if you give them a 50k tip per person, they are satisfied. Any lesser and they may grumble. Lunch was alright only.