In Ninh Binh it is easy to plan more than your days can hold. The valley is small and everything is a bike ride away, and that is exactly why the list keeps growing: two boat trips, a staircase of five hundred steps, pagodas, caves, a bird valley and a national park. You do not need all of it.
A few things are the real reason you came: the water, the view from the top and the little lanes between the rice fields. Others come bundled into the same tour package and make a good morning if you have one, next to a bicycle and an empty dyke. The difference here is not money, because everything costs a few euros. It is the hours you spend standing somewhere.
So where do your Ninh Binh days go, and what do you save for next time?
Where to sleep, how to get around and how many days to plan are all on our Ninh Binh page.
The boat trip through Trang An
This is what you came for. You sit in a low rowing boat and get rowed for three hours between the limestone mountains, straight through caves where you have to duck your head, past old temples and stretches of water where there is nothing but quiet. Trang An is a UNESCO site, and plenty of travellers rate it above Ha Long Bay.
A ticket costs about €9 and you are out on the water for around 2.5 to 3 hours. There are three routes: route 1 has the most caves, route 3 the fewest people. Your rower often does the work with her feet, which stays fascinating for all three hours. Agree the tip before you set off, usually a couple of euros per boat.
Take sun cream and a hat on board, because those three hours are three hours of full sun without a scrap of shade. And only get in at the official jetty: boats offered to you along the way are not the real thing.
Our verdict: absolutely, and pick route 1
The 500 steps up Mua Cave at sunrise
From the top of the rock at Mua Cave you look out over the whole valley: rice fields, the river winding between the peaks and the dragon statues on the ridge right next to you. It is the best-known picture of Ninh Binh, and one of the few views that is better in real life than in the photo.
Entry is about €4. The gate opens at 6.00 and the first light comes at around 6.15. Count on half an hour of climbing over 500 steps. Come early and you have the top more or less to yourself, while in the middle of the day you queue on the narrowest steps.
Wear shoes you can climb in. The last steps are steep and slippery, and in flip-flops that is not a view, it is a chore.
Our verdict: at six you have the top almost to yourself, at noon you wait on the narrowest steps
The bike loop through Tam Coc
Exploring Ninh Binh by bike is every bit as good as seeing it from a boat. You ride along narrow dykes between the rice fields, past buffalo and farmers who pay you no attention, with those same limestone towers all around you. No entry fee, no queue and no time slot.
A bicycle costs about €2 a day, and plenty of places to stay lend you one for free. The full loop past Bich Dong Pagoda, the Hang Mua valley and the dyke along the Ngo Dong takes half a day. Want to go further into the valley? A scooter at €4 to €6 a day is handier.
Go in the late afternoon. Wear a helmet if you are on a scooter and take it slowly on those dykes: they are narrow and the verge is usually water.
Our verdict: a must, even if you are not a cyclist
The lanes towards Thung Nang
This is our own favourite in Ninh Binh, and the place almost nobody goes. Nearly every backpacker does Trang An and Mua Cave and then heads back to the village, while half an hour on a bike puts you in a valley where you are on your own.
From Tam Coc, follow the small lanes between the rice fields towards Thung Nang. You ride past buffalo, local farmers and the same impressive limestone mountains as at the busy spots, just without the buses parked next to them. It costs you nothing but the bike hire.
Do it in the golden hour just before sunset. The light sits low over the fields and it feels like you have found a side of Ninh Binh that is not on any tour itinerary.
Our verdict: our favourite afternoon here, and free
Goat with com chay
Ninh Binh has two specialities you will not find this good anywhere else in Vietnam, and they come together on one plate. The goats here climb around on the limestone, which makes the meat firmer than anything you eat elsewhere. It comes with com chay: a slab of rice fried until it is crispy.
You will find it in almost every restaurant in Tam Coc, and a meal costs about €2. Order it on the evening you come off the water, when you have exactly the hunger it needs. During the day, a banh mi from the village is the easiest thing to eat on the bike.
Our verdict: absolutely, even if it is just the once
Bich Dong Pagoda
A temple built against the rock face and tucked away between the mountains, with steps through the rock up to the highest hall. It sits at the end of the road, three kilometres past Tam Coc, and is one of the most beautiful temples in northern Vietnam.
Entry is free and it is a quarter of an hour away by bike, which makes it the obvious first stop on your loop. Give it half an hour to an hour, that is all you need.
Go before nine in the morning. After that the minibuses from the combined tours arrive and the little complex fills up in no time.
Our verdict: go, and go early for the calm
Thung Nham Bird Valley
The quietest place on this list, and one of the few that is not yet on everyone’s route. In a green valley five kilometres from Tam Coc, hundreds of birds fly back to their roosting trees at the end of the day, and you can watch them from close by.
Entry is about €4 and the easiest way there is by scooter. Go around sunset, because that is the whole point: during the day it is a pretty but fairly ordinary valley.
Our verdict: the quietest place on this list, and at its best at the end of the day
Got time to spare in Ninh Binh?
Bai Dinh Pagoda
Bai Dinh comes as standard in the day tour, together with Hoa Lu, Trang An and Mua Cave. It is a huge temple complex where you mostly do a lot of walking, so if you have three days, add it with Hoa Lu. If you have two, give that morning to the valley on a bike, because that is what Ninh Binh is about.
Tam Coc as well as Trang An
The boat trip at Tam Coc takes about two hours and goes through the same kind of landscape as Trang An, just shorter and with fewer caves. Already done Trang An? Then this is mainly a treat if you fancy another quiet hour on the water. The end of May is a different story: that is when the rice fields turn golden yellow and you row straight through them, and it only lasts about two weeks.
The Mua Cave steps at the right time
The same 500 steps, but a completely different experience depending on the hour. Go early in the morning or late in the afternoon: then there is shade on the rock and you have the narrow steps mostly to yourself. Between twelve and three the sun is full on it and you shuffle up behind a line of people.
Cuc Phuong National Park
Vietnam’s oldest national park is a great day for anyone who loves jungle and wildlife rescue centres. Count on a full day including the drive there and back, so this is one for when you are here for three days or more. On a short trip, keep that day for the bike and the valley.
Our top five in Ninh Binh
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The boat trip through Trang An, route 1, with sun cream and a hat
- The 500 steps up Mua Cave, at 6.00 when the gate opens
- The bike loop through Tam Coc in the late afternoon
- The little lanes towards Thung Nang at sunset
- Goat with com chay on the evening you come off the water
Still got time after that? Thung Nham Bird Valley around sunset is the quietest place in the area, and Bich Dong Pagoda before nine is the most beautiful quarter of an hour of your morning.
So what do you really have to do in Ninh Binh?
Everything on this list is worth your time, and the great thing about Ninh Binh is that the landscape is just as impressive everywhere: between two tour stops you cycle past exactly the same rocks as at the places everyone pays for. This list is here to help you choose, and to leave time for that bike.
If we had to pick just one thing, it is the water. Get into the rowing boat at Trang An, let yourself be pulled through the caves for three hours and say nothing for a while. That costs you nine euros and half a day, and it is the bit of Ninh Binh you will still be telling people about later.
And set your alarm at least once. Being at the Mua Cave gate at six, or on your bike at six, puts you ahead of the whole stream of day visitors from Hanoi, and the light is at its best then too. Afterwards, feel free to sleep for an hour by your hostel pool.
