NINH BINH, VIETNAM
We booked a shared mini bus at our hotel in Hanoi and the journey took just over 2 hours, door to door. The main reason for going to Ninh Binh was to do a boat trip at Trang An and to climb Huang Ma. We based ourselves in Tam Coc, which is the main town, and stayed at Tam Coc Serenity Hotel, about 10 minutes walk from the centre of the town. We had a nice big room, overlooking the swimming pool, the bed was comfortable, the shower good, but after the super friendly reception staff in Hanoi the welcome here was most definitely subdued! There seemed to be one guy who did it all, and if he was helping out at breakfast there was nobody on Reception. Not a problem though and it was a nice place to stay. We used the free bikes at the hotel and cycled to Bitch Dong Pagoda, and along some country roads – a nice relaxing cycle trip. Book a room at the Tam Coc Serenity Hotel.
Trang An Boat Trip
We took a taxi to Trang An reasonably early to do the boat trip. It’s often called the inland Halong Bay and is regularly compared favourably to Vietnam’s more well known tourist attraction. 
People say Halong Bay is too crowded, polluted, full of tour groups and only worth doing if you are willing to spend a lot of money on a luxury cruise over a couple of nights, whereas Trang An is much more peaceful, relaxing and uncrowded option which you can easily organise yourself and don’t have to do as part of a tour. We haven’t been to Halong Bay so can’t compare them, but we th
oroughly enjoyed the experience at Trang An. The boat trip offers a scenic tour of about 2½ hours through spectacular limestone mountains, through caves, and with a few stops at some quite spectacular temples. We thought it was excellent value for money at 250,000 VND each (about 8 euros). For that you share a boat with another couple, or, if you prefer, you can pay double to have the boat to yourselves. There are 3 different routes, and we chose Route 2. Route 3 is similar to Route 2 but one of the caves is 1km long and is seemingly full of bats – that was enough to put us off! Route 1 takes you through the most caves and is a slightly longer route, but we felt that Route 2 was a good balance
Our other reason for going to Ninh Binh was to climb the spectacular Hang Mua viewpoint. It’s about 500 steps to the top and the steps aren’t great quality, but it’s worth it to get to the top, even if it was a bit overcast so the views weren’t the best. There are twin peaks. Once you’ve climbed just over half way, there is a fork. It’s recommended to take the left path first and walk up towards the dragon at the very top. There is a viewing platform just below the dragon with great views. Unless you’re very confident don’t bother going the whole way up to the dragon as the footpath is very rough and dangerous and there’s not much to hold on to apart from jaggy rocks. Climb back down to the fork and then take the other steep path up to the pagoda for different but equally spectacular views. It costs 100,000 VND (about 3.50 euros) to climb Hang Mua. There are a few cafes at the base, and you can walk around through the lotus lake, although depending on time of year there may not be many flowers as was the case with us in early December. It is seemingly best in May or June.
Bars and Restaurants in Tam Coc
Tam Coc itself isn’t up to much to be honest. It’s really just a base for doing the main tourist attractions in the area. There are quite a lot of bars and restaurants, bars selling beer for as little as 7000 VND (about 25p!) and the Linh Chi Craft Beer Pub was a popular friendly place with cheap beer and cocktails. We didn’t think much of the restaurants. The speciality here is goat and duck and we tried both but weren’t impressed!
We did have a nice lunch and delicious coffees at Vi Tam Coc on the corner at the end of the main street. The coconut coffee (right) was probably the best on the whole trip, and the ginger tea was very nice too. The pumpkin soup and mango and papaya salad were also very tasty and it was a good place to watch the world go by.
It was pouring rain one evening and we didn’t feel like walking into town, so we went to the nearby Luminiere, just across from our hotel. The BBQ chicken pizza was very nice (the only night we had western food) as were the spring rolls.
We shared a delicious poke bowl with super fresh ingredients at Lang’s Salad. It’s located along one of the back roads, but very popular and rightly so, as the food and fruit shakes were very nice.
Click here to book hotels in Ninh Binh, read travellers reviews of those hotels and view lots of photos of the hotels
So we loved our time in Northern Vietnam and the boat trip at Trang An and the spectacular climb at Hang Mua exceeded expectations.
