Three days turns Ninh Binh from a checklist into a slow trip. This plan splits the two boat routes across two mornings, keeps the middle of the day free, and includes a costed budget and a two-day cut-down version.
Three days is a generous amount of time for Ninh Binh, and it turns the trip from a checklist into something slower. The area is about 95km (roughly 60 miles) south of Hanoi, around two hours by road each way, so you only lose a half day at each end. The plan below follows one rule that matters more than any other here: one heavy thing per day, and nothing outdoors in the middle of the day.
Day 1: Hanoi to Ninh Binh, Trang An by boat, Hoa Lu at dusk
Leave Hanoi early and you will arrive mid-morning. Drop your bags where you are staying, since almost everywhere will hold them before check-in if you ask, and go straight to the Trang An pier. Take route 1 if this is your first visit: it passes through the most flooded caves and stops at several small temples. The rowing takes about three hours and you cannot get off partway, so use the toilet and buy water first. You will be back on land after lunchtime, which is fine, because eating at half past one means missing the tour-group rush. Late afternoon, drive the few kilometers to Hoa Lu, Vietnam's capital in the tenth century, where two low temples honor the emperors Dinh Tien Hoang and Le Dai Hanh.
- Morning: leave Hanoi, arrive mid-morning, store your bags
- Late morning into early afternoon: one full Trang An boat route
- Late lunch: goat and com chay, the crisp fried rice crust this region is known for
- Late afternoon: Hoa Lu, once the coaches have gone and the light has softened
- Evening: check in, dinner around Tam Coc, agree a wake-up time
Day 2: Tam Coc at dawn, Hang Mua at dusk
This is the best day of the trip and the easiest to ruin by sleeping in. Get to the Tam Coc pier early, before eight if you can. The boat runs down the Ngo Dong river and through three flooded caves in a row, with rice paddies coming right to the water on both sides. Between late May and early June the whole valley is gold. Mid-morning, stop at Bich Dong, a pagoda built in three tiers against a cliff face, about fifteen minutes of steps from bottom to top. Eat and rest through the hot part of the day, then head for Hang Mua at around four. It is roughly 500 stone steps to the ridge, narrow and steep near the top, and the view down over the river you rowed at breakfast is the one everyone photographs.
- Early morning: the Tam Coc boat on the Ngo Dong river
- Mid-morning: Bich Dong pagoda, three tiers, about fifteen minutes of climbing
- Midday: a long lunch and a proper break out of the sun
- Around 4pm: climb Hang Mua for the panorama and the last light
- Evening: the Tam Coc strip has the most places open late
Day 3: pagodas or birds, then back to Hanoi
The final morning splits two ways. If you like religious architecture, go to Bai Dinh, five to seven kilometers (three to four miles) from the Trang An pier: an enormous modern complex with a long arhat corridor, and behind it an older temple up the hill that is quieter and, to my mind, the better half. If you would rather be outdoors, choose Thung Nham bird garden or Van Long lagoon, where small boats are rowed over water so flat there is barely any sound. Have lunch, buy a packet of com chay to take home, and drive back to Hanoi in the afternoon.
- Morning: Bai Dinh for the architecture, or Thung Nham or Van Long for the quiet
- Midday: lunch and souvenirs, bought in town rather than at the gates of the sights
- Afternoon: the drive back to Hanoi, arriving early evening
The fragile point in this plan is the second morning. Reach the Tam Coc pier after eight and you are moving with the day-trip coaches: queuing for a boat and missing the flat, empty water that makes the whole thing. Set the alarm half an hour earlier than feels reasonable.
What three days costs
These are estimates per person for a self-organized trip, and they move with the season and how you travel. Vietnamese dong runs at roughly 25,000 to the US dollar, so a 100,000d note is about four dollars.
- Round-trip transport from Hanoi: around 300,000-600,000d (roughly US$12-24) per person
- Two nights of accommodation: around 800,000-2,400,000d (roughly US$32-96) depending on the room
- Entrance and boat tickets at the main sights: around 500,000-700,000d (roughly US$20-28)
- Food for three days: around 500,000-900,000d (roughly US$20-36)
- Motorbike hire and fuel: around 300,000-450,000d (roughly US$12-18) per bike
- All in, budget roughly 2,000,000-3,500,000d (about US$80-140) per person
Cutting it down to two days
- Day 1: leave Hanoi early, Trang An boat around midday, Hoa Lu in the late afternoon
- Day 2: Tam Coc and Bich Dong in the morning, Hang Mua late afternoon, then straight back to Hanoi
- Drop: Bai Dinh, Thung Nham and Van Long
- If it is still tight, drop Hoa Lu rather than the late afternoon at Hang Mua
Pack and plan for
- Rooms booked ahead for weekends and for the rice harvest in late May and early June
- A brimmed hat, sunscreen and long sleeves, because the boats have no roof
- Shoes with grip for the steps at Hang Mua and Bich Dong
- Small notes in cash to tip the person rowing, which is the local custom
- A thin rain jacket and a waterproof pouch for your phone in summer
- Shoulders and knees covered for the temples along the boat routes