7 EPIC Things to do in Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Surrounded by seemingly endless rice fields, dotted with rugged limestone peaks that rise out of the earth and a variety of enchanting Buddhist pagodas, Ninh Binh makes the perfect countryside escape from nearby Hanoi.

I had the pleasure of exploring Trang An, Tam Coc, and the countryside of Ninh Binh on my recent trip to Vietnam and I can’t recommend this stunning area enough! In this article I’m summarizing the absolute best things to do in Ninh Binh, including climbing the 500 steps to the giant dragon statue at Mua Cave, exploring the serene cliffside cave temples at Bich Dong, paddling through the UNESCO-recognized waterways of Tràng An, and more!

🪷 Ninh Binh day trip from Hanoi: Join this award-winning day tour from Hanoi to ride scooters around the rice fields, hike Mua Cave, tour the ancient capital, eat a homestyle lunch, see Bich Dong pagoda and go on a boat ride through Tràng An—with roundtrip transportation from Hanoi!

Getting around Ninh Binh

Our original plan for Ninh Binh was to stay a night or two and see all the sights on our own—but after researching, we realized it would be far more convenient to do it all on a tour.

Ninh Binh is surprisingly spread out, and being able to jump in a tour bus and forget about transportation simplified everything. Whether you’re spending the night here or visiting on a day trip from Hanoi, I’d definitely recommend a tour for transportation alone (and supporting small local businesses is great, too!). Here are the tour options I recommend:

• ✨ From Hanoi: Exceptional day trip from Hanoi, and they’ll let you stay the night in Ninh Binh if you’d like! Includes Tràng An boat ride, scooter ride through countryside, ancient capital walking tour, Bich Dong pagoda, traditional lunch, and Mua Cave. Tour details.
• ✨ From Ninh Binh: Highly-rated local tour with pickup from hotels and homestays through Tam Cốc and Trang An (Ninh Binh area). Includes Tràng An boat ride, ancient capital walking tour, Bich Dong pagoda, traditional lunch, and Mua Cave. Tour details.

If you’re not pressed for time, you could explore Ninh Binh more slowly by ordering Grab cars (local taxi app) and biking around!

1. Tràng An Boat Tour

You simply cannot visit Ninh Binh without immersing in the otherworldly landscapes at Tràng An—a breathtaking labyrinth of limestone caves and peaks that rise out of the emerald water, only accessible by rowboat!

With its towering peaks, UNESCO-recognized Tràng An feels “untouched”, yet archaeological evidence shows continuous human activity here for over 30,000 YEARS!

The landscapes are so cinematic and yet the photos just do not compare to the real thing. Gently gliding through the water here really feels like you’re on the set of Jurassic Park (though its Kong: Skull Island that was filmed here), and its surprisingly expansive! I think we went through 3-5 caves and each time emerged in a completely different part of the valley, surrounded by verdant peaks stretching to the sky!

Along the way, there are a few pagodas and temples. Some of the rowboat tours allow you to get off the boat and explore the temple grounds, but we enjoyed just seeing them from the boat—and our rowboat captain was the sweetest old man, he knew all the best photo angles and made sure we got plenty of photos together!

Our 2-hour boat ride was included in our guided Ninh Binh tour, which conveniently included transportation between all the sights (getting around Ninh Binh is tricky without a tour), but if you aren’t on a tour, you can save some time by buying tickets online here—you’ll get a QR code that lets you skip the line!

2. Explore Bich Dong Pagoda

This 1400s Buddhist pagoda is built directly into cliffside caves, overlooking rice fields and lotus ponds. It’s actually also part of the UNESCO-recognized Trang An landscape complex, but not accessed via boat like the rest of the area.

Instead, you can walk, bike, or drive here from nearby Tam Coc (or visit on a tour), and explore the small, picturesque pagoda complex on foot. It’s free to visit and was one of my favorite places we visited in Vietnam!

We visited in the early morning and the site was absolutely serene, plus, we were lucky enough to visit when the lotuses beneath the pagoda were in bloom! That said, I imagine the pagoda can get quite busy mid-day.

Tip: it can be easy to miss the cave temples above the main temple! Be sure to climb up the stairs behind the large temple and find the numerous cave temples above! These temples are where Indochine (a must-watch film before visiting Vietnam) was filmed!

3. Bike through the countryside

If I could go back in time, I’d carve out some time to bike around the remote rice fields of Ninh Binh! It’s really easy to find a bike rental in Tam Coc or Trang An, but if you’re visiting from Hanoi, you get the chance to bike (or ride on the back of a moped) on this Ninh Binh day trip.

But wish I had time for is this e-bike tour that takes you far from the touristy areas into local rice farming communities and non-touristy temples with a farm-to-table lunch at a local family home!

4. Hike Mua Cave

Have you seen photos of that gigantic dragon statue on a jagged cliff above seemingly endless rice fields in Ninh Binh?! That’s Mua Cave (or Hang Múa), perhaps the most popular place to visit in Ninh Binh. The views are truly exceptional, and the 500-step trek up the peak is a nice little workout.

Since we were exploring all the sights on a day tour, our guide had to squeeze Mua Cave into the late afternoon part of our tour, and it was understandably crowded! It was absolutely worth visiting, but if your schedule is flexible, I’d try to do the hike early in the morning to beat the crowds.

It costs 100,000 VND to visit (but the cost is included if you’re on a guided tour) and is typically open from 6am to just after sunset. What surprised us is that the base of Hang Múa is home to a variety of cafes, shops, and adorable ponds—plus a large lotus pond that’s perfect for photos (depending on the season!) You could easily hang out here for a while—and its perfect for a mixed group of folks who don’t want to hike but other do.

5. Tour Hoa Lư Ancient Capital

For some reason charming Hoa Lư, once the capital of Vietnam, is so overlooked by visitors, so much so that I myself mistakingly skipped by booking a tour that went to Bái Đính instead. 🥲 (This tour does include Hoa Lu) Here’s why I’d advocate you don’t make my same mistake:

Hoa Lư, is an enchanting city that served at Vietnam’s capital in the 10th and 11th centuries. Back then, the limestone cliffs that make up the famous boat ride routes through Tràng An served as a natural wall to protect the capital city from invasion.

Today, the area is home to several temples and pagodas, and if you visit with a local guide you can learn about the religious and political history of this place! Some tours (like the one I went on and don’t recommend) trade Hoa Lu for Bai Dinh, which is what I’ll share about next. Bai Dinh was stunning, but I would have preferred the historical Hoa Lu given that it was the capital!!

6. Bái Đính Pagoda

YouTube videos of the sprawling Bái Đính Pagoda complex led me to choose visiting here over visiting Hoa Lư. It’s the largest pagoda complex in all of Vietnam, with the largest bronze Buddha statue in Asia.

The photos (and videos) alone made me want to visit, but I’ll be totally honest—I didn’t do enough research beforehand to realize that this massive complex is mostly modern and not a true religious site. Instead, it was built solely for tourism in 2003. 🤯

It can be a little confusing, though, becuase there are small temples here that date back 1,000 years, 99% of what you see is completely modern and is not currently operating as a religious site.

Now, that doesn’t take away the beauty of this place, but I was disappointed that I traded the country’s historic capital for a faux religious site built for tourists.

But if the visuals of this place still charm you, it could still be worth visiting! The site is so massive that you need to take a golf cart (pay for it when you buy your ticket) from the entry area to the main pagodas. From there, you can walk to Bái Đính Pagoda, home to that giant bronze Buddha, plus the bell tower, Arhat statue corridor, Bao Thap tower, and more.

7. Stay at a local homestay

If your Vietnam itinerary allows, it is well worth staying a night (or more) in Ninh Binh at a local homestay! While homestay might make you think you’ll be sleeping in a bedroom at a local house, Vietnam’s homestays in actuality are mini resorts run by a local family. They’re typically a lot more affordable than hotels, but often with even more amenities, including beautiful pools and exceptional homestyle meals in serene locations that big hotel brands don’t have access to. Here are a few recommendations:

• 🌿 The Green House Homestay ($19+/night): Clean, affordable rooms with a pool and delicious breakfast, surrounded by tropical foliage and rice fields. 25 minute walk to town, with the option to rent bikes onsite.
• 🇻🇳 Annamoi Homestay Tam Coc ($28+/night): Serene homestay right in the walkable area of Tam Coc, easily accessible to a variety of restaurants and bars.
• 🪷 Trang An Lamia Bungalow ($20+/night): Boho treehouse-style bungalows surrounded by a tropical garden with views of Ninh Binh’s stunning limestone peaks, plus an onsite pool and complimentary breakfast.