– What to do –

Tam Coc or Tràng An

Unless you plan on staying multiple days (not recommended), the first decision you must make is Tam Coc or Tràng An. A quick google image search on Tam Coc will show you a canal meandering through rice-paddies amidst several towering limestone karsts-rocks. What it will not show you is that it only looks like this during the end of summer (‘harvest season’). Since you are probably not travelling during that time, I think it is safe to assume that the choice should be Tràng An. Because the area is not particularly big or busy (except on weekends) it is easy to find your way around on scooter-bike. The lack of elevation makes it perfect for taking the bicycle as well (60-kilometre round-trip to see all). Hire a scooter for about 150-250,000D per day, or a bicycle for half that. Pack a lunch that you bought from your hotel/hostel or a local restaurant and go straight to Tràng An (opens early, closes around 4 PM).

Tràng An

Tràng An is an Unesco World Heritage Listed ‘park’. Due to its popularity with the Vietnamese upper/middle-class in the weekends, the entrance and set up of the area can feel sort of like entering an amusement-park. It has big relaxation areas, well-developed developed toilets and tourist stalls. Don’t buy food here unless you like high prices for low quality. During the week, this part will be deserted, and you can just skip it and go straight to the boats. You pay around 200,000D per person for a 2.5-hour ride. When you board the small rowing boat and an old strong local woman starts rowing with her feet, you’ll feel the tranquility decent upon you. You bob along on a river between towering lime-stone karst-rocks, on crystal-clear water. Going straight through caves and grottoes, stopping here and there to visit pittoresk little temples. Even though ‘authentic’ is not the word I would use, you simply cannot debate the mind-blowing beauty of this place.

Many people help along (there are spare oars in the boat) with the rowing of their boat. Please do so, but don’t see this as a substitution for a tip. When I visited (on a Thursday, mid-January) I saw approximately 10 other boats during the entire tour. However at the entrance you see literally more than a 1000 (thousand!) boats laying around. It does not require much imagination to think of how the wide and tranquil river can turn into a boat-highway during a weekend. Luckily enough the strict conservation policy ensures that there is almost no litter or pollution to be found.

Chua Bai Dinh

After Tràng An head off to Chua Bai Dinh temple complex. This is by no means a centuries-old temple-complex, as it was only completed in 2014. But because many Vietnamese actively practice Buddhism, it is very much in use and therefore it does not feel ‘fake’. Although the big-set up does not help with the spirituality of the complex. Come here if you want to see huge (and I mean HUGE) statues of birds and Buddhas. Chua Bai Dinh features one of the biggest pagoda’s in Vietnam and the biggest bell (36 tonnes heavy). Along with many newly erected buildings and statutes, they also gathered quite a few older ones from different temples in the area, that blend in very well with the rest.

Plan in at least 2 hours to visit Chua Bai Dinh because of its sheer size and because you have to take a 10 min electric car-ride from the parking-places to the temples themselves. Afterwards head back to the town of Ninh Binh and have dinner at Trung Tuyet (see below why), before heading off to bed, as Ninh Binh is not the place you come to party.

What you must definitely skip

Unless you are planning on spending multiple days here, skip Tam Coc if you visited Trang An and vice-versa. Outside of the rainy-season Kenh Ga will not provide you anything new, and the same can be said about the Mua Cave. If you got time to spare I would recommend visiting Hoa Lu (which was the capital of Vietnam between 968-1009 AD) because it offers great views and pretty little temples. However if you travel around Ninh Binh on scooterbike you will already see these views and soak in the landscape while getting to your destinations so visiting these places will only diminish your enjoyment of the road towards the real pretty sights.

Tips

Download an offline map of the area on google maps (or a similar app) since good maps are hard to get by. If you are looking for Tràng An on google-maps it will point you to a place which is roughly 3KM (2 miles) from the actual place: travelling from Ninh Binh, just continue in the same direction, cross the big road and continue for another 2000 meters. You’ll see the entrance to Tràng An on the left, you can park your scooter (or car) on the right, where they will guard it for you for a small (negotiable) fee.

If you are travelling with the Lonely Planet, please note that the 2016 version (and older versions) does not take into account that they moved the railway station approximately one kilometer, if you are looking for Trung Tuyet this can be quite confusing.

– Eat & sleep recommendations –

There are quite a few very pretty hostel/hotels in the countryside, with amazing views of the rice-paddies and the limestone-rocks (booking.com will point you in the right direction). Getting there can be a hassle, but if you travel light you can just rent a scooter-bike near the railway station, head out, and return the bike right before you leave the town. If you find this too much fuss you can also just stay in town (Viet Nath hotel is right across the railway station with decent rooms for a decent price (280,000D for a double), but really nothing special (they also rent out motorbikes (also to non-guests)).

For eating there is only one place in Ninh Binh you should really go to: Trung Tuyet. The meals are huge, cheap and delicious. You can sit outside on a long wooden tables on the side-walk of the (quiet) street, which is the perfect spot to see what is going on in the streets. The owners are really friendly, giving you some cookies when you leave, and sometimes offering free beer to go along with the meal. The place is really popular with travelers so this is also the place to go have food (and conversations) if you’re travelling solo. They close around 10 PM but stay open longer if there are enough guests still having food and beer. They used to be located right next to the railway station but when the station moved, it became a little harder to find (but worth the effort!). Sometimes the owners provide free rides to the station if you’re heading out the same evening.

– Practical information –

When

The climate is very similar to Hanoi, although the dry (and cool) season is a little shorter. Visit from November to March, and avoid the torrid rains that August brings. When deciding on visiting Ninh Binh you should really only be asking yourself one question: can I avoid the weekend? If the answer is yes, go! If the answer is no, don’t bother. The town will be overrun with hundreds of upper/middle-class Vietnamese families transforming all the pretty sights into busy carnival rides.

Budget