Discover Ninh Binh and Tam Coc National Park

Ninh Binh offers a calm river that finds its way through caves and between with plants covered mountains.
Well actually, the beautiful nature is in Tam Coc National Park. A small area with a few backpacker hostels. Ninh Binh is just a bigger town 10km from Tam Coc.

I think it’s possible to see all the highlights of Ninh Binh in one day and the easiest is if you rent a scooter. If you have a hostel in Tam Coc National Park, you can also easily get to the sights by bicycle.

We first visited a little temple that was to the left of Tam Coc. Because of the storm the day before we had to wade through water to get to the stairway and in case the cave usually has lamps, they didn’t work during our visit and we could enjoy the thrill of hearing the cries of bats in the dark. So, it was quite a fun little excursion.

Then we did the most touristy bit of the day and rented a rowing boat (with a Vietnamese who rows for you) and he brought us up and down the river for 1.5 hours. We drove through 3 caves and since the water was so high, we had to mind our heads a little. For the first time on our trip we then got to feel the rain season when it just started pouring and not even my rain jacket helped much. There was nothing we could do but just concentrate on the beautiful scenery and wave to some other tourists we had previously met in Cat Ba and now were also trying not to get wet on their boat.
The trip is rather expensive but I found it a worthwhile experience. They will tell you that only 2 tourists per boat are allowed but in the end, the three of us were on one boat. There is no limit for the amount of Asian people…
I know there is another boat jetty which is way less touristy. But it was closed when we were there, probably due to the storm.

The nicest part of Tam Coc was the view we had on the hike we did afterwards. Climbing the 450 steps of Mua Cave is no easy task in this incredibly humid heat and the sculpture garden at the bottom is just something else so that they can ask the tourists for money but like I said, the view into the valley with the river is stunning!!! And along the way we encountered some goats climbing on the rocks.

That whole sightseeing tour actually only took us half a day. We decided to relax in Ninh Binh in the afternoon since we had a night bus to Phong Nah in the evening. Read more about our adventures in this post.

What is your favorite picture of Tam Coc National Park?