Ninh Binh
The Ninh Binh province is known as “Ha Long Bay on land”. The green countryside is painted with limestone mountains and rivers that run along the rice paddy fields. The sleepy town of Tam Coc was the perfect location to stay, and also very close to Mua Caves.
How to get there?
We rode our motorbikes from Cat Ba Island to Ninh Binh, which took about 5 hours. There are buses and private cars which can you can book locally, or via BookAway or 12GoAsia.
Where to stay?
We stayed at Hang Múa Homestay, which is in the Tam Coc village of Ninh Binh. This was right around the corner from the Mua Caves, in a really relaxing area along the rice paddy fields.
Budget: We’d consider Hang Múa Homestay a budget stay. A private room was about US$10 which included breakfast.
Luxury: There’s not tons of luxury options in Ninh Binh, but a higher-end stay we’d recommend is Tam Coc La Montagne Resort & Spa.
A few of our favorite things:
Mua Caves: The Mua Caves are one of the best things about Tam Coc. Luckily for us, they were located in the backyard of our homestay. We woke up early, and tried to get there for sunrise. Unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy day, but the views were still incredible. Plus, getting there early meant we basically had the place to ourselves for a few hours.
Trang An Boat Tour: There are 2 options of river boat tours in Ninh Binh/Tam Coc. There’s Tam Coc and Trang An. We opted with Trang An, because we heard it was the less-popular option. However, when we arrived, it was still super crowded. It’s definitely a tourist trap, nonetheless the views were stunning. This is also another area where they filmed King Kong: Skull Island. From the research we’ve done online, there were various complaints/reviews regarding the women who paddle the boats. At the time we went (November 2019) they were not allowed to ask for tips, and there were papers passed out to rate your experience on the tour. We ended gave our tour lady a few dollars as a tip before the tour ended, she worked damn hard paddling around all day AND was old enough to be our grandmother.
Explore the Rice Paddy Fields: The weather wasn’t great while we were in Tam Coc, but we did manage to go for a few bike rides along the rice paddy fields and limestone formations. The scenery was gorgeous, even on a cloudy day.