Ninh Binh

Vietnam – Getting to know Ninh Binh

The city called Ninh Binh, two hours south of Hanoi, is far from remarkable, and falls very short of deserving a page of its own on this website. However, once you reach the city’s outskirts it’s a very different situation, as you pass into a most dramatic landscape of lakes, rivers, caves, rice paddy fields and huge limestone karsts. Breathtakingly beautiful, the region clearly shares it’s geology with nearby Halong Bay, and is often referred to as ‘Halong bay on Land’.

Mua Cave – Ninh Binh

What to do in Ninh Binh

A thousand years ago the nearby settlement Hoa Lu was capital of Vietnam, and the ancient citadel and two temples can still be visited today. Tam Coc is the best known of the region’s caves, and is in fact a series of three inter-linking waterways.

There is also the rural region surrounding Vuon Thi, where you can be sure of an exhilarating afternoon learning about farming techniques, the art of Vietnamese cooking, and enjoying some of Vietnam’s most compelling scenery from the saddle.

It is possible to visit the Ninh Binh region on a day trip from Hanoi, but ideally we’d suggest you stay overnight, to allow a more comfortable pace of travel.