Ninh Binh Day Trip from Hanoi with Tam Coc or Trang An & Mua Cave

The tour started off quite poorly. Many of the reviews here describe very comfortable buses, so I’m not sure what happened in our case - perhaps because our group was smaller - but we were given an old, tiny bus with completely worn-out suspension. Every small bump in the road made the vehicle rattle and shake violently. My partner and I are both relatively petite, and at times we were literally thrown into the air from our seats. Water was provided, but unlike many more thoughtful tour companies that bring coolers with cold water on hot days, the water here was lukewarm from the beginning. And there was definitely not enough - one bottle per person for a whole day. Our first stop was supposed to be a simple bathroom break, but it turned out to be a silk clothing shop where we spent around 30 minutes while numerous shop assistants pressured us to buy things. Wasn’t even the part of our itinerary. The Bai Dinh Pagoda itself was beautiful. The massive Buddha statues are undeniably impressive. However, I really wish we had received more historical information about the site. That is, after all, one of the main reasons to join a guided tour - to actually learn something. Unfortunately, this part felt very superficial. Trang An was, honestly, extremely overrated. Huge crowds, tiny boats carrying four passengers plus the rower, murky water, and intense heat under the blazing sun. They provide small umbrellas (only two per boat) but we also had to keep our backpacks with us the entire time. Overall, the reality looked nothing like the beautiful photos used in the tour description, so I would strongly advise people to manage their expectations. Another major disappointment involved the ticketing situation. After booking the tour, I contacted the company to confirm our pickup location. During that conversation, they informed me that some admission fees were not included, including Trang An, and said the guide would collect cash on the day to purchase tickets for the group. Since paying by card is much more convenient for us, I went ahead and bought the Trang An tickets online in advance (600,000 VND for two people). However, on the day of the tour, the guide purchased tickets for everyone anyway. Because of this misinformation, I completely wasted that money. As for Mua Cave, we were told that we were the only two people in our group interested in visiting it. The company offered to send us there separately by taxi to meet another guide, and of course we would also need to pay the entrance fee ourselves. Given how disorganized the entire experience had already been, we genuinely did not feel comfortable risking being forgotten or stranded somewhere, so we decided to skip the final part of the tour and return to Hanoi instead. The biking activity - one of the things we were actually very excited about - never happened at all. When I asked why, we were told that it is actually part of a different itinerary and that the information on our itinerary had not been updated by the tour agency yet. We were genuinely looking forward to this tour. The glowing reviews describing knowledgeable and entertaining guides, excellent organization, and amazing activities gave us very high expectations. Unfortunately, the reality was deeply disappointing and ended up feeling like a complete waste of both time and money. We felt like we got a knock off of what’s offered under the tour description and praised in the reviews.

Our tour guide was very good, thank you two for a great day out. Our air conditioned bus was awesome 👌

Overall, the experience was good. A lot of time wasted waiting on group members. If it was up to me, I would have done Trang an and Mua cave on my own. The tour brings you to everything during peak times, making it very crowded. The buffet lunch was less than to be desired. All the food was lukewarm/cold and the oil they used was potent/ made everything have a weird after taste. Tour guide was friendly, but again, could have easily done the day ourselves and I think would have been more enjoyable overall. For this, I wouldn’t really recommend any tour at all.

Excelent guide. Wonderful tour. Places are among the most beautiful I've seen. The boat ride was the best! Loving Vietnam!

The trip was amazing. Perfectly managed and organised. The tour guide, Two, was really a plus, helpful, smiling and informative.

Great tour. We saw a lot of attractions in Ninh Binh and the events of the day went on smoothly. Two was an excellent tour guide.

It was a nice day fun excursions a fine bus driver and a funny tour guide for everyone to recommend wonderful

wow. what a amazing and wonderful trip experience. Bus was great and comfortable. The food was great. and can’t forget our Amazing tour guy which made this whole trip possible Mr. Two Thank you for the great time and memories.

It was great tour because of our guide name “Two” . Amazing experience thank you from “India” there were lot of activities which were part of this tour I liked the boating one personally

Was a great trip. Two was very helpful and supported us throughout the journey. Thank you for making the trip memorable.