Top things to do in Ninh Binh

Top 8 things to do in Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Located in the southern end of the red river delta, Ninh Binh is endowed with many beautiful landscapes.You can find here peaceful villages with friendly locals, majestic mountain views, national park of rained forest,  ancient buildings of great architectural values.When travelling to Ninh Binh, these are top things to do in Ninh Binh you should do in your trips.

1.Rowing boat trips on "Halong Bay on land"

The most popular sight you could see when enter Ninh Ninh city is beautiful landscapes of limestone mountains.Though smaller in area and mountain numbers,those big massive range of mountains offer us the same impressive view as Halong Bay in Quang Ninh Province.That is the reason why we also call Ninh Binh as  “Halong Bay on land”. To further discover deep inside these impressive mountains , boat tour is the top thing to do in Ninh Binh.We need to take rowing boat trips along rivers with view of limestone pillars, rice fields, farming activities & many caves. Boarding a sampan boat to visit Tam Coc or Trang An in the morning  is a great way to enjoy the pristine natures because big numbers of tourists from Hanoi normally reach these sites at noon time.Be only yourselves with the paddle’s sound & peaceful views of mountains, caves & rice fields along your boat journey. Take a note that while Tam Coc is more popular for foreign visitors,limited with three caves to visit and active rice plantation practice; Trang An is more for locals, Chinese & Korean with more caves and stops to visit some temples between.If boating in Trang An, it is a good idea to avoid weekends or holiday times.

Besides Trang An & Tam Coc, you can do boat tours to visit less-touristic and natural destinations such as Thung Nang, Hang But or Van Long nature reserve.

Trang An rowing boat trip

2. Trekking for panoramic view or further discover the natures.

For more outstanding outlooks of mountains, valleys and rivers, we suggest you to take part in some trekking routes in Ninh Binh.Firstly, trekking up to Mua Cave up 30 minutes with steep steps to the top peak (a miniasture of Great Wall in China) offers you great exercises and panoramic views of whole regions.You also connect your visiting spiritual Bich Dong Pagoda with challenging trekking route on rocks from the upper temple of Bich Dong pagoda to the summit point.It is rewarding with stunning view for photos  after this hard trek. Moveover, you can expose yourselves more to natural scenery with huge trees and multi-layered rained forest when taking park in short or long trekking routes in Cuc Phuong national park which is considered as the oldest & well –protected gardens in Vietnam.

Trekking to Bich Dong Pagoda

3. Biking activities in certain beautiful spots in Ninh Binh

You can accelerate your travel experiences with biking excercises.Biking is a nice activity to have a close glimse of mountains & neaby siteseeings.You can pay a visit to Hoa Lu ancient capital, then take a short bike along the mountain ranges, rural villages,then to Tam Coc Bich Dong, Thung Nham or to Van Long nature reserve or more adventures in 40km bike to Cuc Phuong National Park.Between these sites, you can stop for nice photoes, talks with locals or visits to local temples….Journeys to discover Ninh Binh on two wheel could be a nice experience for nature & adventure lovers.

4.Birds watching trips.

Thanks to its natural conditions of tropical forests,  fresh water nature reserves, Ninh Binh is home to many species of birds, herons & water pheasons.In the winter, Ninh Binh also attracts big numbers of migrated birds to avoid the cold weather  of the north.When doing the trip to Ninh Binh, you can enjoy natural habitat of normal & rare birds as well.Popular spots for bird watching tours are in Cuc Phuong National Park, Thung Nham eco-tourism site and Van Long Nature Reserve. To have full view of many birds with their wonderful songs, herons or pheasons, you should do these tours in early morning at 4-7 am or in the late afternoon at 5-7pm.Remember to bring some special equipments along for bird watching tours.

Bird watching inCuc Phuong national park

5 Homestaying with locals.

With beautiful landscapes of mountains, rivers, forest and rural villages, your tours in Ninh Binh will be more interesting and resposible when homestaying in local homes setting up along wonderful mountain views, or inside villages or deep inside Cuc Phuong national park with Muong local ethics.You will get to know more about local cultures, enjoying their authentic local foods & contribute your part to help their life better.

6.Visit ancient temples, churches or grottoes with vestiges of pre-historic man

Ninh Binh is an ancient land with long history that offer us with wonderful sites to trace back.You can visit the grottoes of pre-historic man in Cuc Phuong national park with the interesting show of graves, bones & tools dated back to 7500 years ago. With recent history, you can make a trip to Hoa Lu ancient capital which was the political center of Vietnam for 42 years between 968-1009 during Dinh,pre-Le & Ly dynasty; to ancient Bai Dinh Pagoda with caves and pagoga built by famous monk Nguyen Minh Khong or to Phat Diem Stone Cathedral constructed by Father Sau priest with beautiful mixture of Western & Vietnamese archictectures.

Hoa Lu ancient capital

7.Visit endangered primates on Red Books

Your trip to Ninh Binh will be nice to see some endangered primates in the world, which are well-preserved in Cuc Phuong National Park.You can do a trip to Endangered Primates Rescue Center at the entrance of Cuc Phuong gardens for great view of 150 rare types of endangered monkeys in captivity such as Cat Ba langurs, Delacour’s langurs, HaTing langurs….More interestingly, you can see some of Delacour’s langurs in nature when doing boat tour to Van Long Nature Reserve- the biggest one in the north of Vietnam

Cuc Phuong Rare Primates

8. Trying local specialties in Ninh Binh.

Together with beautiful sightseeings in Ninh Binh, it will be a big miss if you do not try some different local foods such as delicious dishes made from mountain goat meat, Kim Son wine or Com Chay (dried & fried rice) …. and get such nice souvenir products as Kim Son’s fine arts, Hoa Lu’s high-class embroidery, hanger products and rocky sculpture products for export, Gia Vien’s rattan and bamboo knitting products, etc....

How to get to Ninh Binh?

Just 100 km far from Hanoi and in 2.5 hour drive, you will be in Ninh Binh. If you like to experience top things to do in Ninh Binh, you can join us in a shared group tour from Hanoi, daily departure. More flexible and comfortable between your own group, you get private tours to Ninh Binh for 2-3 days discovering top attractions in Ninh Binh or just book a private car rental from Hanoi with us if you like to arrange other services yourselves.We do organise with all of these services, so if you would like to get free consultancy or qoutation, please, contact us at bluewaytourist@gmail.com  for further information.We wish you an enjoyable holiday in Vietnam!