Ninh Binh: An Introduction
The city of 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 at the city's outskirts it's a very different situation - the city is surrounded by 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 on Land'. 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 however, ideally you will opt to stay a night to allow a slightly more comfortable pace of travel.
Watch Video
'Breathtakingly beautiful, the region clearly shares it’s geology with nearby Halong Bay and is often referred to as 'Halong on Land'.'