These tours take a day to visit, if you want to visit more places, you will need to have more days in Ninh Binh:
Day tour: Hoa Lu – Tam Coc:
Combined with visits to King Dinh and Le Temples and enjoy rowing boat along the river to visit Tam Coc
Two temples are located next to each other, just a 3 minutes walking. But it will take about 1.5 hours to discover the beauty and history of the 2 temples.
From King Dinh to Le Temples, there will be a 30 minutes car transfer to Tam Coc rowing boat pier. Time to visit Tam Coc by rowing boat is also about 2 – 2.5 hours
King Dinh temple in Hoa Lu - Ninh Binh
Day tour: Bai Dinh pagoda – Trang An boat trip:
This is a tour to visit 2 beautiful destinations in Ninh Binh and it takes the whole day for this route.
Visit Bai Dinh in the morning and discover Trang An in the afternoon.
From Bai Dinh car parking, you will have to walk 20 minutes to the pagoda. Or just simply use the Electric car service to go to the pagoda, it takes only 5 minutes.
After visiting the temple, you will return to the car parking to transfer to Tran An which is about 30 minutes driving.
In Trang An, enjoying a 3-hour boat trip includes and some walking activities to visit temples, pagoda on the way.
Bai Dinh Pagoda in Ninh Binh
Day tour: Tam Coc – Bich Dong pagoda
In the morning, visit Bich Dong pagoda, in the afternoon, visit Tam Coc.
This program also takes 1 day. Time to visit Bich Dong pagoda is about 1.5 hours. This temple is located at the edge of a limestone mountain. Including Ha, Trung and Thuong ( Lower, Middle, Highest) Pagoda. There, Trung Pagoda is located mostly in a cave in the middle of a mountain.
you will walk up from the lower pagoda to the highest pagoda to enjoy the panoramic view of this beautiful area.
Bich Dong pagoda is not far from Tam Coc, it is about 10 minutes by car and to visit Tam Coc, it will take 2 – 2.5 hours on rowing boat.
Bich Dong Pagoda in Ninh Binh
Day tour: Thien Ha cave – Thung Nham bird sanctuary:
Visit Thien Ha Cave by Rowing boat, then go to Thung NHam bird garden. To explore Thien Ha Cave, need more than 3 hours. The first route is by boat along the stream to the foot of the mountain, then walking up to the cave. Get inside the cave an enjoying another rowing boat to discover the cave. After Thien Ha, moving to The bird garden to watch the special birds and enjoy the peaceful landscapes
Thien Ha galaxy cave in Ninh Binh
Day tour: Mua Cave – Tam Coc or Mua Cave – Trang An:
This is the itinerary which will take a day trip to visit Mua Cave and Tam Coc or Trang An boat trip.
To explore Mua cave and climb up to the top of Mua mountain, it will take about 1.5 – 2 hours. Then 2 – 2.5 hours on a boat trip to discover and Tam Coc or Trang An.
Tam Coc is not far from Mua Cave. However, Trang An is about 20 minutes car transfer from Mua Cave.
Tam Coc boat trip in Ninh Binh
Day tour: Van Long Boat trip – Biking in the village.
Van Long is a wetland nature reserve which is 20km from Tam Coc
Explore the rural Landscapes in Van Long by bike along the dyke and through the village as well as the rice fields this will take around 3 hours.
After lunch time, enjoy the 2 hour boat trip to discover Van Long Nature Reserve. This will take you all day to enjoy time in Van Long.
Boat trip in Van Long - Ninh Binh
Day tour: Cuc Phuong National Park
It is 1 day to explore Cuc Phuong. In the morning, visit the Endangered Primate Rescue Center to see many rarest primate species in the world. In the afternoon, walking in the forest and discover the Cave of Prehistoric man which dating back 7500 years ago and admire the primary forest with 1000-year-old tree.
Cuc Phuong National Park in Ninh Binh
Based on the above schedule and time framing, you can plan your trip to Ninh Binh, choose the spots to visit and if you have enough time, you can stay in Ninh Binh and discover all the above suggested places and you know can answer the questions “How many days to stay in Ninh Binh? “
Written by: Duy Linh