Top attractions in Ninh Binh

My wife & I were celebrating her birthday with a quick 1-day road trip. The scenery was gorgeous. Our guide Lan (who referred to himself by Unicorn) was charismatic & extremely helpful, & knowledgeable. Terrific 2-hour boat river-ride despite the scorching heat. Wonderful, quick biking tour the river with stunning views. Everything was perfect except for the food. I'm a foodie, so I value good food & I'm always looking for gasto-delightful experiences. The buffet was subpar, to say the least. Restaurant staff were picking up fruit, with their bare hands, and replacing it in the serving dishes if it happened to fall off onto the buffet tables. Flies were everywhere; the fried peanuts & several pasta dishes lacked flavor & tasted like vegetable oil. The restaurant has, by design, no windows to provide the patrons with an open-air feel. That's lovely during the cooler seasons, but not in the summer. No air conditioning and people were clustering around the ceiling.

Our tour guide was the loveliest chick with excellent English and a savvy sense of humour. The bus ride was comfortable and the small group of people that accompanied us all nice and friendly. The day is action packed and really informative. The only unsavoury part, which isn't the guide's fault was the boat ladies manner and demeanour in trying to get $ out of us for snacks and tipping. We travel a lot so we are used to this, but it seemed rude and under-handed which leaves an unpleasant taint on that part of the day.

The guide pick you up at your hotel so it's really comfortable. The day before, Maya from GoAsia Travel sens you some message to prépare the departure and see if everything is working well. Then the activités during the day are really Nice with the visit of 2 temples in the morning. Then, the part we prefer was the 'cruise' on the river !! It was really beautiful ! And then we also enjoyed biking to go to see a Pagoda ! So we enjoyed a lot this day and have a lot of fun !

The trip was excellent. The ride in the river for almost 1.5 hours was amazing. It was really a talent to see most of the women paddling the boat by their feet. It was hot and very humid. Little bit disappointed where our bus driver took 15 minutes break on way back leaving all the passengers without air conditioner running in bus. No one wanted to take a break except the bus driver. Food was great at Long’s restaurant in Tam Coc. Great vegetarian and vegan options too.

The day started out with on time pickup. Our guide Giang was excellent, very good english! He explained every part of the tour brilliantly and in a very comfortable way. The only issue with the tour was we were moved on to another tour for the final part at Mau caves and the time allocated for this part of the tour was fairly rushed. Over all a great day!