If you are looking for an amazing day trip from Hanoi, you simply can’t go past the Boat Cave Tour at Tam Coc Vietnam. These Tam Coc Caves are just 90km south of Hanoi, in a beautiful setting known as the Halong Bay on Land.
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Best Day Trips From Hanoi
The Old Quarter in Hanoi, like any tourist district in the world, has a great concentration of tour booking agencies. We had already decided to search for a Vietnam Cave Tour as our number 1 tour destination from Hanoi. We discovered that the “BIG 4” most popular day tours from Hanoi are as follows:
- Halong Bay
- Tam Coc cave tour
- Sapa mountain tour
- Hanoi Old Quarter tour
We decided to tour the Tam Coc Caves. The tour we selected is called the Full Day Hoa Lu & Tam Coc Small Group Tour. For 2 adults and 1 Child this tour cost us approx. US $112. I consider this to be quite good value for what you get.
Hoa Lu & Tam Coc Tour Itinerary
Hanoi to Ninh Binh Bus Trip
The Hoa Lu Tam Coc bus picked us up from our Hanoi Bella Rosa Suite Hotel in Old Quarter around 8:15 am. We were the last ones to be picked up and had to sit right up the back of the bus. From there it was a 2 hour drive to the first stop in the province of Ninh Binh Vietnam.
Hoa Lu is the ancient capital of Vietnam from the 10th and 11th centuries. This first stop takes in 2 fascinating temples: King Dinh and King Le. It is surrounded by some very nice traditional farmland, a great opportunity for tourists to check out this amazing scenery.
Actually the first stop is much more than just a couple of temples. It is the ancient capital of Vietnam and a UNESCO World Heritage listed site. Any World Heritage site is well worth a visit, this is no exception.
Bicycle Tour around Ninh Binh
Second stop was a buffet lunch at one of the local hotels, a very well organised lunch catering for several other Hoa Lu Tam Coc tour buses. Then on to the second attraction, where we would tour Ninh Binh on a 45 minute bicycle ride. The ride started in the small township and ended up in the local rice paddies just out-of-town.
There were plenty more wonderful photo opportunities in the Ninh Binh rice fields, limestone outcrops and classic Vietnamese landscapes. We even had to give way to farmers and cows on the tiny bike paths. This spectacular area is known as the Halong Bay on Land.
This part of the Ninh Binh tour is not for the faint hearted, I would not take a child with little biking experience. We were riding on public roads at times with trucks and motor bikes zooming past us. It is easy enough for anyone with reasonable balance, however I would not recommend this bicycle tour for small children.
Boat Cave Tour at Tam Coc
Lastly onto the highlight of the tour, the Tam Coc cave tour. This was in tiny sanpan boats with maximum of three people per boat, with a local person paddling.
The boat cave tour is a 2 hour return trip through some stunning scenery. There were three caves, the smallest about 30 metres long, the largest about 170 metres long and pitch black in the middle.
The Tam Coc caves weren’t especially stunning themselves, but the entire journey was magnificent. Tam Coc Ninh Binh is an area of stunning scenery. It’s little wonder that the whole landscape is declared UNESCO World Heritage. Once you get through the third cave, then turn around to go through each cave a second time in reverse.
The boat trip is child friendly, you are directed to wear life jackets for the entire journey. However it is very safe, and the water is extremely placid. Getting in and out of the boat is a little tricky but can be done safely.
There is a ‘don’t rock the boat’ requirement along the way, because these boats do become unstable with too much movement side to side. But overall, it’s fine for kids.
Tam Coc Tour Traps
The Thirsty Paddler Trap
We were told by the tour guide that after the third cave, a boat selling beer will pull up alongside our boat. The Vendor will ask if we’d like to buy our tired paddler a beer, since it is such a hot and strenuous journey.
The beer is then sold at a highly inflated price, the paddler decides not to drink the beer, and gives it back to the seller to be re-sold. Sure enough, this beer conspiracy happened exactly as predicted, only we did not fall for this enterprising scheme.
The Paparazzi Trap
At both Hoa Lu and the boat cave tour, there are quite a few local photographers, a.k.a. the Paparazzi. They take photos of you in a fairly non-intrusive way, then print and laminate the photos for you.
The Paparazzi are overall quite polite, and it seems one photographer is assigned to each tourist or family. Before leaving the tour you will have the opportunity to purchase your souvenir photos for 100,000-200,000 Vietnamese dong per photo.
We bargained these down to 2 photos for 100,000 dong which is still quite expensive, but everyone was happy. I guess it was a win-win situation, and it’s good to support the locals in a small way.
Tam Coc Tour Summary
The bus trip back to Hanoi was fairly non-eventful, taking about 1.5 hours with a toilet/refreshment stop at the half way mark. We were dropped back near our hotel in the Old Quarter after a tiresome 9.5 hour round trip.
Overall this Hoa Lua Tam Coc tour was good value and very interesting. Our 9 year old son was very interested for the whole day, especially with the adventurous bike ride in the middle of the day. And the boat cave tour is the absolute highlight of the day. Overall this as a genuine ‘not to be missed’ day trip from Hanoi. 10 out of 10.
More Ninh Binh Tour Options
And here are some more tour suggestions for you to consider, if you are considering your very own tour to Tam Coc Vietnam.
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