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Hoa Lu Tam Coc Full Day Tour: Experience Vietnam's Ancient Capital & Tam Coc Grottoes
✔️ Explore Hoa Lu, Vietnam’s old capital.
✔️ Embark on a thrilling sampan boat journey through the Tam Coc caves.
✔️ Enjoy a bike ride on rural paths.
✔️ Gain insights into Vietnam’s history.
✔️ Seize the opportunity to mingle with the locals.
Duration:
10 hours
Cancellation:
24 hours
Highlights
- Hanoi Old Quarter - 8h00 – 8h30: Tour guide will pick you up from your hotel in Old Quarter to depart to Ninh Binh city
- Ninh Binh Tours - 10.30-11.00: You will reach Hoa Lu Ancient Capital. In 968, Dinh Bo Linh declared himself as the King. Since then Hoa Lu existed as the capital for the next 41 years (968 – 1009), of which 12 years was under the Dinh dynasty – King Dinh Tien Hoang, the country named Dai Co Viet, and 29 years later was under the Le dynasty – King Le Dai Hanh. In 1010, King Ly Thai To moved the capital from Hoa Lu to Thang Long –present day Hanoi. Hoa Lu became the old citadel. In Hoa Lu there are now 2 temples have been built on the ground of the old royal palace, one is dedicated to King Dinh Tien Hoang, the other is to King Le Dai Hanh. The visit offers a chance to know more about part of feudal dynasties and historical periods in Vietnamese history.
12:00: Today you will enjoy buffet lunch at local restaurant in Tam Coc named Duc Tuan restaurant. The food is served with Asian stype, local dishes, organic vegetable. The Duc Tuan is located on the river overview Tam Coc, you can enjoy the view of overal riverside until you finish your lunch
13:30: After finishing your lunch, you will be taking the rowing boat at Tam Coc Harbour. Arranged by local people here, the boat is rowed by both hand and legs. The boat will take you to 3 specular caves with hundreds of limestones on the way. If you travel during harvest season, you will see many terrace rice fields in golden colours.
The boat rowing will be in around 2 hours. Not only you could see the peaceful scenery of mountain, rice paddy fields, temples, you also have chances to learn about local people cultures on their daily life.
When you return to the dock, take a short break before cycling for approximately 45 minutes along country lanes to enjoy the beautiful scenery of lush paddy fields and discover the real countryside of Vietnam( about 5km for return way)
(if you don’t want to bike you can enjoy a cup of tea in a local restaurant or visit a local market by yourself)
- Optional activities: Buffalow rides
16:00: Leave Tam Coc and go back to Hanoi.
- Hanoi Old Quarter - 18h30: We drop you off at your hotel in the Old Quarter. Trip ends.
What's Included
- Entrance fees & Mineral water bottles
- Boat trip on the river
- Riding bicycle
- English speaking tour guide
- In-vehicle air conditioning
- Buffet lunch
What's Not Included
- • Beverages, Tips( not compulsory), and Personal Expenses
- • Other things are not mentioned clearly in the packages
Additional Information
- When you visit any temples, you should wear long pants or short under the knees and a T-shirt. It is respectful to cover your knees and your shoulders.
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
4.1
(8 Ratings)
5 stars
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1 star
Long2702
Oct 5, 2019
Amazing full day tour with great tour guide - My partner and I had a wonderful time on our recent tour to Hoa Lu tam coc. We were picked up promptly in the morning and met awesome friend tour guide, Sam. She is funny and light hearted throughout the day. She made the trip memorable one. We enjoyed relaxing day at the beautiful ancient temples, feasting at Vietnamese traditional buffet, cruising along the stunning the river and cycling through the rice paddies. We would both recommend this full day trip t anyone looking for a da trip outside of Hanoi. You cant go wrong!
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Notsolazysunday
Oct 5, 2019
Best trip in the North!!! - At the beginning, I wanted to book Trang An and Mua Cave. But my dad and mom didn't wanr to hike up the cave. So I booked this one. And it was a fantastic day trip!!! The scenery is gorgeous. The services is excellent!!!! After this trip, I also booked a private Hanoi day trip with them. And Rose ( our guide) is amazing 💕 ask for Rose if you are Asian group 😂 she brought my mom to a big flower garden. My mom took millions of photos there and told me ' well done' when she was back to our hotel.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Dmshep66
Aug 8, 2019
Fab experience - Full day out from Hanoi, with a 2 hour drive south to Minh Binh. Short 'comfort' stops en route and then a visit to 2 old temples from the first and second emperors.
Then, an air-conditioned lunch which was excellent, both in quality and variety.
Next was a 15 minute drive to collect bicycles and half an hour to cycle around fantastic scenery.
Finally, a boat ride through the limestone karst with women (mainly) rowing with their hands and feet! This was for about 1 hour 40 mins!
Very hot day, but great day out.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Nickhk2743sj
Oct 2, 2022
Good value for money - Nice trip. Started at 7:30 AM when we where picked up at the hotel. The first activity was visiting a temple. The tourguide was funny and knowledgeable. The second trip was the riverboat trip. This was nice, but the man rowing was a bit rude and demanded a big tip.
The cycling activity was short but nice. Afterwards we went back to the hotel where we arrived at 9:00 PM
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Lukeh1759
Dec 27, 2019
Day trip - Awesome guide and driver, lots of good information, lots of laughs, would definitely recommend this tour
Review provided by Tripadvisor
P1982vdnathanh
Nov 27, 2019
Overall very good - Overall this trip was very good, the temples were a bit under whelming at the start of the trip, while picturesque they are some what smaller then I imagined and are just small out buildings with statues of previous kings and family in them, nether the less an informative part of the trip.
Next was lunch in a local restaurant, we were the first to arrive there and when we were there many more groups arriving so we were lucky as I imagine it gets busy. That aside the food was an all you can eat buffet with fresh food served and a vast variety.
Next we did the boat trip down the river, very busy with and popular with many tourist groups how ever it wasn’t too over crowded considering. The boat last around 90 minutes between large cliffs and through low caves. The only disappointing Thing is that it wasn’t rice season so the pictures you see advertising aren’t quite accurate depending on what time of year you visit!
Lastly was the cycling for around 45 minutes. You could either stay with the group or explore the local town yourself, some bikes were very good quality but useable nether the less. You cycle along the road for around 15 minutes then you can either turn back and go back along the road of head off road on a rough cycle track which takes you a more scenic route, which I did and was worth it. The track runs along the river and between mountains and far enough away from the road so that’s it’s tranquil again, a good experience.
Maybe the best part of the trip was the guide HUY. Very honest with scenarios, for instance with people taking your photo graph doing various activities and if you pose you are then agreeing to buy or on the boat trip there are people trying to sell you snacks and drinks on boats and even if you don’t want one they’ll tell you that you should buy your personal rower something which he advised all the do it keep it and sell it on later so it’s best just to tip them, along with how much is acceptable should you wish to tip etc. HUY was also very knowledgable and answered any questions that were directed at him along the trip. As well as being extremely helpful before and after the trip by phoning me ahead to inform me how long the bus would be before pick up etc and was happy to drop me in a different location when the tour had finished and to a street that he recommended for good food!
Definitely worth the money and a worthwhile trip.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Fiona
Oct 3, 2019
So So. - One of the less crowded and popular tourist places in Hanoi but still an unforgettable trip.
We started this tour with visiting some temples. The temples were pretty cool as our guide explained the history. ***For females, you aren't allowed to wear short skirts/shorts so you have to cover up which will be provided***
Afterwards, we went to the lunch buffet. Not my favorite and I didn't get full from it.
We then did a bicycling tour. This was probably the highlight of my tour as we biked around the island and took some neat pictures of the rice paddies.
Afterwards, we did a boat trip along the river. The boat was accompanied by one small rower. We got a 15 year old girl which made the experience bitter sweet. The first 30 minutes of the boat was fantastic and amazing, but afterwards, it got boring. The entire boat ride was almost 2 hours which was too long in my opinion.
For a day trip, this was an okay tour. The bicycle rice paddies was my favorite part. The temples were a good chance of pace. If anything, I would make the boat ride cut in half.
Regardless, I enjoyed this trip and it was a good escape and introduction to Ha Long Bay.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
