During the 10th century, Ninh Binh was home to the capital of Dai Co Viet, an ancient Vietnamese Kingdom.

Ninh Bình is a small city in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Ninh Bình Province.

There is the city centre where there is no much to see, but the most interesting part is the old town, where there is the famous Mua Caves, the Trang an lake.

HOW TO GET THERE

From Hanoi to  Ninh Binh , we took the shuttle from the grouptour operator and choose the VIP9 express for 483000 vnd ($20 US).

Just make sure you are in advance at the meeting point in Hanoi, because the driver don’t wait for you, and ask at the departure to be drop at your hotel in ninh binh, we asked to be drop at our homestay in ninh binh, but the driver drop off us ( in rush) at the terminal and we have to find the other driver to drop us at our homestay by ourself.

There is a lots of homestay in the old town.

We personally stay at the NINH BINH VALLE MONTANA HOMESTAY, very nice place, clean room with a balcony, the price was 1 500 000 vnd ($70 US) for 3 nights,         including breakfast.

Very good location in the old town, the host was very nice giving good service and on top of that her husband was taxi driver which was very convenient and safe, very truthful, we do not need to negotiate for the price and we use him each time we need a taxi.

They also serve food at the homestay, but to be honest it’s just convenient, the quality was very basic. But don’t worry there is a lot’s of very good restaurant around.

AROUND THE OLD VILLAGE

THE FOOD IN NINH BINH

THE MUA CAVES

The best way is to get a bicycle from the hotel, personally we walk there since our hotel was only about 20 minutes away from the caves.

THE TRANG AN LAKE

The best way is to take a taxi is about 3kms from the old city center, it cost around 110 000vnd ($4 US)