Tam Cốc

Three Caves

Useful Information

photography — Tam Cốc, Ninh Bình, Vietnam. Public Domain.

Location:	Ninh Hải, Hoa Lư, Ninh Bình. 7 km from Ninh Binh city center. From Ninh Binh follow QL1A south 3.8 km, turn right on DT491C to Hoa Lư 3 km. Boats start at the jetty at the southern end of the lake. (20.227510, 105.931869)
Open:	All year daily 7:30-17. [2024]
Fee:	Adults VND 250,000, Boat VND 500,000. [2024]
Classification:	Karst cave
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	Ca Cave: L=250 m.
Guided tours:	D=2-3h
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	yes
Bibliography:
Address:	Tam Cốc-Bích Động, Ninh Hải, Hoa Lư, Ninh Bình, Tel: +84-1900-0117.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2014	inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Description

Tam Cốc (Three Caves) is obviously a sort of key word, and while its literal meaning is easy to understand, we were not exactly sure if it is the name of the tour, the name of the town where the tour starts, the name of the small tower karst area, or probably just a description what you have to expect. So as we do not speak Vietnamese, we are not able to tell you this, but we may describe what such a tour named Tam Cốc may offer. In the last years it became known under the double name Tam Cốc-Bích Động. Chùa Bích Động (Bich Dong Pagoda) is a cave temple 2.5 km down the road, and it seems the two sites are often visited together.

Some 100 kilometers south of the Vietnamese capital Ha Noi lies the city of Ninh Binh in fertile plains and rice fields, on the shore of a meandering Red River. Following road QL1A to the southwest for about four kilometers, then turning right for another 3 km, there is a huge parking lot in the middle of Tam Cốc village. Buy tickets at the ticket office, the boats seat four people, but if you want your boat alone, you have to pay for two people as a base fee. There is a sort of jetty, with hundreds of sampan, about 300 m from the ticket office. If you do not want to walk, there is a free electric shuttle. Elegant wooden boats are rowed by one person, typically local women, and often in a characteristic style using the feet instead of the arms. The trip starting here takes between two and three hours, so we can understand why they use their feet. And participants, while not rowing themselves, need some patience and probably a soft cushion to be able to sit on the wooden bench for so long. We also strongly recommend a hat against the sun.

From the jetty, the tour first goes through rice fields until finally the tower karst area is reached. The towers with their vertical, grayish limestone walls are impressive, the canal becomes a river which winds through the towers, and finally a gorge. The caves are located at the level of the river and are simply visited by rowing through. There are - as the name Tam Cốc (three caves) says - three caves named Hang Ca (Fish Cave), Hang Hai (Second Cave), and Hang Ba (Third Cave). Hang Ca is the largest and longest of the caves, some 250 m long and up to two meters high. It was named Fish Cave because once a black fish was caught here, weighing 45 kilograms. Several men were needed to get the fish out of the river.

While the river caves are crossed on the boat, there are some interesting stops with short walks. The most impressive is Khe Giời (Gioi Ravine), right before the second cave. It’s a short 5-10 minute walk through a narrow gorge with vertical walls, but the trail has many stairs. It ends at a spectacular viewpoint.

Actually, there are many more caves, which are not part of the river tour, some say there are 32 caves. The tallest cave in the area is Thung Doi (Bat Cave), which is 210 meters high. The widest cave is Bong Cave with a 16 m wide passage.