The first day follows the road everyone should take once: Hoa Lu, the 10th-century capital; Tam Coc, where the Ngo Dong River runs through three caves; and the 500-plus steps of Mua Cave to the top of Ngoa Long Mountain.
The night is spent in a bungalow with a pool at Trang An Holiday Retreat.
Then the scenery changes completely. Cuc Phuong, Vietnam's first national park, swaps rice fields for old-growth forest on limestone hills – ancient trees, deep green and a quieter kind of Ninh Binh.
- Walk through Hoa Lu, the 10th-century capital, and the temples of the Dinh and Le kings
- See the karsts and river caves of Tam Coc, the 'Ha Long Bay on land'
- Climb 500+ steps up Ngoa Long Mountain for the Mua Cave panorama
- A night in a pool bungalow at Trang An Holiday Retreat
- A day in Cuc Phuong, Vietnam's first national park





