Hoa Lu, Vietnam

Hoa Lu is a tourist destination located 110km or two hours from Hanoi. I visited it on a day trip when I was at Hanoi with a small group of AsiaExplorers members. Located near the dusty town of Ninh Binh (dusty because of a nearby rock quarry), Hoa Lu is the site of a 10th-century capital of an ancient Vietnamese kingdom called Dai Co Viet. This small kingdom covered an area of only 300 hectares, and reigned from the 10th century, during the Dinh and Le dynasties, to the 11th century, during the Ly dynasty. The kingdom was enclosed by a citadel. The citadel and the Yen Ngua limestone hills provided good defence for this kingdom against the Chinese.

Not much of this ancient kingdom is left standing. Whatever that remains of the palaces and shrines would only be of interest to archaeologists. Nevertheless, I find the surrounding to be quite picturesque, with its ponds and limestone range forming a jagged horizon. There are two 17th century temples, modelled after their 11th-century originals that are on most itineraries to Hoa Lu. They are the Den Dinh Tien Hoang and Den Le Hoan, dedicated to the founder of the Dinh dynasty and to its successor. I shall describe these two temples separately on their respective pages.


Karst mountain range in picturesque Hoa Lu.

How to go to Hoa Lu

You can easily get a day tour from Hanoi to visit Hoa Lu from most travel agents in Hanoi. Such a tour usually includes a boat ride at Tam Coc as well. The tour begins in the morning and ends at the early part of the afternoon. Hoa Lu is about 110km from Hanoi, and takes 2 hours to reach.


Another view of the mountains at Hoa Lu.

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About this website

Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.