The viewpoint at Mua Caves is honestly one of the best things my eyes have ever witnessed.
If you ever find yourself in Ninh Binh or Tam Coc or anywhere slightly south of Hanoi, you just have to visit Mua Caves to really understand the beauty of this area in Vietnam.
Therefore, we’ve created this blog post about everything you need to know about this beautiful place! It includes how to get there, parking scams, opening hours, entrance fee, what to see at Mua caves, and our personal experience at the viewpoints and the popular sunset by the dragon.
We’ve actually been to Mua Caves twice, and we know we’ll be back at the viewpoint again someday. Until then, we’ll guide you through visiting this incredible place and hopefully, you’ll have an amazing time here.
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About Mua Caves
Mua Caves is an attraction located just 4 kilometers away from Tam Coc in Vietnam’s Ninh Binh Province. The place is also called “Hang Mua”, whereas “Hang” is the Vietnamese word for cave. So Mua Caves and Hang Mua both refer to the same place.
There are two small caves you can visit within the attraction, but the Mua Caves is mostly known for its beautiful viewpoint over Tam Coc.
However, before we dive into the viewpoints, caves, and all the things you can do in this cool place, we want to get practical.
So let’s start this guide with the all-you-need-to-know information about this beautiful place in Vietnam.
How to get to Mua Caves from Tam Coc
Since Mua Caves is only located 4 – 4,5 kilometers away from Tam Coc, it’s super easy to get there. You can either go by foot, bike, motorbike, or taxi.
We would definitely suggest you to go by motorbike. It’s just so much fun!
These are our (super accurate) directions of how to get to Mua Caves from Tam Coc:
- Follow the big road towards Ninh Binh
- Turn left when you see a temple
- Follow this road straight until it ends next to a small river
- Follow the road next to the river until you see a road on the left with a sign that says “Hang Mua”
- Drive all the way to the end of this road, and here you’ll find parking spots by the entrance
How to get to Mua Caves from Ninh Binh
It’s also easy to get from Ninh Binh to Mua Caves. But since it’s 8 kilometers away, you might not want to go by bicycle or by foot from here.
Just drive towards the big road to Tam Coc, turn right when you see a temple, and follow the above steps from the section above.
How to get to Mua Caves from Hanoi
The best way to get from Hanoi to Mua Caves is on a day tour. Check out this full-day tour to Mua Caves, Hoa Lu, and Tam Coc which has great reviews and is pretty affordable.
Watch out for the parking scams
As mentioned in the beginning, we visited Mua Caves twice, and the most ridiculous thing happened to us the first time.
We were cutting it close for sunset, which meant we were in a hurry to make it to the top of Hang Mua peak before the sun was gone.
When we turned down the road towards the Mua Caves, a man stopped us on our motorbike. He told us that we had to park here.
Because we were a bit stressed to make it to Mua Caves by sunset, we didn’t think twice about it and naively put our motorbike in his parking lot. We then paid a parking fee, which he demanded, and started making our way down to the entrance.
This is when we realized we’d been scammed.
The beginning of the road to the Mua Caves entrance is around 500 meters long. And we now had to walk this length.
During our little walk, we saw more than 20 different places to park your bike on the way. We also paid more to park 500 meters away than what it would have cost us to park right next to the entrance!
So even though we’d been traveling for months by now, we were still easy targets for a good, classic scam.
The second time we visited Mua Caves, we knew that we had to drive to the end of the road and park there. However, while we were driving down the road, a very persistent lady with a whistle jumped in front of our motorbike and tried to stop us. She wanted us to park in her parking lot.
We eventually just went around the whistle-lady because this time we knew it was a scam.
Please, just ride to the end of the road and park your bike here. Don’t get fooled into parking 500 meters away from the actual attraction and to pay a bigger parking fee. Rookie mistake!
The bicycle parking at the Mua Cave entrance should be around 10.000 VND.
Mua Caves Opening Hours 2023
The Mua Caves is open for visits between 6 AM and 7 PM.
Mua Caves Entrance Fee 2023
The Mua Caves entrance fee is 100.000 VND.
Hang Mua Ecolodge Hotel
Did you know that you can actually stay at Mua Caves?
Right after entering the Mua Caves, you’ll find Hang Mua Ecolodge, and from what we can see on Booking.com, it actually looks pretty nice. There is a pool, a restaurant, and Wi-Fi on-site.
Next time we visit Mua Caves viewpoint, we definitely want to stay in this hotel for one night. That way, we can wake up early and head straight up the steps to the Mua Caves viewpoint for sunrise – without any fellow tourists!
What to see at the Mua Caves
The Mua Caves is mostly known for its incredible viewpoint over the limestone cliffs in Tam Coc. However, there are actually several things to do within this attraction.
So we will go through all of the highlights of our trip to Hang Mua to paint a more clear picture of what there is to see in this beautiful place in Vietnam.
The heart-shaped lily pad walkway
Once we’d paid our entrance fee to the Mua Caves, we walked through a gate into some kind of strange recreational park – this is the Hang Mua Ecolodge.
We would advice you to arrive half an hour before you intend to climb the steps to Hang Mua peak, because there is so much to see in this ecolodge and park.
At some point, you’ll see a small path to the right. This leads onto a heart-shaped walkway which is built in the middle of thousands of lily pads. If you’ve read our post about visiting the Thai Vi Temple, then you’ll know that I love lily pads!
In my opinion, this is one of the best spots to take pictures in Tam Coc, so make sure to stop by!
You can see the heart-shaped walkway from above at the first Hang Mua viewpoint.
Exploring the actual Hang Mua caves
Most people who visit Mua Caves don’t even realize that there are caves in the area. Everyone definitely come here for the incredible viewpoint over Tam Coc.
But there are actually 2 caves you can explore on-site. Although, “explore” might not be the right word since they are very small.
Right next to the steps that lead up to the Mua Cave viewpoint, you’ll see a small cave named “Tiger cave”. Now, we don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but this cave is a bit of a joke. You can walk one meter into this cave where you’ll see a big tiger statue next to a little altar. That’s it. It looks more like a tiny shrine of some sort.
If you want to “explore” the other cave, then you have to follow the road past the steps that lead up to Mua caves until you reach a wide cave opening. This cave is a little nicer, but it’s still not that impressive.
There is definitely a reason why people come for the Hang Mua viewpoint and not for the caves.
If you want to explore some of the really nice caves in the area, then we’d recommend you to do a Trang An Boat Tour where you can experience several caves full of stalactites. Just incredible!
The 500 steps to Mua Cave viewpoint
All right, let’s get on with why we are really visiting Mua Caves in the first place – the viewpoints.
To get to the Mua caves viewpoint, you first have to walk the almost 500 steps to the top. It took us about 10-15 minutes to walk up.
Some of the steps look like they’re cut out from the cliff and some are definitely man-made. This means they’re often differently sized and shaped. Plus they’re all made of stones, which can feel slippery at times. So watch out when you’re walking down again.
At some point, the Mua Caves steps start to feel tiring and endless, but just keep on going because the reward is waiting for you at the top. And it is SO worth it!
The first viewpoint at Hang Mua
During our first visit to Mua Caves, we had no idea that there are actually two viewpoints you can visit.
At some point during the climb, the steps split up and you can either go left or right. We went right.
It’s definitely harder to walk up to the viewpoint on the right because the steps aren’t that even. But we eventually made it there.
The first Mua cave viewpoint is great! You can see many limestone cliffs, the heart-shaped lily pad walkway, and you can even see all the way to Ninh Binh city.
It’s definitely worth checking out the first viewpoint! But it’s not the ideal viewpoint to watch the sunset from. So we hurried back down to where the trail split and walked left this time, making our way up to the next viewpoint.
The second viewpoint at Hang Mua Peak
Remember the first sentence of this blog post?
“The viewpoint at Mua Caves is honestly one of the best things my eyes have ever witnessed.”
This is it! This is the place where my eyes made some of their best memories.
The second viewpoint is also known as the Hang Mua Peak since this is the highest point that you can visit in Mua Caves.
This place is just so beautiful.
The landscape is picturing endless limestone cliffs. You can see their rounded peaks – one layer after the other, only divided by the silent riverbed that is leading its way through the cliffs.
I don’t think there is much more to say about this place. To really understand its beauty, you just have to go and experience it for yourself.
Climbing the famous dragon
If you want to go even further up, you can climb to the famous dragon statue at Hang Mua peak.
It still amazes me how they got the dragon up there.
This is where people often go to watch the sunset over the limestone cliffs. However, the Mua Caves has gained a lot of popularity, so the dragon gets super crowded by sunset.
On top of that, it’s actually quite dangerous. The climb to the dragon isn’t safe, and once you’re there, it’s hard to balance on the rocks. Then throw in 40 people trying to get there at the same time, and you’ll end up with a bit of a chaotic vibe.
Also, I’m super afraid of heights. So I was holding on to the dragon for my dear life while people where trying to pass around me. I absolutely hated it and I wanted to get down right away. The only problem was that I couldn’t get down because people were trying to get up – what a mess!
Glenn seemed to enjoy it though.
We wouldn’t suggest climbing the extra couple of meters to the Mua cave dragon unless there are only a handful of people around you. But please, if you do climb to the dragon, then watch your steps and don’t fall off the cliff.
Is it worth going to Mua caves by sunset?
YES!
But.
We’ve been to Mua caves twice at sunset now, and it’s been equally crowded with people.
If we have to be honest, then there isn’t this serene atmosphere that you normally get during a sunset. Nobody is quiet and nobody actually just sits down to enjoy the sunset.
Everybody is concerned with taking pictures or making it to the dragon. Don’t get me wrong, we did the same.
But unlike a serene sunset on a nice beach in Southeast Asia, the sunset at Mua Caves honestly isn’t very idyllic – it’s definitely beautiful, but not idyllic.
This doesn’t mean that you should skip the sunset at Mua Caves because it’s still incredible, we’re just trying to manage expectations here.
So next time we’re visiting Ninh Binh, we will try to make it here for sunrise instead. Or just visit during the day when the viewpoint is less crowded.
Will we return to the Mua caves on our next trip to Ninh Binh?
YES.
Together with the Trang An Boat Tour and Bai Dinh Pagoda, the Mua Caves was our favorite attraction in all of Ninh Binh. Therefore, we will for sure be back again in the future.
There is just something so satisfying about climbing all those steps to the Mua Caves viewpoint and see the incredible landscapes of Tam Coc and the Ninh Binh province.
However, since we’ve now visited twice during the crowded sunset, we never felt like we could really appreciate the serenity of the place. So next time, we will try to stay one night at the Hang Mua Ecolodge and go for sunrise instead.
We sincerely hope that you enjoyed this blog post about the Mua Caves.
It’s honestly one of our favorite places in Vietnam, and we will 100% recommend anyone in the area to go and see the spectacular views. And please, don’t hesitate to drop a comment below if you have any questions or wonderings about this place.
If you want to know more about what there is to do in this amazing area in Vietnam, then you can read our blog post about the best things to do in Tam Coc.
Thanks for reading and happy travels!
