The Truth About Trang An, Vietnam: Know Before You Go

Trang An is one of those places you see and immediately imagine yourself there amongst the quiet, glassy water, jungle-covered karsts, all with a misty, otherworldy feel to the atmosphere. 

And in a way, yes, Trang An is just like it’s photographed. But with that beauty comes its popularity, and therefore, you won’t be alone.

Busy, crowded, and chaotic in a way that conflicts with the natural beauty, yet at the same time, there’s no place like it so you can’t really blame it for being so popular.

While I loved the beauty of Trang An, it exemplifies some of the issues I see time and again with tourism in Vietnam: immense beauty capitalized on quickly, creating a mess of mass tourism. 

After three trips to Vietnam, I truly feel like entering with correct expectations is the way to best enjoy your trip.

And so I’m writing this guide from my honest experience, both positive and negative, not to dissuade you from going but just so that you actually have the experience you expect.

Trang An is stunning, and you can immediately see why it blew up

First things first, credit where credit is due. Trang An is stunning: towering limestone mountains rising straight out of calm, blue-green water, all along a slowly moving river that carves its way through grottoes and karst.

At times, it genuinely feels as if you are in a movie… which makes sense, because parts of Kong: Skull Island were filmed here (and some of the set pieces remain, now a part of the landscape). 

From its beauty, you can understand exactly why filmmakers chose this place. But the spotlight that the movie shone on Trang An drew even more imbalance in an already-fragile ecosystem.

In Vietnam, a place this beautiful can’t stay a secret for long, and here in Trang An, the secret has long been let out.

Trang An has been heavily marketed as an “inland Ha Long Bay,” which is both accurate and part of the reason why it’s so busy. The branding worked… a bit too well. 

Getting on the boat is… chaos

Before you can get to the peaceful part (and there are true moments of peace along the way, I do promise!) there’s the boarding process. Oh, the boarding process.

The boarding area is full of people trying to figure out where to go, who to follow, and which line they’re supposed to be in. At one point, I genuinely had no idea what was happening… and I was on a guided tour!

(I took this full-day tour of Ninh Binh, leaving from Hanoi, and had an overall positive experience!)

Since I was traveling alone, it wasn’t immediately obvious to me how the boat situation was going to shake out. Eventually, my guide found another solo traveler and a couple for me to sit with, and shepherded us into the right line to wait in.

But had I visited alone, I think I would have been far more confused, so I was appreciative that I had booked a guided experience.

The boat ride is long, and not particularly comfortable

The standard boat routes are long… mine was two hours, and I think you can even select longer routes!

While that seems great in theory — who doesn’t love more time in nature, right? — in practice, I found it rather hard on my body. Although definitely not as hard on those who row, which is a tireless and difficult job — tip well!

I have some chronic pain issues (sciatica, knee pain, and neck pain) and sitting on a wooden plank with no back board for a few hours was a bit difficult… and once you’re out there, you’re committed to the full two-hour route.

I ended up trying to move around and stretch a little bit to ease the pain, but there’s only so much you can move on a small boat before it starts to be very uncomfortable for your fellow passengers.

So if you are susceptible to these kinds of pains, I suggest bringing something to help you out as you will likely end up feeling rather uncomfortable as the boat ride progresses.

Getting nice photos is a bit tricky

Even once you’re on the water, the crowds you boarded the boat with spread out, and it becomes really jam-packed with visitors. There are boats pretty much everywhere you look, especially around particularly photogenic areas like the pagoda and the bend in the river.

It can be a bit difficult to get clean landscape photos, unobstructed by boats or other people, that include the beauty of the river juxtaposed against the mountains.

Similar to the first point, if you want to get to get nice photos of yourself along the tour, this can be a bit difficult.

First of all, if you’re not sitting in the front two seats… forget it. You can’t get to the front of the boat safely, and you still ask your rower to take a photo of you on the boat, but it’s not a particularly photogenic angle.

So… is Trang An worth it?

Honestly, I still think it is, but I also like to help people have reasonable expectations because I’d rather you be surprised by how much you liked it than by how much more peaceful you thought it would be, and then it isn’t that.

It’s one of the most visually striking landscapes in Vietnam. The karsts, the water, the caves… every bit of it lives up to the hype, from a visual perspective.

But the experience itself is a bit different: crowded, perhaps a bit too long, and overall a bit chaotic. It’s not the peaceful escape it’s often sold as, so going in with that expectation can set you up for disappointment.

I wrote this post because I think that if you go in knowing what it actually is — a beautiful place that a lot of people also, rightfully, want to see — you’ll probably enjoy it more.

Just maybe plan to get a full body massage later that night!

Allison Green

Allison Green is a former teacher who has been travel blogging since 2016, visiting 75+ countries in total. She has a Masters in Teaching and a B.A. in English and Creative Writing. As a former educator, she merges her writing and educational experience to encourage ethical, sustainable travel. She has been a speaker at the World Travel Writers Conference and TBEX. Her writing, photography, and podcasting work has appeared in National Geographic, CNN Arabic, CBC Canada, and Forbes, amongst others. When she’s not on the road, she lives in Bangkok, Thailand.