Trang An, just two hours out of Hanoi, seems a world away from it. I was equally excited to visit Trang An as I was Ha Long Bay when I planned our family vacation to Vietnam in January 2025. On a long day trip from Ha Long, we climbed up Hang Mua, had a lunch of fried corn and goat stir fry among other local specialties, and took a boat tour of the Trang An complex before catching the sunset at the Ho Dynasty Citadel. I must say that a tour of the Ninh Binh area would definitely be a highlight for any trip to Vietnam. It’s extremely scenic and enjoyable. But what about the WHS that is Trang An?

Climbing about 375 steps to the viewpoints in Hang Mua would be enough to enjoy a fairly panoramic view of the surroundings and appreciate the scale of Trang An, including a glimpse of the Tam Coc boat tours below the far side of the mountain (pictured). For the best views but only for the able, 100 more steps and a bit of limestone scrambling gets you as high as you can go, with a true 360° vantage point, albeit often with a precarious grip (which didn’t stop tourists of all ages). For the less able, picture opportunities exist at the adjacent Lotus Lake, with views of Hang Mua and several limestone monoliths rising from the plains. Then, for the boat tour, we chose Route 3 as the only way to experience the longest cave available to tour, the 1-kilometer-long Dot Cave. This was possibly the highlight of the day, and the most impressive cave we passed, with well-preserved stalactites, sometimes dripping even in the dry winter season. You will have to constantly duck down here to avoid smashing into them, though. The route passes two shorter caves, sacred mountains, and the Kong film set, and it stops by two temples and the famous site of the Vu Lam Step-over Palace, a royal refuge of the Tran Dynasty and perhaps the most scenic view on the boat ride (I suggest a morning visit for this; the afternoon sun made this view rather against the light).

While the trip to Trang An was perfectly enjoyable and pleasant, I may have to give the unpopular opinion that it’s not quite on the level of Ha Long, at least as a WHS. Climbing Hang Mua definitely gave me a sense of the scale of Trang An, and while it is beautiful, I wouldn’t call it a world wonder. I come from a country where karst is everywhere, and over time, it’s harder to be impressed by these formations around the world when I would say I have some of the best in my backyard. I think the sizes speak for themselves, with Trang An’s 6.2K hectares dwarfed considerably by Ha Long’s 65K. Of course, this is not the only metric, and the unique and diverse karst features here do make it a worthy WHS in my eyes, but if you’re a world traveller, perhaps Trang An won’t be the most memorable karst site ever. Then again, if this were in a place other than Vietnam, whose entire natural WHS catalog consists of tropical karst, I think comparison would be less intuitive, and it would still hold its own on a world stage. It’s certainly a beautiful and interesting landscape worth exploring, WHS traveller or not.