I joined a day tour group from Hanoi to Trang An during my last trip to Vietnam in 2011. The tour mini bus picks up foreign tourists from the hotels in Hanoi in the morning and sets off quite early.

the first stop is to visit the temples. Based on the reconstructed gate, it seems to be the ancient capital city site of Hua Lu during the Dinh and Li Dynasty. the guide was saying the king's tomb was somewhere around in the mountains. The temples and internal settings are quite Chinese with Kings' statues and Chinese couplets. but they are not dating from 10 or 11 AD but more recent reoncstructions.

then the tour moved on to a lunch buffet at a local restaurant which was quite decent local food.

the highlight of the tour is the boat trip to visit the Trang An grottoes. the locals row the boat by foot with 2 to 3 passengers. Along the way, rice fields besides the river and limestone karst mountains not too far away. the river cut through a few mountains, so able to go under it. the rower would ask for tips in the middle or by the end of the tour.

the extra bonus is bicycle riding after this. following the guide, i visited another temple which seems to be more recently built but with a old pagoda and with rice fields all around.

i think the trip would be a nice family outing. there are many local tourists maybe from Hanoi joining the boat trip. In term of unesco value, it may lack quite a bit. i dropped off from the tour in ninh binh and took a local bus to visit the citadel of the Ho Dynasty.