We visited the temple complex with friends who are devout Buddhists. This is a newer development on an ancient site from 1,000 years ago. There are electric buggies to take visitors between sites. The landscaping is beautiful. The temples are also very beautiful with huge statues of Buddha and Bodhisattva. It was a 3+ hour drive from our cruise port in Halong Bay. We had another 3 hour drive back to Hanoi. There are hotels in the area to be able to spend more time at the temples and on the grounds. It was extremely hot and humid in late October and we could not tolerate much walking due to the weather. There are photographers who can take photos. Our group of six had one photo for each ticket purchased.

So much more than I was expecting - thought it was just going to be one pagoda but instead we were met with a number of beautiful buildings and stunning surroundings. While a lot of it is new I don’t think that takes away from the experience. We went on a Sunday afternoon and it was very quiet and peaceful. Highly recommend if you have a few hours spare.

We hired a taxi to take us to the pagoda, Hoa Lu and Mua Cave starting at the pagoda. This is a strange place, recently constructed and work is still going on yet it appears to be quite ancient. We paid for the entrance tickets including golf buggy. It’s a huge site and it would be a long walk. Bizarrely, instead of there being a simple system with one buggy doing the whole circuit you have to travel a short way on one buggy then transfer to a different one at several points. There are lots of temples to visit, each adorned with gold statues. It’s interesting to see what items are placed in front of the Buddha, fruit, Danish butter cookies and Coca-Cola to name but a few. The view from the tower is not to be missed and the religious foundation has had the foresight to put in a lift. The attendants will insist that you wear cloth overshoes to protect the marble floor so you need to take care not to slip or trip when going up and down the spiral staircase that leads to the lift. Why is this pagoda so large? There were relatively few people when we were there and it’s hard to imagine it busy but there are crowd barriers at the ticket office and at the boarding points for the golf buggy.

Unexpected beautiful pagoda! We visited in combo with the boat tour in Trang An. We arrived here after sunset to enjoy the night lights of the complex and it definitely worth it! We went on Sunday and we were almost the only tourists. The facilities like bars and restaurants were closed, but the electric cars and the toilet together with the access to the pagodas were open until 9pm. Recommended!

Biggest pagoda in Ninh Binh. It was a little bit complicated to find the parking lot. At the parking lot there is also the ticket counter where you can choose among different options. The area around the pagoda is huge, therefore you will need at least two to three hours if you want to see the most important spots. From our point of view the Bai Dinh Pagoda is worth a visit.

We went here as we were a bit out of ideas of what to do when in Ninh Binh, and so we took mopeds and when to the nature preserve (meh, although the riding of mopeds around the nearby mountains was nice) and here. This was both strange and a good visit. It felt a bit like a Buddhist Disneyland - it is huge. They could park 10,000 cars in the parking lot. But it is still beautiful, and it was nearly empty while we were there, so it still felt respectful. Not sure what it would be like on a really busy day. It was very odd that they had a souvenir shop at the end that had Elsa dolls from Frozen and other random stuff mixed with little Buddha statues. Worth a visit - you can spend 1 hour to 4 here, depending on how much time you spend in each temple. It was REALLY hot while we were there so we took it slow and skipped some, taking about 2 or fewer hours to explore.

We had a great time at the pagoda. Our tour guide is Trần Thị Huyền. She’s amazing. The pagoda is huge. We went to chưa ha (bottom), middle and top. Our tour guide explained clearly everything around the pagoda. Our family have 15 people including the elder and kids. Our tour guide was able to engage kids by explaining things in English. Overall, we’re happy with our visit at Bai Dinh pagoda. And I highly recommend Huyền to guide the tour.

The pagoda complex is huge and very impressive. Because it was very hot today (37C), we chose the hop-on/hop-off option for 250k per person. There is also a herbal foot bath included in the price. We couldn’t visit the ancient temple because it was too hot to walk up. Unfortunately, they don’t offer tours with professional tour guides who explain some things to you but you can scan QR-Codes and read something about the temples and pagodas. The free option isn’t even mentioned at the ticket office and it seems to be very touristic. There are many people who want to sell you their things, drinks or a massage.

I had a great time here. I took me 2.5-3 hours for all. Everything was so beautiful and ancient. I really like the atmosphere here. Hdv Nguyen Thi Tuyet helped me a lot. She gave me useful information about the ticket fee and where i need to go. Thanks Tuyet