Located in Ninh Binh, Vietnam the Hang Mua Cave is a must do when visiting the area. Known as the “Dancing Cave”, the cave itself is unimpressive, it’s what’s above the cave you go to see. Tourists flock to Hang Mua Cave to climb the mountain’s 500 steps to the viewpoint for amazing views of the Tam Coc valley. Hiking Hang Mua Cave with Kids can be done, and enjoyable for all.
Getting to Mua Cave:
By Car
A taxi or Grab can be ordered to drive the whole family to Mua Cave. A benefit of hiring a driver means there is no need to look or pay for parking once you arrive.
When you’re ready to leave you can order another Grab on your phone, or flag down one of the taxi’s nearby. You are not always guaranteed an available taxi however, so Grab would be more reliable.
Getting driven in a car would be a good option for families with young kids.
By Motorbike
If you are comfortable renting scooters with your family, scooters are the main mode of transportation all around Vietnam. Tourists are not able to rent cars and trucks, but they are able to rent scooters.
Laws around scooter and road safety are vastly different from the western world however. Although everyone is actually required by law to wear a helmet when on a scooter in Vietnam, many locals do not follow that rule, especially when it comes to children. It is common to see a family on a scooter with the adults wearing helmets and the children not.
Rental companies do offer helmets that can fit children, so if you would like to give it a try you can. Scooters are inexpensive to rent per day. You do not need an international drivers licence but you may need to leave your passport or driver’s licence with the rental company, which you get back upon returning the bikes. Some companies do not even ask.
Navigating the road traffic on scooters in Ninh Binh and Tam Coc are much easier than the larger cities of Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi. If you were nervous of driving after seeing the traffoc conditions in Hanoi, rest assured that the roads getting to Hang Mua is much less chaotic.
By Bicycle
Many hotels in Ninh Binh and Tam Coc offer bicycles free of charge with their room rates. If your hotel does not offer bikes for use, they can also be rented just like motorbikes from local shops.
Our hotel, Liberty Hall Tam Coc, also had a bike with a child seat on the back which was perfect for our 5 year old.
Biking to Mua Cave isn’t overly difficult as it is mostly flat ground. Depending on the weather however, it can be very warm. Hotels that offer bikes for use do not generally have helmets to go with them so you would have to be comfortable riding without one.
Tour Group
If driving to Mua Caves yourself is not your thing, a tour could be booked for you family. Although this is not our preferred method of seeing attractions, tour groups do work for some.
Booking a tour would mean you don’t have to find rides, rent bikes or scooters and deal with parking attendants. Tour guides will cover your park entrance and even hike to the viewpoint with you helping you with information along the way.
Mua Cave with kids as part of a tour group may not be the best plan as sometimes young children need longer to get to the viewpoints. You could find yourself holding up the group or worse, having to leave before you make it to the top.
Booking with a tour group means you are at the mercy of their schedules. Planning on your own means you can go at the time of day you would like to and you can spend as much time exploring the Mua Cave park.
Parking at Mua Cave
When you are nearing the Mua Cave ticket booth on your scooter or bicycle you will start to see many parking lot operators jump out in front of you yelling at you to park in their lot. Some operators will even jump in front of your bike, so drive carefully and pay attention. They all want to charge you to park in their lot. Keep driving, there will be closer parking lots. Some of these lots are pretty far away from Mua Cave entrance. Don’t get caught walking farther than you need to.
You can carry on past these lots and drive right through the Mua Cave gate for the official parking past the ticket counter. Just before the main gates, there was even a man in a security suit who tried telling us we couldn’t park past the gate and had to stop in his lot. They are very good at intimidating tourists.
There is a fee for parking, but it is minimal. Scooters were around 10,000VND and bicycles were 5,000VND. If you do happen to fall victim to one of the parking attendants you will likely pay the same price in all the lots, it just means you will have to walk farther to the main gates.
Mua Cave Park
Once at the Mua Cave entrance, you will have to pay to enter. Tickets are 100,000 VND per person, children under 100cm are free, otherwise they are full price. The official opening hours are 6:00am-7:00pm.
Once your tickets are checked and you are inside the gates there is a whole park to explore before you even reach the base of the Mua Cave viewpoint hike. My suggestion is skip all of this on your way in and explore it after you’ve finished your hike to the viewpoint.
If you choose to do the hike first, follow the signs towards the back of the park. You will pass some bathrooms if you need facilities before your ascent. You will also pass a few places to buy water if you don’t have enough to take up with you. You will need water, especially if climbing Mua Caves with Kids.
You will see Tiger Cave entrance at the bottom of the stairs that lead to the viewpoint. Feel free to pop into Tiger cave on your way up or down. This is just a small alcove to walk into and not much to see. We chose to check it out on our way down as it looked to be busy on our way up.
Mua Cave Viewpoint
500 stairs are now between you and the dragon that watches over Tam Coc. The Mua Caves hike is not only famous for it’s amazing views of the valley, but also it’s large stone dragon that keeps watch on the mountaintop.
The stairs are well maintained but not at all even. Our five year old didn’t have any issues with how high or wide some stairs were, but some younger kids might need some extra help.
About halfway up there is a fork in the staircase. Going left means you will be hiking to the dragon. Going right will take you to the lower pagoda viewpoint. If you think you only want to hike to one viewpoint you will have to make your decision now, left or right?
The lower viewpoint offers beautiful views of the lower rice fields to the north east of the mountain. On top of the viewpoint is a small pagoda perched at the peak. There is very little room at the top and if you want photos of you and the pagoda you will have to wait in a queue depending on how busy it is.
Although this viewpoint is beautiful, if you think you will only make it to the top of one peak then choose to go left. The Dragon is what you came for. If when you’re done at the highest peak and you decide you want more, you can always finish up with the smaller peak afterwards. The view of the valley is better from the dragon peak but the pagoda peak has a great view of the dragon peak!
The Dragon peak offers amazing 360° views of the valley. You can usually see boats floating along the Ngo Dong River below, rice fields on the other side and a great view of the pagoda viewpoint as well.
Once at the fork, you’re about halfway up to the dragon. There is a small vendor selling cold drinks and ice cream at this point. Prices are more than in town but not as inflated as they could be for being halfway up a mountain with literally no other option for a cold drink.
You will see quite a bit of goat droppings as you near the viewpoint. We didn’t see any goats while we were there, but many reviews from tourists who were at the peak later in the day saw goats on or around the staircase.
As you arrive at the peak you will see the Quan Am (Goddess of Mercy). The Quan Am is a sacred statue and should be treated as such by visitors. You will even see some people may have left offerings or lit incense. While there I heard many tour guides asking tourists to not stand or sit on the statues platform.
You’ve reached the top, take a breath and look around you. Here you can stop and enjoy the amazing view. Even young kids will enjoy looking at the valley below and seeing how high they have climbed.
The dragon is perched on top of some very sharp rocks. A picture with the dragon can be achieved if you are careful. Many tour guides recommend not to take pictures with the dragon as it’s too dangerous to climb up to but that doesn’t stop most people, us included.
Depending on how busy Mua Caves is you may have to wait in a queue to get a picture with the head of the dragon. Waiting in the queue on top of jagged rocks is dangerous. Keep goog hold of your little ones hands if you are going to try it. If you just want a glimpse of the dragon itself, feel free to walk around the queue clockwise to access the tail of the dragon. The tail will be free of people and you get the same amazing view of the valley.
Making your way down the uneven stairs can be quite difficult while tired, especially for young kids. Take your time and have patience to let them go slow. While we were hiking Mua Caves we saw lots of families with young kids, including other babies in carriers.
Mua Caves Park
As you reach the bottom of the staircase feel free to check out the Tiger Cave if you didn’t already. Once done there you can treat yourself and family to a fresh coconut or other beverages available. Kids can enjoy ice cream and popsicles. Fresh coconuts are about 35,000VND and are a good size. Even our five year old devoured a fresh coconut after hiking up and down 500 stairs.
The Mua Cave entrance is not far from the Tiger Cave entrance. You will see large letters on the side of the mountain spelling out “Mua Cave”. From there the cave entrance is right around the corner.
Touring the cave only takes a few minutes, it’s not large. There is a boardwalk inside as the cave is quite wet. Once we reached the end of the boardwalk, which appeared to just run into the water and disappear, the only option was to turn around and come back. This task can be difficult with very little room and a very narrow boardwalk, especially if more people are coming towards you. I’m not sure if the cave walk actually ends at this point, or if it was flooded out, but it was a rather disappointing cave tour.
If you have not yet toured a cave by this point in Vietnam, by all means have a look at this one. It is a pretty limestone cave. There just isn’t much of it to explore. If you had already seen many other beatiful caves during your time in Vietnam, this one will bore you.
After checking out the two caves on site, now is a good time to take the short walk out on the boardwalk over the lotus pond. Note that the lotus flowers are not in bloom all year on this pond, and unfortunately they were not in bloom at the time of our visit. It still made for a neat walk where you could see fish, frogs and water birds in the pond. As we are hobby bird photographers we were excited to look for any water shore birds.
As you start to walk towards the exit you will see lots of photo props set up. If this is your thing, feel free to go slow and snap some photos. I know our son loves the props. They had several small wood houses, some with ladders to climb. A couple water features, swings and a cute bridge covered in lanterns.
There is a restaurant on site but we did not venture in to check out the menu at all.
Mua Cave Tips
If you want to beat the crowds, show up early. The tour groups start to arrive around 9:00am and the large groups of people make the stairs very crowded, as well as the peak. Coming earlier in the day will also mean avoiding the midday heat. (We did not try it, but we did hear about some people showing up before opening and mentioning to the gate attendant that you are here for sunrise and have had no issues getting in early. If you stay at the Mua Cave Ecolodge on site you are able to climb the mountain anytime you like, including sunrise and sunset.)
Wear comfortable hiking shoes (or a runner with good soles). The stairs are uneven and narrow and can be slippery in the rain. You will see lots of goat droppings near the top as well, so best to stay away from open toed shoes.
If you plan to arrive early in the day some vendors may not be open yet so plan on bringing your own water. We brought water for the hike up, and bought some drinks and fresh coconuts once we completed the hike.
Avoid parking far away by driving right up to the ticket office. Don’t let the parking attendants bully you into parking a long way away.
Bring a hat and sunscreen. There is little to no shade during the hike.
Questions or comments, feel free to reply.
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