The Truth about the Tam Coc Boat Tour
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 06 Apr 2025
If you’re planning a Ninh Binh trip and are intending to do one of the iconic boat rides, check out our review of the Tam Coc boat tour and suggestions for alternatives.
In northern Vietnam, karst mountains surrounding Ninh Binh obscure the misty, meandering waterways that cut through looming limestone outcrops. These rivers, nestled into the rice fields, are frequented by small, rustic wooden vessels, steered using only the feet of the rowers. This remarkable tradition of using feet on the oars to propel and steer is legendary and, deservedly, quite the tourist attraction.
A trip to Ninh Binh is not complete without taking one of these atmospheric boat rides along the ambling rivers. Within the region, there are two main Ninh Binh boat tours to choose from. First, the Tam Coc boat tour and second, the Trang An boat tour.
During our visit to Ninh Binh, we chose the Tam Coc boat tour because our hotel was nearby, the journey length was shorter and this excursion was slightly more affordable. I’d also heard that this was the only boat trip where the rowers use their feet and I was curious.
Now, you’ll see a bunch of blog and social media posts about this very activity. All of them repeating that the Tam Coc boat tour is the ‘best thing to do in Ninh Binh’ and a ‘can’t-miss’ activity. However, in reality, it’s possible they’re slightly glossing over some of the issues and discomforts involved. Here at the Restless Beans, we’re trying to promote integrity and realism – and the reality of this boat tour is sometimes unpleasant.
This is an account of our experience and why we’d definitely recommend the Trang An boat tour option over the Tam Coc boat tour.
IN THIS GUIDE //
Tam Coc Boat Tour
WHERE IS THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR?
– GETTING TO THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR
WHAT DOES THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR INVOLVE?
THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR PRICING
OUR TAM COC BOAT TOUR EXPERIENCE
– THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR JOURNEY
– THE FIRST BOAT AMBUSH
– ‘WHAT A BITCH’
– TIPPING EXPECTATIONS ON THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR
THE ETHICS OF TIPPING
REALITY OF THE TAM COC BOAT TOUR
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Where is the Tam Coc Boat Tour?
The Tam Coc boat tour begins in the charming little town of Tam Coc, just outside the provincial capital of Ninh Binh. It has lots of small hotels, restaurants and tour operators and is perfect for a short nature-based trip away from chaotic Hanoi.
Tam Coc, meaning ‘three caves’ or ‘three grottos’, is named for the neighbouring caves of Ca, Hai and Ba. The town is famous for its remarkable scenery, which includes caves, mountains, rivers and rice fields. Exquisite temples, pagodas and bridges also dot the region.
We have written more generally about things to do in Tam Coc and Ninh Binh in our Ninh Binh itinerary and travel guide.
Getting to Ninh Binh
If you are considering a trip to Ninh Binh, your best option is the train or a bus from Hanoi (or other destination). We’ve taken both the bus and train, and either are a fine way to travel to the region.
Use 12GoAsia to confirm all the journey prices for comparison, and book your journey if you like to plan ahead. Again, if you are travelling to Ninh Binh, check out our extensive local guide which details the best way to travel to and around the area.
PLANNING A VIETNAM TRIP?
Have a quick peek to see if any of our other northern Vietnam posts might be helpful.
Destination info:
Explore the dramatic karst rocks of Ninh Binh
Don’t miss these 11 things off your first-time Hanoi itinerary
How to cruise Halong Bay on a budget
Read about how to ride the Ha Giang Loop independently
Why you should avoid Sapa’s Cat Cat Village
Planning guides:
Are you insured to ride a scooter in Vietnam?
An entire one Month Vietnam trip budget for backpackers
Three 7-day Vietnam itinerary routes, perfect for shorter trips
What to expect and how to book Vietnam sleeper buses
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What Does the Tam Coc Boat Tour Involve?
The Tam Coc boat tour is a non-motorised experience through the Tam Coc countryside, lasting around 1.5-2 hours. Boat tours depart from the Tam Coc Van Lam Pier, where a ticket office is located under the shelter.
The route itself is beautiful (you can even see some of it from the top of the Hang Mua Mountain) and you pass through three of those super-low, dripping limestone caves too. The journey is an out-and-back trip, returning along the same way you entered.
Depending on the season, the scenery of the surrounding arable fields will change. Early in the year, the rice fields are green, which turn yellow as summer approaches.
TAM COC BOAT TOUR TICKETS
When we visited, the Tam Coc boat tour had differing limits on the number of people in a boat. If you were Vietnamese, four people could share a boat. Non-Vietnamese could only have two people.
As of 2025 they have simplified matters (and increased the prices), so now the Tam Coc boat tour tickets are:
◊ Adults 250k VND
◊ Children between 1-1.3 metres tall 125k VND
◊ Children under 1-metre tall are free
◊ Solo travellers can have the whole boat to themselves for 500k VND
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Our Tam Coc Boat Tour Experience
It was first thing on a bright, sunny morning and we were the second in the ‘queue’ to get a boat (there were only three groups of people there). I could tell the others were Vietnamese because they could have more than two at a time in a boat (a very odd ruling against foreigners, mentioned above).
We purchased tickets at the stand, which opened 15 minutes late (8.15 am). An authoritative-seeming man took our tickets and beckoned to a slightly withered, older-looking, white-haired Vietnamese lady. With surprising strength, she swiftly moved a large white bucket from the seats so we could board her wobbly little boat. (I remember hoping that the waters weren’t so rough that it was to be used as a vomit bucket).
We were provided life jackets, but, in extremely broken English, the lady declared that we should take them off as soon as we were out of sight of the ticket stand.
Previously, I’d heard that the rowers work really hard, especially in the heat, so we had already procured some food and a bottle of water for whoever we were assigned. I passed her the cold water and signalled at the food bag – she dismissively pointed to the floor of the boat. I did what she said and put everything down.
Setting off from the pier, our rower used their hands, not feet, to guide us down the river. I was confused by this – the instructional sign where we bought tickets said that we were to report any rowers using their feet. However, the Tam Coc boat tour is mentioned as an attraction, amongst other things, for the fact that the rowers *do* use their feet.
A short time later, as we removed our lifejackets (the water was very calm – no vom bucket needed), the lady switched from using her hands on the oars to her feet instead. It turns out the rowers are told explicitly that they’re not allowed to row with their feet for some reason (but they do so anyway once out of sight).
The Tam Coc Boat Tour Journey
Our rower appeared friendly but didn’t seem to speak anything apart from lifejacket-English. This was perfectly fine, however, as we weren’t there to chat. Personally, I enjoyed the peace, especially as it was early morning.
A few minutes in, just past a bridge, there was suddenly a swarm of foot-rower boats flying towards us, expensive professional cameras in hand. We shook our heads with smiles to say no thanks – we don’t fancy any early-morning boat portraits, thank you – and the photographers looked a bit miffed.
The rest of the journey to the halfway point was serene and beautiful, apart from the intermittent buzzing of the rower’s phone.
The First Boat Ambush
A little less than an hour in, as we were entering a cave, our rower made a call. I don’t know Vietnamese, but it was a quick one. Just as we fully exited the cave, our rower stopped and another boat silently slid in alongside us. The new, younger female vendor inside insisted that we buy something. It was quite dark and I couldn’t fully see, but I said no, in Vietnamese, several times. Changing tactics, the vendor then animatedly insisted that our rower was thirsty, which our rower enthusiastically joined in with, mimicking thirst with sign-language. I picked up the water I’d bought earlier but the rower quite ferociously knocked it out of my hand.
The entire frustrating process dragged on, as our Vietnamese boat-buddies that we stood in the queue with disappeared out of sight, while we were held hostage. We could easily see that none of the Vietnamese customers had been harassed. It really felt quite threatening to me in the moment, not scary as such, but certainly more than a little menacing.
It turns out that the halfway point was a little past this cave. A dead end, with nobody around. This was a perfect place for a bunch of pestering, stalking women who will not leave you alone.
Our rower was getting more and more agitated, repeatedly miming food and drink, all the while there was food and drink in the boat. I then (exasperatedly) discovered that the white bucket in the boat was full of small trinkets and souvenirs that she then tried to hawk.
Truthfully, I wanted to tell her to fuck off, but being captive on a boat with a language barrier removes a lot of your power.
‘What a Bitch’
I think our rower got angry-tired. After saying no I don’t know how many dozens of times, she finally decided that we could move again. We didn’t spend as long as our Vietnamese boat-buddies in the final section – the sullen rower probably lost too much time, so our trip was cut short. Heading back, we said no to a whole bunch more women (some very friendly) in boats adorned with supplies. Flowers, foods, drinks – anything you can imagine was hawked at us, with our extremely surly rower, once again, miming thirst, amongst things.
I was so pissy by this point that I wasn’t even trying to hide my discontent. It was blatantly obvious that I was not best pleased with this Tam Coc boat tour. The gruff, unsmiling rower was definitely aware of this.
Despite my obvious mood, as anticipated, she stopped rowing, a few minutes before the boat pier. ‘Tip’ she said, grim-faced and stretching out her hand at me expectantly. I just looked at her, incredulously. My honest thoughts in this moment were ‘what a bitch’, although I have no idea if I said that out loud or not.
Tipping Expectations on the Tam Coc Boat Tour
We’d planned in advance to give our rower 50,000 dong, so I just motioned with a head-nod to Nick to ‘pay her’. As he passed it over, she magically spoke some pretty decent English and said ‘No, 100,000 each’. I was stunned. Like, that’s almost the ticket price. I’ve never tipped someone significantly more than the initial price (also, I’m not American, so don’t tip significantly above 10 percent most of the time). She’d stopped rowing at this point and was just coldly staring, hand outstretched.
It’s possible to stretch this story out far longer, with the back and forth between me and the dour old rower. In the end though, we paid 50,000 dong, which she was extremely unhappy about.
We got out of the boat, taking the water and food with us. She grabbed my wrist and twisted it, in a fumbling attempt to snatch the bottle out of my hand as I left. This, after refusing to acknowledge its existence for the past two hours.
She can fuck right off.
THE ETHICS OF TIPPING
I wonder how many visitors just pay the tips and buy the drinks, tat and food because they feel intimidated and held hostage by these rowers. Every single time a tourist does that, we encourage the escalation of this behaviour, regardless of our intent. It’s likely that my rower did not start off grabbing people and smacking things out of their hands!
We also severely disrupt the economy when we inject relatively huge amounts of money into it. It’s more impactful than most tourists realise.
For example, a Saigon taxi once held me hostage, with my bags in the boot of his car, while insisting I pay ten times the value on the meter. I didn’t pay, but I wonder how many people did before me to make him so bold and blasé about trying it. It makes me angry still, to this day.
It’s not scamming, tipping or haggling that’s a concern. It is clear intimidation tactics, bullying, harassment and threatening behaviour that I have a problem with.
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The Reality of the Tam Coc Boat Tour
Not all the boat-rowers and vendors are nasty. It’s possible that you’ll have a great time and not be harassed or intimidated at all.
However, we implore you to check the Google reviews of the ‘Tam Coc Van Lam Pier’ where the boats depart. Many descriptions of the boat tour mirror ours and, in 2025, some of the top Google review terms are ‘tip’, sell’, ‘scam, ‘harassed’ and ‘aggressive’.
Also, check Google reviews of ‘Ticket office tam Coc river’. It’s currently rated a solid 2.5/5 in 2025.
The problem is, I didn’t think to read these specific reviews of the pier before we embarked on our journey – I had just read a few blogs that told me happy-rainbow versions of this trip – not the reality.
So, if anyone asks why I’d write such a negative post, it’s because I wish I read these reviews before we decided on the Tam Coc boat tour.
Of course, it’s possible that their practices may change in the future – and I hope they do. I’m just here to remind you to throughly check reviews before committing to anything!
Final Thoughts – The Tam Coc Boat Tour
I get what some people might be thinking.
Maybe I’m just being fussy, frugal, delicate or sensitive. Maybe I should tolerate this kind of behaviour. The thing is, I’m not naïve, and neither is Nick. We’ve spent months in Vietnam and much longer in southeast Asia as a whole (we live here). It’s not okay – never pay when you feel bullied or under pressure to do so.
Some blog posts and reviews of the Tam Coc boat tour say that ‘haggling is expected’ and ‘requesting a tip is normal’, which I entirely agree with. The rowers are out there in 30-degree plus weather, ferrying around tourists, after all. However, the behaviour from our rower and some of the vendors I do not agree with, especially them grabbing me multiple times.
If you choose to take the Tam Coc boat tour, I hope you have a much better experience than we did! If you settle with the Trang An boat tour instead, great choice – it’s more professional from what we’ve been told and nobody will ask you for a tip!
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Thank you, Claire + Nick
It was good to read this as today we have just done the tam coc boat tour. We paid 500k dong for two people. Our rower was quite sweet probably mid 50’s We too were stopped by the paparazzi who said one dollar for a pic. I said no but hubby said why not for a dollar. We had a good time probably about 1h40 mins Weather was very cloudy and not hot Not stopping for hawkers etc. Just before we go back to base my husband gave her. 20k dong tip she say no no and then something like it’s not a dollar. I thought she was offended it wasn’t enough and my husband thought she was happy but didn’t really want to accept it. Just as we were pulling back to the shore she gave the money back to him. So now we are thinking maybe she was offended it was so little ? As soon as we got off and took the life jackets back this man came up us with a photo album demanding 10 dollars really aggressive and in my face. My husband stepped in and said No you said one dollar. He said there are 7 photos in there. He was told we only wanted one ! He persisted but dave told him to go away not interested. He followed him so closely – not giving up and coming down in price and eventually we gave him 60k dong which was about 2,50 dollars although he wasn’t too happy It’s a shame they had to be like this They must be making so much money from the boat tours alone. There were so many boats out there. Turns out there were six pics in the album and to be fair they were good shots
Hi Claire, curious did you do this tour through an organized tour operator/agency ahead of time or went yourself?
Hi,
We just rocked up on the day and didn’t organise anything – we just walked to the official pier bit and got a boat from there.
Hi
Glad we read your blog. We were going to take the boat trip this year but your blog changed our mind. Instead we are sharing your blog with restauranteurs and hoteliers that are interested in our opinions on Tam Coc. On our first visi tto Tam Coc in 2018 we took the boat trip in Trang An and we were hassled for a tip (Tam Coc boat trip wasn’t here then) . Our second trip in 2024 we didn’t bother with the boats. Glad we avoided the boats in 2025.
We also did the tour, paid 500 k. Dong and experienced only the very mild versions of all your bad experiences. It all went smooth, gentil and friendly. Of course the lady tried to sell her embroideries but come on she earns a few dollars a day so she does have her own “shop” on the boat. We were clear that we didn’t have any intentions to buy from her. At the end we gave her 58k. Dong and we had a great 1,5 hour and she had her tip. Was it enough? Yeah it is my money so I decide when it is enough tip and no one else.
I’ve been in Tam Coc for 3 days now and I’m feeling very bothered by the harassment all over the city, especially in the bad and expensive food restaurants. I’ve been watching at the port where the tours leave and what I’ve seen is exactly what you narrate. After reading your great text, I’ve already decided that I’m not going to do the tour. I didn’t come here to leave angrier than I already am.
This is a wonderfully written blog. We are so grateful we dodged this.
Hello – thank you so much for the blog! This prepared us for the boat tour which we did and we are surprised to say it all was a tranquil and great 1.5hr experience. We did have 1 person ask to take photos but as soon as we said no they went away. She also tried to sell her embroidery but again we said no and she said ok. That was it. I did see 3 patrol boats going up and down so maybe they cracked down on the bombardment? Overall great experience but thanks to this blog we were prepared for the worst!
Thx for the blog. We recently came back from our first trip to Vietnam, actually our 1st trip overseas in 35 years,our last was Bali at 19. Absolutely loved Vietnam and already researching for our next in 12 months. Loved the look of the Ninh Binh tours. Thx to your blog I am again realising/remembering our lessons learnt. We occasionally witnessed similar behaviours in other places in Vietnam, however not to that degree, and not on a boat. On one occasion we experienced this by a Grab driver in Na Trang. Luckily that was after 9 days into our Vietnam trip and we were confident enough to know he was trying to pull a swifty. We wasted about 5-10 mins debating the price and then I motioned that I would just walk away without paying anything. He then gave up and we paid the proper amount. We then had to walk to our hotel from there,which was about 1km from our hotel. By the end of our trip we would laugh at our new lessons in the Vietnam way, good and bad and just clocked them up a new experience. 😂
It is sad to hear this. It was not like this when I was there in 2010, it was a lovely peaceful ride and a lovely chat with the rower. So it does show the damaging impact we have as tourists over time on any interesting or beautiful spot, as locals realise they can have a piece of the tourist economy and grow their economic expectations. And sadly, this leads to the behaviours you describe. There are also always those who take over the ‘industry’, happy to exploit their fellow countrymen/women and are very likely exploiting the rowers who get paid a pittance. Tam Coc in 2010 was still a quiet backwater and a cycle ride from Ninh Binh with a few domestic visitors. Many workers in the tourist spots will of course try to earn more for less work, as likely we all would in a similar situation. Vietnam is still a relatively poor country for most and why wouldn’t they try their luck. We also need to reflect on our own responses and impact we contribute to long after our 24hr, week or 10 day long visit. The dilemma of travel.
Interesting read. We just experience our boat tour today and it was really beautiful. We paid 1.018k VND for Ninh Binh Day tour and the ticket was included. We were not told to tip the rower by our tour guide and we are also unaware that it’s required. My friend told me we should give a tip and I said give him 50k VND but we only have smaller bill so we gave 20k VND. When we got to the shore and gave it, the old man asked for 50K VND as a tip. It was actually okay to us since he was really tired and the speed was just right. Unfortunately, we don’t have the 50k VND cash and ended up just giving 20k VND. Somehow felt bad we only gave 20k VND as he seems like in 60s already but still strong. So whoever reads this, better bring 50k VND in cash for tipping. And I still wonder, if the boat owner give this Vietnamese good compensation because the tipping culture sounds aggressive with this other stories.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience !
We decided to go to Trang An ( 10min from tam coc by grab) it was an official entrance we choose the tour 3, 250’000 per person . It was very good tour of 3hrs ! Very nice we enjoyed a lot .
Hi Aline,
Thanks for your comment 🙂
I think it has now changed substantially for the better. We did it twice over three days, late afternoon and early morning. Both were magnificent. There appears to be a security presence that has stopped the sellers. The same dollar photo people are there but were happy with a no. Both rowers were delightful. We tipped them both 100k as it really is about the same as a bottle of water at an airport these days.
Thanks for your review. We were prepared for the worst but had a magical experience at a really low price. Try getting a gondola in Venice.!
The only thing I would add is we did trang am as well in the afternoon. No crowds and magical ride on route 3. The rower was delightful. The only problem is with 4 on the boat was that we got the back seats. The local couple in front of us had umbrellas up the whole way except for caves. You have a 50/50 chance of this. If I did it again I would buy 4 tickets and get it to ourselves. It’s a totally unique experience so I’m happy to pay the equivalent to a round of drinks on a London pub.
No one likes getting ripped off, but you can’t lose sight of the big picture.. both rides are wonderful and worth every cent! Thanks again for your warning as it opened our eyes. However the situation on the ground has changed from what you guys experienced it seemed. There were even QR codes on each boat so you could report any issues!
Hi Angus,
Thanks so much for your comment.
free tour in ninh binh by cycle?
Hi Brespo,
I’m not aware of any free cycle tours in Ninh Binh. You can certainly do a self-guided tour there. 🙂