Nam Dinh
A Red River Delta city of the Tran halls and the seal night at Den Tran, with Phu Day to the southwest and a morning of beef pho. Visit the Tran Temple and Pho Minh pagoda, walk the centre around Vi Xuyen lake, and eat pho and Kenh village rice rolls. An easy day by train from Hanoi.
●●●●○ The Trần halls and the mill town are a reason to stop. The seal night is one night a year.
Photo: TaiwaneseWaveVN · CC BY-SA 4.0
You wake in a delta city of mills and Trần halls, with the cathedral square and Hồ Vị Xuyên at the center, also written hồ Vỵ Xuyên. The statue on quảng trường 3-2 is cast bronze, about 21 tons and 10.22 m tall, on a 6.5 m base. Stay when that center, and the seal night at Đền Trần, are the trip. Go to Ninh Bình when the karst and the boats are the trip. Go to Hanoi when the old quarter is the point. Phát Diệm’s stone church is in Kim Sơn, on the Ninh Bình side.
The morning bowl is phở bò, a small, thin, soft noodle in a clear broth the paper keeps clear with traditional fish sauce, around Chợ Rồng and phố Hàng Tiện. One article’s shop closes at 09:00. Another says a bowl can be found at any hour. Whether that 09:00 close still holds was not rechecked. The old Hàng streets are fragments between newer houses, not a second old quarter. The 2018 page says the city had about 40 streets named Hàng. Chợ Rồng is the French-built hall one paper dates to 1922.
Phổ Minh’s tower is 19.51 m on the heritage page, with a base of 5.20 m, and 21.2 m on the 2018 city page, with a base edge of 5.21 m. Đền Trần is the halls beside it. The heritage page puts the 14 Trần kings in Trùng Hoa, to the west. The tourism administration puts the 14 kings in Thiên Trường and the kings plus mandarins in Trùng Hoa. The heritage page says thôn Tức Mặc, phường Lộc Vượng, thành phố Nam Định. The 2026 plan says phường Nam Định, tỉnh Ninh Bình. The seal rite is timed at 22:00 on the tourism page, and the 2026 plan runs the yard from 21:00 to 23:10.
Phủ Dầy is about 15 km southwest, the Mother Goddess complex UNESCO inscribed in 2016. Chùa Cổ Lễ is about 15 km out đường 21. The tourism page says that tower is 12 storeys, built 1926–1927, with 60 steps, and a bell of 9 tons and 3.2 m cast in 1936. Vietnamnet says 32 m, 9 storeys, built 1927, 64 steps. Vietnam.vn repeats 32 m and 9 storeys and prints the bell at about 4.2 m. The town is thị trấn Cổ Lễ, huyện Trực Ninh, tỉnh Nam Định on the tourism page, and xã Cổ Lễ, tỉnh Ninh Bình on Vietnam.vn. Xuân Thủy’s Ramsar year is 1989 in the park page body and 1988 in a sister title. Nhà thờ Lớn, at số 16 phố Hai Bà Trưng, was blessed in 1895. One listing dates the damage to 1968 and the repair to 1973. Another dates the bomb damage to 1946 and the repair to 1973.
Common questions
- Is Nam Dinh the same trip as Ninh Binh or Tam Coc?
- No. The karst, the boats, and Hoa Lư are the Ninh Bình page, and Tam Cốc is the boat page beyond Ninh Bình station. This city is the textile town and the Trần halls. Clause 8 put the old Nam Định province into the new Ninh Bình province, printed at 3,942.62 km² and 4,412,264 people. The 2023 plan still prints 1,668.8 km², and VietnamPlus prints 1,669 km². Those figures are not the size of the city you sleep in.
- How long is the train from Hanoi to Nam Dinh?
- On the one railway table, southbound SE cells differ by 1 hour 40 minutes or 1 hour 41 minutes, and Nam Định is kilometre 87. SE7 is Hà Nội 06:00 and Nam Định 07:40. Fares were not on the table. The 2018 city page also prints khoảng 80 km and hơn 100 km for the same city.
- When is the seal rite at the Tran temple, and what does it cost?
- The tourism page prints the 14th–15th of lunar month 1 and times the rite at 22:00 on the 14th. The 2026 plan used a later clock that night, 21:00 to 23:10, on 2 March. No ticket was printed on the pages opened.
Top attractions in Nam Dinh
1 Pho Minh pagoda Chùa Phổ Minh
Give the morning to the stone tower on the same Tức Mặc ground as Đền Trần.
2 Phu Day Phủ Dầy
Give a day to Phủ Dầy, the Mother Goddess complex about 15 km southwest.
3 Phu Nhai basilica Vương cung thánh đường Phú Nhai
Look at the gray church at Xuân Phương, more than 1 km from the Xuân Trường town.
4 Tran temple Đền Trần
Walk the three Trần halls beside the Pho Minh tower.
5 Co Le pagoda Chùa Cổ Lễ
Walk the lotus tower, then the hall, about 15 km from the city.
6 Xuan Thuy National Park Vườn quốc gia Xuân Thủy
Take a boat through the mangroves south of cửa Ba Lạt.
7 Flag tower Cột cờ Thành Nam
Look at the Nguyễn flag tower on đường Tô Hiệu, a short stop in the center.
Side trips from Nam Dinh
Hanoi
Vietnam’s capital, with a busy Old Quarter, lakes, temples, museums and famous street food.
Ninh Binh
A limestone valley south of Hanoi, where rowing boats glide through caves between rice fields and temples.
Tam Coc
A riverside village in Ninh Binh, where rowing boats take you through rice fields and limestone caves.
Hai Phong
A port city of bánh đa cua, flamboyant trees on the opera strip, and its own sand at Do Son, with the boat…
Nam Dinh by interest
Getting there and around
No passenger airport is named in the 2023 planning decision. The usual previous stop is Hà Nội. Ga Nam Định is kilometre 87 on the southbound Hà Nội–Sài Gòn table. Fares were not on the table. Southbound SE cells: SE7 Hà Nội 06:00 and Nam Định 07:40, SE5 08:00 and 09:40, SE9 13:00 and 14:41, SE3 19:20 and 21:00, SE1 21:45 and 23:26. The cell differences are 1 hour 40 minutes or 1 hour 41 minutes. Northbound cells run from 1 hour 40 minutes to 1 hour 44 minutes. SE7 puts Ninh Bình 36 minutes after Nam Định, 07:40 to 08:16. The “ngày +” marks on the northbound table are counted from Sài Gòn.
The 2018 city page prints both khoảng 80 km and hơn 100 km for this city from Hà Nội, and chừng 150 km for Thịnh Long from Hà Nội. Those stay beside the rail kilometre of 87. None is chosen. The planning decision names quốc lộ 10 toward Cao Bồ and Ninh Bình, quốc lộ 21 through Cổ Lễ and Xuân Trường to Quất Lâm, and cao tốc CT.08 as Ninh Bình – Nam Định – Thái Bình – Hải Phòng.
In the center, the cathedral, Chợ Rồng, and the Hàng streets are a walk. The coastal districts’ shore is printed as 72 km. That is not the length of one beach. Quất Lâm is the Giao Thủy beach the city page names for summer and weekends. Thịnh Long is more than 3 km of fine sand by đường 21. Do not borrow Thịnh Long’s 3 km for Rạng Đông. The 2023 plan’s border sentence is north Thái Bình, south Ninh Bình, west and northwest Hà Nam, east the gulf. VietnamPlus prints northeast Thái Bình, southwest Ninh Bình, northwest Hà Nam, southeast the gulf.
Nam Dinh itineraries
Hotels
Tours & Attractions
Restaurants
What to order is on the food guide.
Southeast Asia TravelGuide Network
Compare Across Southeast Asia: Vietnam vs. Thailand
Most Vietnam trips can add Bangkok for the city night and Phuket for an Andaman beach week.
Capital
Bangkok
- Royal temples and river hotels
- Thonglor and Charoenkrung after dark
- The usual air gate for a two-country trip
Andaman coast
Phuket
- West-coast beaches and beach clubs
- Amanpuri and Kamala
- A beach week after the Vietnam cities