Very impractical set up. Standard let's walk up a mountain temple. Nice temple complex. What is bad is the people who run the site. You need a 30-minute rowboat trip to get to the site which is romantic and beautiful in nice weather in the rain not so much . You pay according to the amount of people in a little row boat and they will make you wait until the boat is full or charge you extra. When we arrived cold and damp we walked up the mountain to go to the cable car to bring us to the temple complex. Very slippery in the rain. Unfortunately, as signs are in Vietnamese we missed that tickets were not available at the cable car but back half way down the mountain. Also we would have to wait to get enough people in the cable car we weren't allowed to go by ourselves??. Being tired wet and cold we decided to just call it a day and go home. On return to the docks to get the boat back. We saw that there were motorboats going up and down the river and asked if we could take one as we were not looking forward to another wet uncomfortable trip. This was not possible not only did they not want to help us we had to pay extra to leave early. Very unfriendly staff and hardly any English spoken.

Good to see old and new extended temple. Worth to go on boat, cable care as well as walking around. However, a lot of rubbishes in the way to go and on the river. Also dont agree with the shop owners to sell wild animals, birds for releasing. The more people buy it, the more people demand to catching wild animals.

Spectacular. One of my best memories in Vietnam. There was never a dull moment the entire day. We started out in boats, and headed up river to the temple. It was raining the day we went, but was beautiful nonetheless. Spectacular views; really an experience out of this world. Cafeteria/restaurant is massive and open-air. Great day!

Very interesting place to visit, unique history, set in a remote location, surrounded by beautiful vistas. To get to any of the 15 pagodas in this area you must travel by boat. The Huong Pagoda was 3km upriver and you must visit the local temple as part of the journey. It's a very tranquil way to start. The Pagoda itself is set up a short but steep walk up from the shore, and is maintained by a group of working monks. Unique to this Pagoda, is that is a monk dies here, they are given their own tomb on the grounds, and they're cast as a statue, and after 200 years the statue will be painted gold, as it is believed they have achieved enlightenment as a Buddha. The star attraction is the cave at the top of the nearby mountain, said to be the restimg place of a king's daughter. You can walk to the summit (3,400 steps) but unless you are very, very fit you'll want to take the cable car. There is still another 200 or so steps to the summit, before you decend into a very stunning and tranquil cave. Overall I'd say it's well worth the visit, however there are a few things to be aware of: 1) There is a festival here Jan-Mar, that attracts 2mil worshippers. The river is choked with boats, and it is shoulder to shoulder walking room. This in itself would be an experience. 2) The place is step up to sell to those visitors during the festival - everywhere the path is lined with makeshift shops and restaurants all the way to the summit. Outside of the festival time period the majority of these are closed, so you are walking past walls of tarps. 3) The heat - there is nowhere to hide from it. Especially on high humidity days. There are no air-conditioned buildings, just fans and refrigerated drinks. A number of our group suffered heat exhaustion, and there was little relief until we were back on the bus.

This is from my travel diary: We had arranged to go on a tour out to the Perfume Pagoda which is about 120 km outside of Hanoi. On the way there we had a really good look at villages. Then to get to the Perfume Pagoda, known as Huong Pagoda, we had to take a long ride in a dugout canoe. This is a very impressive site. The Perfume Pagoda, known locally as Chua Huong or ‘inner temple’, is at the centre of a very revered and sacred site featuring a maze of mainly Buddhist temples built into the limestone cliffs of Huong Tich. At the heart of this complex lies the Perfume Temple or Perfume Pagoda in the Huong Tich Cave. It is believed that the first temple was built here in the 15th century, although legend declares that the site was actually discovered over 2,000 years ago by a Buddhist monk who was meditating nearby. The mountain foothills are an area of great natural and spiritual beauty filled with streams, tropical plants, and temples. We basically spent the whole day there.

Beautiful and quiet place in August, but it was pretty hot over here. Everything was pretty good, only one thing in the end that made us a bit uncomfortable. My group already decided to give some tips to the boat rower when we reached the river bank, but when we were almost there she asked for tips as she said everyone gives tips to the boat rower over here, we had a bit disappointment then. And when we got out of the boat and already gave her tips, she ASKED FOR MORE TIPS. That's really impolite of her to ask for tips not to mention asking for more when she's already got more than what she deserved. And it's not only one boat rower asks for tips, there are more of them.

The boat ride to Hương pagoda is magnificent if you don’t mind the old boat ride typically for about 1 hr. Along the way to the pagoda, you’ll see many local vendors, do not stop and buy anything there. One thing to remember, they don’t have proper public restrooms at this time. So just keep that in mind.

A beautiful boat ride with lushy mountains and lotus farms around is the pre journey to this place. There is an option to reach to the cave either using a cable car or trek to reach atop. The trek will take about an hour . Then comes a beautiful the cave where the Pagoda of the lady Buddha is present. One of the most beautiful Pagoda in Vietnam and definitely worth a Visit.

Spiritual Place , Many Visitor , Beautiful View..First you will go a boat ride about 1 hrs and then walk up to the cable car to the top temple cave . You will walk down few steps in to the cave . It seem it a yearly pilgrimage for the locals

Worthy visit, do not go on the festival days to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. Use the boat to reach the Thien Tru pagoda, it will be better to trekking to Huong Tich caves if you have strong health and trekking hobby, if not you can use cable to reach there.

Decent place....not recommend for sunny day....boat ride will not have any cover and it takes atleast 1 hr each side. Peaceful place,good cave,pagoda Cable car👍

The pagoda is beautiful, the Yen river is beautiful. There is lot of food. The car parking is available. The boat driver is frendly. It is easy to go there through 21B road. But the service is bad. The ticket counter is not at the gate, it is somewhere on the road, about 3 km back from the entrance gate. You will find it is hardly to get the boat only with the ticket. Tourism have to pay more money to have boat. Some local have the action of threaten the boat driver if they allowed you to reach the boat before pay the extra money. With the experience like that, I will not go there again if they don't change they way of service. I hope they will change in the future like Trangan.

A spiritual place turned into fair/flea market with millions of locals selling you an array of random, cheesy, useless things. They use loud speakers to advertise. They rent out load speakers on the rivers so people can sing karaoke on the boat. The only vegan restaurant in this "spiritual" place actually serves meat dishes. Consumerism at its finest.

What an outstanding place this is. Am purely humbled to have been there and seen the majesty of this place. Was a little appalled at the commercial nature of the place. Not only for things like kids toys, but buying your temple offering/sacrifice at the gates?

Nice and here is on the way to pagodas. We came here by boat and change to gondola 🚠

The place where buddhism was incepted in vietnam so calming and good energy can be felt

A major pilgrimage place for the Vietnamese people. The pilgrimage goes on in January February March. Praying there is believed to be able to overcome conception issues. If you have a baby you have to come back every year for 18 year ;)

The cave is beautiful! Others? Not so special. Kinda lame.

The Perfume Pagoda (Vietnamese: Chùa Hương, Chữ Hán: 香寺) is a vast complex of Buddhist temples and shrines built into the limestone Hương Tích mountains. It is the site of a religious festival which draws large numbers of pilgrims from across Vietnam.[1] The centre of the Hương Temple lies in Hương Sơn Commune, Mỹ Đức District, former Hà Tây Province (now Hanoi). The centre of this complex is the Perfume Temple, also known as Chùa Trong (Inner Temple), located in Hương Tích Cave.[2]

Like most people visiting the Perfume Pagoda, I came out here as part of a tour. The tour included a slow-paced boat ride to the main site, where you're given the option to either climb up all the way to the Pagoda, of take a cable-car up. Despite being given the choice though, the time allotted definitely wouldn't have been enough to both hike up, visit the temple, and then hike back down. I opted to take the cable car up, and then hike down, and just barely made it for the time cut-off. So if you're doing this as part of a tour like I did, keep that in mind. As for the temple itself, it was quite neat. Once you reach the top of the mountain (either by hiking or cable car), you actually need to take a decent flight of steps down into the cave. The cave was quite nice, with the stalagmites and stalactites everywhere in the cave. Parts of it are quite slippery, so you need to watch your footing. Considering the trek/ride up though, there wasn't really that much to see. The other travelers on the tour with me agreed with me that the other temple site at the bottom of the mountain (Thien Tru Pagoda I believe) was actually much more beautiful, with an incredible arrangement of temples and really beautiful architecture. So if you are coming to see the Perfume Pagoda, make sure you have a look around the Thien Tru site as well. One thing to note, make sure you visit this site during off-peak season. If you try to come during peak season you'll be among the mass hoards of Vietnamese pilgrims who come here to pay respects, so better to come off-season when that won't be the case.

The view is beautiful , but ferryman is not good. She took me more 100 000đ for 2 people ( I paid tour price before )

The Perfume Pagoda (Vietnamese: Chùa Hương, Chữ Hán: 香寺) is a vast complex of Buddhist temples and shrines built into the limestone Hương Tích mountains. It is the site of a religious festival which draws large numbers of pilgrims from across Vietnam.[1] The centre of the Hương Temple lies in Hương Sơn Commune, Mỹ Đức District, former Hà Tây Province (now Hanoi). The centre of this complex is the Perfume Temple, also known as Chùa Trong (Inner Temple), located in Hương Tích Cave.[2]

Astounding place . Must visit But please carry your umbrella as you will have to travel by rowing boat

Be careful about cheaters which will try to get big money from you. If you want to go by boat go to office which is next to the river and buy tickets. Don't take boats from private people. Cost of a boat is about 350 000 dong.

Boat riding is the best part of the journey in my personal opinions.

I can't really recommend this to tourists. The area is nice with trees, but I can't say it's a must see compared to other sights in Vietnam. The walk up was full of dilapidated stalls. Hawkers caught wild animals and put up signs asking tourists to pay money to set the animal free which is just insane. The boats are crazy disorganized and pack the entire area which looks bad, not to mention the litter in the water which can also be seen on the row to and from the mainland. As mentioned in many other posts, the rowers go insane even when given a decent tip. A man was also standing near the end and tried to coerce us into paying a bigger tip. A tourism department needs to sort this place out. This end to the trip made it a bad memory. The Ninh Binh boat trip was great because it's run well and tourists are told not to tip the rowers which works well because it means that the people there can't take advantage of the tourists. I think this place desperately needs a similar system in place because it's absolutely disgraceful