Trang An Marathon: Dates, Tickets & Venue (Trường Yên)

Running between the limestone towers

This course runs through a landscape you won’t find anywhere else. Trang An is a karst landscape. Sheer limestone towers rise straight out of flat rice fields and slow green rivers, and footpaths and village roads wind between them. UNESCO listed the Trang An Landscape Complex as a World Heritage Site in 2014, for both its natural and its cultural value.

The Trang An Marathon is an international road race through this scenery, centred on Trường Yên commune in Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh province. Trường Yên is the site of Hoa Lu, Vietnam’s capital in the 10th century. Runners pass the same valleys that the Dinh and Early Le kings chose for their defences.

November 15, 2026: the date and the registration page

The 2026 edition took place on November 15, 2026. The organiser publishes the race dates, venue, distances and ticket links on its official site. Registration details, start times and bib collection arrangements all live there too, so this guide doesn’t repeat figures that could change.

Mid-November falls in northern Vietnam’s dry season. Mornings are generally cooler and less humid than the summer months, which is why autumn is the usual season for road racing in the north. Vietnamese road races also usually start around dawn, so runners finish before the midday sun.

Getting to Trường Yên

Trường Yên lies roughly 90 to 100 kilometres south of Hanoi, and the drive usually takes about two hours. Travellers get there in a few common ways:

• Train: Ninh Binh station is on the North–South Reunification line, and trains from Hanoi stop there several times a day.
• Bus or limousine van: Hanoi’s Giap Bat bus station and many hotel-pickup van services run to Ninh Binh city.
• Private car or tour transfer: this is the usual choice for groups travelling with race gear.

From Ninh Binh city, the Trang An area is a short taxi or Grab ride north-west. Plenty of homestays in Tam Coc and around Trang An rent out bicycles and scooters for the last few kilometres.

Race weekend, the Ninh Binh way

Ninh Binh is a small province, and a big race fills its beds fast. Runners usually stay either in Ninh Binh city, which has larger hotels and quick road access, or in the homestays scattered among the rice fields of Tam Coc and Trang An. Homestay hosts are used to guests leaving before sunrise and can often arrange taxis or scooters for a dawn start.

How things usually work:

• Paying: hotels and larger restaurants take cards. Street stalls, small cafés and boat-pier snack vendors usually want cash in Vietnamese dong.
• Cheering: Vietnamese spectators shout “Cố lên!” (roughly “keep going!”). Shouting it back at the kids along the route always gets a grin.
• Eating: the local dishes are cơm cháy (crisp, golden rice crust served with a meaty sauce) and dê núi (mountain goat), prepared in many ways. Plenty of restaurants near Trang An serve goat. Runners often save it for the post-race meal rather than the night before.
• Temples: cover your shoulders and knees at the Hoa Lu temples and Bai Dinh. A light layer over running kit is enough.

Grab works in Ninh Binh city, but cars are fewer in the rural communes. Many runners arrange their return trip with their host before race morning.

The Hoa Lu temples and the river

The ancient capital sits right next to the course. In Trường Yên, the temples of King Đinh Tiên Hoàng and King Lê Đại Hành stand a short walk apart. Their stone courtyards and carved wooden halls are dedicated to the founders of the first independent Vietnamese dynasties after Chinese rule.

The Trang An boat trip is how most visitors see the landscape the race passes through. Local rowers paddle small metal sampans along the river and through low limestone caves. The boats are so low that passengers duck under the cave ceilings. A full route usually takes two to three hours, which suits legs that would rather sit after a long run.

Beyond the finish line

The area holds more than a day’s sightseeing. These sights are within easy reach of Trường Yên:

• Bai Dinh Pagoda: a vast modern Buddhist complex a few kilometres west, with long galleries of stone arhat statues.
• Tam Coc: a second river route through rice fields and caves, plus the homestay village where many runners stay.
• Mua Cave: a stone staircase of several hundred steps climbs to a dragon sculpture and a view over the Tam Coc valley. Most runners leave it until their quads recover.
• Van Long Nature Reserve: quiet wetland boat trips where visitors can sometimes spot the rare Delacour’s langur on the cliffs.

Many runners turn race weekend into two or three nights in Ninh Binh before heading back to Hanoi or on to Ha Long Bay.