Vân Long Boat Tours

Ethical Explorer Review: Vân Long Nature Reserve Boat Tours

Overview

Vân Long Nature Reserve is a tranquil wetland and limestone landscape located in Gia Viễn District, Ninh Bình Province in northern Vietnam, about 90 km south of Hanoi. Formed over millions of years through the erosion and weathering of limestone karsts (rock formations), the area features towering cliffs, flooded valleys, and a vast maze of caves and waterways. Unlike the more developed and heavily visited Trang An or Tam Cốc nearby, Vân Long remains largely untouched and serene, with glass-calm waters that reflect the dramatic mountains like a mirror. The wetlands support rich biodiversity and serve as the last major stronghold of the critically endangered Delacour’s langur, making it both a stunning natural destination and a valuable conservation zone.

I have chosen to review Vân Long Nature Reserve for the Ethical Explorer because it is an example of how I believe wildlife tourism can have a positive impact on the natural world. Which is, after-all what The Ethical Explorer Project is all about.

Delacour's Langur

In the world of conservation it can feel like all doom and gloom, so when something positive is happening it's all the more important to shine a light on it.

But first a little doom and gloom (sorry).

Delacour’s langurs are critically endangered with an entire population as low as 250 individuals. They have faced a long history of threats, many of which still continue today. In the past, hunting and wildlife trafficking were the most immediate dangers, driven by the illegal wildlife trade and demand for traditional medicine, leading to severe population declines across northern Vietnam. At the same time, habitat loss from quarrying, agriculture, logging, and expanding settlements fragmented their range and reduced safe breeding areas.

While strict protection and community-based conservation efforts in places like Vân Long have helped stabilise numbers locally, the species remains critically endangered. Today, ongoing habitat pressure from tourism development, limestone mining, and encroachment, combined with their naturally low reproductive rate, make recovery slow and fragile. Even small disturbances, boat noise, increased visitor access, or illegal resource extraction, can disrupt troop behaviour and further limit their already precarious survival prospects.

And yes, despite their incredible low population these animals are still hunted and poached for the illegal wildlife trade.

Ok, some good news. Despite their critically endangered status, the Delacour’s langur is a rare conservation success story in Vietnam. From just a few dozen individuals in the 1990s, the population in Vân Long has grown to the largest remaining stronghold of the species, thanks to long-term community protection and habitat management. Vân Long Nature Reserve has played a key role. With local patrol teams, anti-poaching efforts, and the shift toward sustainable, low-impact tourism, a safe environment now exists where langur troops can recover. demonstrating that when local livelihoods and conservation aims are aligned, even a species on the brink can begin to rebound.

Review

Animal Welfare

There are no Delacour's langurs kept in captivity at Van Long Nature reserve. Elsewhere in Vietnam in places like the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre in Cuc Phuong, primates are kept for rescue, release, and conservation purposes. But that will be a seperate review. In Vân long all wildlife, primates and otherwise are wild and free and protected by the laws that protect the reserve.

Animal welfare at Vân Long Nature Reserve is supported primarily through, low-impact tourism, strict habitat protection, and community involvement in safeguarding wildlife. Boats are rowed manually rather than motorised, reducing noise, wake, and disturbance to the animals, particularly the Delacour’s langur and resident bird species. Local patrol teams and conservation cooperatives work to prevent poaching, habitat encroachment, and illegal exploitation, helping ensure wildlife is not harassed or pushed into human contact.

Tourists Interactions and Ethics

Visitors are kept at a respectful distance, with no feeding, handling, or staged encounters, meaning animals remain wild and free to behave naturally. This approach, focused on preserving the integrity of the ecosystem rather than showcasing animals for entertainment, forms the foundation of welfare standards in Van Long.

Speaking from experience, these type of wildlife tours can be tough for the guide. The pressure is on to give the guest a good experience, and for some visitors the expectation of seeing wildlife can be too high. And when they dont see what they wanted, they can react negatively and even leave poor reviews. This can lead to some guides and companies compramising their ethics in order to entice wildlife into view. This impacts negatively on everyone involoved especially the wildlife that can become desensitised, dependant, or even violent towards humans. As has been seen at many "interactive" primate attractions around the world, example here.

While on the boat I was completely immersed looking for wildlife, I think both guides I had that day could feel my anticipation at spotting a langur. However at no point did they do anything unethical to attract or entice langurs to the boat. Nor did I witness any other guide doing so on either of my two boat tours.

It is worth mentioning here, that in this day and age where a bad review can be the difference between success and failure of an organisation. The tourist holds a lot of power, and we must all use that power to support the organisation and people making a positive difference.

Education

While Vân Long offers an authentic and peaceful wildlife experience, the educational component could be strengthened to help visitors better understand the conservation achievements taking place. Information boards at the dock are limited, and many travelers finish the tour without knowing the scale of the protection work happening behind the scenes or the significance of endangered species like the Delacour’s langur. A small education centre, interpretive displays, or guided briefings could help bridge this gap, celebrating the reserve’s success and inspiring visitor support. Likewise, investing a portion of tourism revenue or government funding into language and interpretation training, especially for young people in the community, could empower local guides to share their knowledge confidently and directly. I believe this would deepen visitor connection and create more opportunities for sustainable employment.

Staff

The local guides at Vân Long Nature Reserve are an essential part of the experience, offering an authentic connection to the landscape and wildlife they’ve grown up with. Many have spent their whole lives on the edges of the wetlands, navigating the waterways with an ease that only comes from deep familiarity. Their quiet knowledge, from spotting Delacour’s langurs on distant cliffs to reading subtle changes in the water, adds a richness that goes beyond a simple boat ride. While most guiding is informal and based on practical experience rather than formal training, their presence ensures tourism benefits local families and keeps the reserve’s conservation story rooted in the community itself.

Transparency

While Vân Long Wetlands offers a low-impact wildlife experience, its financial transparency is more complex. Officially, boat fees and ticket revenue support both the local community and conservation management, but several reports suggest that only a modest portion of profits is reinvested directly into habitat protection—sometimes cited as around 25%. Much of the long-term conservation work for the Delacour’s langur, particularly research, monitoring, and protection, has historically relied on external support, including significant contributions from organisations such as Frankfurt Zoological Society. This doesn’t diminish the value of community involvement at Vân Long, but it does highlight the need for clearer public accounting and a more robust, sustainable funding model so that the reserve’s growing popularity directly strengthens the protection of one of the world’s rarest primates.

Sustainability

Vân Long Wetlands keeps its ecological impact relatively low thanks to silent, non-motorised boats and a tourism model that limits disturbance to wildlife and prevents shoreline erosion. At the same time, sustainability practices on land are still a work in progress. Waste management relies heavily on personal responsibility, as formal systems are basic and occasional litter can appear around docks during busy periods. With visitation growing, clearer guidelines and investment in community-led waste solutions would help ensure that human presence doesn’t slowly degrade the wetlands that shelter the critically endangered Delacour’s langur.

It is worth mentioning that the reserve does run a "leave no trace" policy, although this could be enforced more with signage. I do believe in this day and age it should always be the respocibility of the visitor to any natural area, to leave the area in the same state or better than they found it. If we all play our part it lessen the strain on the oranisation and allows them to focus on the conservation matters at hand.

Overall Experience and Ethical Integrity

My time at Vân Long left me with a deep sense of gratitude. As a wildlife lover, seeing the critically endangered Delacour’s langur in its natural habitat felt almost unreal, an encounter I never imagined possible. As a conservationist, I found the reserve to be a genuine refuge: quiet, well-preserved, and home to an ecosystem that still feels intact. The low-impact, non-motorised boat tours struck me as ethically sound, giving visitors access without disturbing wildlife, while also providing meaningful employment for local guides whose knowledge and pride in the langurs reinforces their protection. At the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the looming presence of the nearby cement factory, whose noise and emissions threaten the very serenity and air quality that make this place so special. Yet despite this tension, Vân Long remains one of Vietnam’s most hopeful conservation landscapes, a place where people and primates coexist, and where the future of a species hangs not just on protection, but on the care and connection of the community that surrounds it.

Final Ethical Explorer Verdict

In a world of fast tourism, where pleople want everything yesterday and interactions are usually shallow. The Vân Long Boat Tours strip away all the needless gimicks til all thats left is a genuine experience. Thats why The Ethical Explorer Project is proud to approve The Vân Long Boat Tours and the community that runs them, as a truly ethical wildlife tourism experience.

Useful information

Vân Long Nature Reserve is about 85km south of Hanoi and 20km from Ninh Binh and Tam Coc.
The reserve is open daily from 8am - 4pm, all year round.
The best way to get there is by motorcycle/scooter this gives you the most freedom to explore, and there is no public bus.
Organised tours to Vân Long are also available, check locally.
You cannot book boat tours in advanced you must do it when you arrive and bring cash.
Binoculars make spotting wildlife from the boat more enjoyable.