Hue is a good place for those who want to be in the real Vietnam, getting away from more westernized areas like Saigon (TPHCM) or even places that are away from the city but booked with lavish resorts (Hoi An). There are tourist areas, locations for westerners, but it’s a great place for renting a motorbike and just traveling around.
Even though there are a million plus living there, Hue feels small. And I like that.
I’d been here once before, about 5 years ago on EAP. Unlike TPHCM and Hanoi, however, Hue has changed a lot slower, it still feels more quiet, more laid back.
Travel Logistics:
Hue’s in Central Vietnam, about 50 minutes plane ride from Hanoi. What’s much more pleasant about the plane ride, though, is the trip from the airport. Getting to town takes only about 20-25 minutes, and the roads are nice. In TPHCM and Hanoi, however, this trip is more like an hour, and the ride is nauseating and tiring.
The plane trip from Hanoi cost around $100 round trip, but it could have been cheaper if we had been willing to take the 6AM flight. 3-4 flights around the day, both ways. A solid hotel can be found for as little as $12 USD in the main tourist areas, but you can feel free to go to a higher end hotel nearby, which will cost $40+.
For a Hotel, I stayed and recommend the Green Bamboo (Tre Xanh) on Hung Vuong. It’s only $12 a night.
Attractions: I’ll be writing about some of these in this post, and more in the next few posts I do to keep the length for each article not too long. Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which seems to imply it’s something special. But the big places here are the various tombs of past emperors and the Thien Mu Pagoda. There are even some really nice beaches within driving distance, which I’ll discuss later in this post.
Nightlife: Pretty much non-existent
Hue: City and Food
Hue is pretty distinct for its food. It’s spicy and has a distinct (sharp?) taste that comes with the types of plants they use. I really like the food there, and it’s really hard to find the same food in TPHCM or Hanoi, no matter how authentic they claim to be. I’ve found that the taste outside of Hue is degraded for the local palate rather than trying to stick to the original formula.
Food is cheap here, with a big meal closer to 30K VND ($2 USD). A simple way of telling that Hue has not “progressed” as much as Hanoi and TPHCM is that there’s only 1 KFC here, and it’s not popular despite it’s central location. KFC is very very expensive compared to a normal meal in Hue, but in Hanoi, KFC is actually one of my cheaper meals now. After 2 years, KFC already has over 10 locations in Hanoi and keeps on growing. In TPHCM, KFC is almost like your neighborhood McDonalds.
(For whatever reason, Wordpress comes up with errors if I use accents/diacritics, so sorry)
Here are some meals to look for:
- Bun Bo Hue (I’m not even going to translate these into English, just go for it!)
- Locations:
- Quan Ba Hoa: Quan 11, Truong Dinh
- Bun Bo Hue: 17 Ly Thuong Kiet (this one is fairly week known among locals)
- Locations:
- Banh Hue
- Quan Ba Hoa: Quan 11, Truong Dinh
- Chao Bo
- 01 Nguyen Cong Tru (this place actually is in a tourist area)
- Com Hen
- Quan Ba Hoa: Quan 11, Truong Dinh
- Bun Thit Nuong
- Hoang Anh: 140 Kim Long (along the river, on the way to Thien Mu)
- Che Hue (this is actually a dessert)
- Dong Ba Market
- There’s also a place called Che Hue that’s been franchised throughout Vietnam, but I don’t have the street. If you ask around, I’m sure a taxi or xich lo driver can get you there easily.
As you might expect, try for local places, away from tourists. You’ll get much better pricing and more authentic food, that way. Just drive around and check out a place.
Hue is most distinctive for the Perfume River, Song Huong. The river runs all along the city, and in fact, if you go see the city’s sights, you can visit all the tombs and Thien Mu Pagoda solely by taking a riverboat. Hanoi is most distinctive for its lakes, Hue has Song Huong and the Perfume River Bridge.
Like I mentioned before, renting a motorbike (around 100K VND/$6 USD) to travel around is the way to go. Feel more free, and you pick your travel plans.
You can get around by the usual taxi or xich lo (which is basically a bicycle taxi, two people riding in a front carriage, driver pedaling in the back), but these actually are much more expensive than renting a motorbike.
Dong Ba Market:
Dong Ba Market is in the central area of Hue, next to the Perfume River Bridge. It’s probably the most famous market here, and still is super packed on an everyday basis. Especially for tourists, however, keep your backpack in front of you and wallets in your front pocket. Pickpockets are definitely around (I was told by someone there to watch out), so be careful. At night, people will set up food and che outside.
Perfume River Bridge:
The pictures below were taken at night, and the bride is a beautiful sight. The bridges flashes different colors during the night, and it’s very popular to set up cameras and take pictures, like I did. Also in the central area.
Thuan An:
Thuan An is maybe the best kept secret about Hue. At least, it was to me. I think even my friend H?ng, who is from Hue, hasn’t been there, even though he’s been to Lang Co, which is much farther away. Thuan An is about 15 KM away from Hue, and you can take a taxi or bus there, or just go by motorbike. When I came, it was completely empty, but that’s probably because I went on a weekday and came around noon (Vietnamese people don’t hang out on beaches around noon – 2PM unless they’re hoping to get heatstroke). It became more crowded by 4PM, but was not super crowded by any means. The beach is clean, super clear. The waves are friendly. You can eat on the beach if you like, but one thing to note is that the facilities are definitely low end, as in made for Vietnamese budgets.
I didn’t eat any meals here, but I had m?c m?t n?ng, which literally means squid that’s been drying in the sun for a little. This is completely different from kho muc, which is thin, dried squid. Muc mot nang is fresh squid that’s been out in the sun, still white and thick. Tastes delicious! I’ve never seen this anywhere else, and highly suggest getting it if you can. It’s not cheap, however, where dried squid is already somewhat expensive, . Muc mot nang will cost you $8 to 12 USD. Thuy and I had two.
Lang Co is not super well known, but it’s another fantastic beach. If you like motorbiking, this is a good trip. It’s about 2 hours south from Hue, 75 KM. To get there, you’ll go through the countryside and travel through mountain roads. It’s a lot of fun, but it is really sunny out there, make sure you have serious protection from the sun. The Lang Co beach is another clear beach, very clean, just generally outstanding. The big difference between Lang Co and Thuan An are the waves. Lang Co has big time waves, not surfing waves, but much larger, more powerful waves. The waves and beach area also extend out far. You can see 3 layers of waves at a time, and you can walk a far distance into the water and you will still be at standing height.
I’m not sure if there is any public beach area, or if its all reserved by beach resorts, but we did share the beach with normal non-resort people.
The beach “resorts” themselves sucked. We spent a little more money (around $60 USD) to stay in a nicer room, and it felt like it was half completed. Crappy AC, bugs in the room. There was a jacuzzi tub in our room, which sounded great until we noticed that we didn’t have enough hot water to fill it up. Even before we decided to stay at that resort, the other ones were similarly too expensive in terms of value. Even the low end rooms at these places are $30, and those rooms suck. They’re worse than than the $12 rooms in Hue. Next time, I’d just stay at a hotel that’s across the street, without a private beach area, and walk in.
The food here also sucked. I’m sure somewhere, there’s someplace good, but it wasn’t obvious to me. Lang Co is almost pitch black at night; you can’t really just travel around and see where the locals eat. The hotel food was expensive and just blah.
I can’t even remember the exact name of the one we stayed at, but stay away from all “high-end” beach resorts in Lang Co.
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