Not long after arriving in Da Nang (more on that in the next post), Chad and I took off on an overnight trip to Huế, which was Vietnam’s national capital from 1802 to 1945 (when communism replaced imperial rule). In addition to being an important historic site in Vietnam, Huế (which is pronounced like “way” but with a slight “h” sound at the beginning) offered tons of opportunities for puns like “going on a get-a-Huế” or “being on Huế-cation” or everything being “Huế cool.”
Puns aside, Chad and I had a great time on this adventure. You can visit the main sights of Huế through a long day-trip from Da Nang, but doing it on our own as an independent overnight trip worked out great for us and made it more fun and special.
Getting to Huế
We chose to travel to Huế by train, even though it takes a little over three hours compared to about two hours by “bus” (more on that later). The train traverses a very picturesque part of Vietnam’s North-South railway route. In fact, they’re very proud of the fact that this route was named to a list of 8 most spectacular train routes by Lonely Planet, which was mentioned over the loudspeaker several times on our journey.
We took one of the two tourist “Heritage” trains, which are a tiny bit more expensive than the normal trains that are in route between HCMC and Hanoi stopping Huế at but have all normal seats. Most of the cars on the long-haul route are primarily 4- and 6-person sleeper cars, which we didn’t want to deal with. We bought our tickets online directly from Vietnam Railways and made sure to book our seats on the right side of the train to get the ocean views. The departure time was just before 8 a.m. and it was easy to get a Grab (like Uber) to take us to the train station that morning. The train ride was enjoyable and the views were very nice, though I’m not sure I’d say spectacular. I took lots of photos but none of them turned out great.
The train was on-time and we arrived in Huế a little after 11 a.m. We decided to walk from the train station to an area along the river that had some cafes where we hoped to find lunch. It turned out to be one of our most pleasant walks in Vietnam along a pedestrian-only path along the Perfume River, which bisects Huế. We got a very tasty lunch at Bến Trăng Café & Bistro with a Huế-style bun (noodle soup) that was kind of tomato-y and a vegetable and rice dish.
After lunch we walked further up the river through some small parks and then walked across the bridge and into the older part of town to get to our hotel. One reason it was an easy decision to do Huế as an overnight is that the hotels were really cheap. Ours, Son Ca Motel, was only 420,000 dong ($16) for a very clean room with an ensuite bathroom. I booked it via Booking.com but they only accepted cash payment on arrival. I didn’t get a prompt to review it but it was just a good basic accommodation, about a 10-minute walk from the Imperial City. They were kind about letting us check in a little before their 2 p.m. check-in time.
Day 1 Activities
After dropping off our stuff and taking a short rest, we went out to wander around Huế. In the older part of the city where our hotel was, there are many nice canals, but there are also quite a lot of cars and scooters everywhere, so the walk wasn’t as pleasant as we hoped. We wrapped up the walk in time to have about an hour to visit the Huế Museum of Royal Antiquities before it closed for the day, which provided a very interesting introduction to what we’d see the next day.
After the museum, we walked over to the front side of the Imperial City to see if we could pre-purchase tickets for the next day. We couldn’t, but we were glad we walked over because we got to see some of the rehearsal for the flower festival that would be happening that weekend. We also had time to walk along the fortress walls. When we got tired, we stopped for a beer at a cute little restaurant to figure out a plan for dinner, finally deciding to take a Grab to the other side of the river to a restaurant called Nhà hàng Bánh Gánh, which featured a sampler platter of special Huế foods as an appetizer. We also got vegetable curry and fish soup – more than we needed but all very delicious.
Day 2 – Imperial City
The next morning after a basic breakfast in our room, we walked to the Imperial City, arriving just after opening to get out ahead of any tour groups. The grounds and building were very beautiful to walk around. Chad recognized that it was all very reminiscent of the Forbidden City in China, so we decided to watch The Last Emperor when we got back to Da Nang, a movie from 1987 about the last emperor of China. Between our Huế visit and the movie, we felt like we gained a pretty good understanding of the ends of both empires.
Lessons from Our Return Trip
After our morning in the Imperial City, we walked back to our hotel to check out and then stopped for a banh mi in the park and some cut mango from the vendors outside the Imperial City. We had decided to take the bus back to Da Nang rather than the train because it is faster and had more frequent times to choose from. However, it is actually a large SUV that you buy reserved seats in. We bought ours in advance a couple days ahead through the Vexere website, a popular transportation aggregator and chose the two window seats of the middle row. The ride company used WhatsApp to communicate the pickup instructions, though they were a bit confusing. Luckily there was a Highlander Coffee in the mall (a popular brand in Vietnam) where we could try some interesting some tea drinks while we waited. Finally we were picked up about 15 minutes later than our reserved time of 2:15 at the Vincom Plaza Mall.
After picking us up, the SUV made several other stops around town until we had a full car. I was glad we chose the seats we did, because the back and middle seats definitely looked a little cramped. Finally we drove to Da Nang. It was not the most comfortable ride and we may have been better off with the train (the price was similar – about $7.50 each for our train tickets and $6 each for the “bus”). The weirdest part was stopping for gas about half-way there and also getting a 10-minute car wash. It seemed like a weird time to be washing the car while all of us were waiting! But we made it safely and the driver dropped us off right at our apartment, though I think it was after 5 by the time we arrived.
All in all, it was a great trip and we were really glad we chose to visit Huế. I’d definitely recommend it for anyone staying in Da Nang, especially doing it independently rather than a tour.