HUE · VIETNAM
Imperial walls, river light, the pass south.
The Citadel and the Forbidden Purple City, the royal tombs along the Perfume River, dragon-boat afternoons, motorbike runs over Hai Van Pass, and the old DMZ a few hours north.
Only in Hue
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Vietnam has plenty of beach towns and old quarters. None of them have a complete imperial capital, a Top Gear coast road, and the geography of a divided country all within a day’s drive. These three are the reason travellers detour to Hue.
Inside the walls
Walk the Forbidden Purple City
Hue is the only place in Vietnam where you can walk a complete imperial capital. The Nguyen emperors built concentric walls here for 143 years: the outer Citadel, the inner Imperial City, the innermost Forbidden Purple City that only the emperor and his family could enter. UNESCO lists the whole complex. There is no second one in the country.
- 1 Hue: Imperial City Walk, Motorbike Tour & Private Car Options
- 2 Hue Imperial City Walking Tour: Citadel & Forbidden City
- 3 Hue Imperial City Walking Tour (Kids Half-Price)
Over the mountain
Ride the Hai Van Pass
Top Gear once called the climb above Da Nang one of the great driving roads on earth. Twenty-one kilometres of coastal switchback up the Annamite Range, the South China Sea on one side, jungle on the other. Easy Riders pick you up in Hue with your luggage on the bike and drop you in Hoi An by mid-afternoon. The road itself is the trip.
- 1 Easy Rider private tour via Hai Van pass from Hue – Da Nang – Hoi An (1Way|Loop)
- 2 Easy Rider From Hue Da Nang Hoi An Via Hai Van Pass With Mister T
- 3 Hue to Dn/Hoi An: Hai Van Pass, beaches & Mt Monkey or vice versa
North of the city
Cross the old DMZ
Three hours north of Hue sits the 17th parallel, the border between two Vietnams from 1954 to 1975. The Vinh Moc tunnels where 90 villagers lived underground through the bombing, the Hien Luong flag bridge, the Khe Sanh combat base, the Truong Son cemetery. The geography of the war is still here to walk. No other Vietnamese city sits this close to it.
- 1 DMZ TOUR HUE – Deluxe group tour full day
- 2 DMZ & Vinh Moc Tunnels – Private Historical Tour from Hue
- 3 Explore DMZ in Private: Vinh Moc & Khe Sanh from Hue
The first booking
Start with the one everyone takes.
More travellers book this single experience than any other on the site. If you only have one day’s worth of bookings to spend, here’s where to spend it.
The classics
Hue’s Most Popular Tours
The Citadel walk. The Top Gear ride. The DMZ run. Hue’s royal cuisine. The tours travellers come away talking about.
By place
Pick a corner of Hue.
The Citadel for the emperors. The river for the tombs and the dragon boats. Hai Van for the road south. The DMZ for the war story. Phong Nha for the karst and the caves.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Walk the Citadel, cyclo the back lanes, dragon-boat the river, cook a bowl of bun bo Hue, ride pillion over the pass. The shape of the day is up to you.
A first-time plan
Three days in Hue.
If it’s your first stop in central Vietnam, this is roughly the shape of the trip. One day inside the walls, one day on the river, one day on the road south. Each day below points at the tours we’d book.
Inside the walls
Imperial Hue.
Start at the Citadel. Walk Ngo Mon Gate, the throne hall and the inner Forbidden Purple City, then spin out to the royal tombs by car or cyclo when the heat lifts.
We’d book Hue Half-Day Motorbike Tour – Authentic Countryside of Vietnam, History, CultureRiver & country
Perfume River day.
Dragon-boat upstream to Thien Mu Pagoda, stop at the Minh Mang and Khai Dinh tombs along the bank, then a late lunch back in town and a bowl of bun bo Hue with the locals.
We’d book Hue: 3 Tombs + Pagoda with Knowledgeable ES DriverThe road south
Hai Van to Hoi An.
Ride pillion behind an Easy Rider with your bags on the bike, climb the Hai Van Pass, drop down to the Lang Co lagoon, swing through Marble Mountains and finish in Hoi An by mid-afternoon. Or take the DMZ tour north instead.
We’d book HAI VAN PASS MOTORBIKE TOUR – Top Gear ExperienceInside the citadel
Walk the imperial city.
The Citadel is two kilometres on a side and rewards an unhurried morning. Walking guides, cyclo-and-walk hybrids, and the long meander that stitches the throne hall to the royal tombs. Three we’d send a first-time visitor on.
Eat like the emperors
Hue is a food town.
Bun bo Hue, banh khoai, com hen, banh beo, banh loc. Hue gave Vietnam its most refined regional cuisine. The kitchen that fed the Nguyen emperors didn’t need to be loud, and three plates is where we’d start.
Hue to Hoi An
The Top Gear road.
An Easy Rider does the driving, your luggage gets strapped to the bike, and the four-hour transfer to Hoi An becomes the trip people come away talking about. Three rides we’d put on any first-Vietnam itinerary.
When you want to leave the city
Day trips out of Hue.
North to the DMZ and the Vinh Moc tunnels. East to the Lang Co lagoon. Up to the Phong Nha karst country. Over the pass to Ba Na Hills and Marble Mountains. Hue sits at the centre of a generous radius.
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