The best things to do in Hue are the Imperial City inside the Citadel, the tombs of Minh Mang, Tu Duc and Khai Dinh, Thien Mu pagoda on the river, Dong Ba market and a dragon boat upstream. A combo ticket covers the Imperial City and the three main tombs for 530,000 dong over two days. Give the city two days, three if you want Bach Ma or the DMZ.
Hue was the capital of Vietnam for 143 years and has never quite stopped behaving like one. The Nguyen emperors built a walled city on the north bank of the Perfume River and their tombs upstream, then lost the country in 1945 and most of the buildings in 1968. What survives is under restoration, and the kitchen still cooks for a court.
The Nguyen court ran Vietnam from behind these walls for 143 years, and the 1968 battle took most of it back down. What stands is still the grandest set piece in the country: Ngo Mon gate, Thai Hoa palace, the Nine Dynastic Urns, and the emptied ground of the Forbidden Purple City.
Eleven years in the building, from 1920 to 1931, and nothing like the others. Khai Dinh spent the money on blackened concrete and imported iron, then lined the Khai Thanh hall inside with glass and porcelain mosaic floor to ceiling. Severe from the steps, extraordinary at the top.
The one that reads as architecture rather than sculpture: forty buildings set on a single axis, alternating courtyard, gate, lake and pavilion. Minh Mang chose the site and died before the work started, so his son Thieu Tri built it, in three years from 1840.
Tu Duc built this as a retreat and used it for sixteen years before he needed it, writing beside the Luu Khiem lake. His stele is unusually frank about his own failures. He is not buried here: the workers who dug the real grave were killed to keep it secret.
Founded in 1601 and the oldest pagoda in Hue, on a bluff above the Perfume River. The seven-tier Phuoc Duyen tower went up in 1844 under Thieu Tri, one storey for each Buddha. Behind it stands the blue Austin that carried Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963.
The pagodas and tombs were built to be reached by water, which is the argument for doing at least one leg by boat rather than by car. A morning run takes in Thien Mu, Hon Chen temple and the tomb of Minh Mang. Evening boats do a short circuit with ca Hue singers aboard.
The city market since 1899, three floors of it against the river below Trang Tien bridge. Dry goods and conical hats at the front, the wet market behind, and a food court at the back where com hen and che cost less than a coffee.
Khai Dinh built this as a private residence in 1917, in a European style the court disliked, and Bao Dai’s family lived here after the 1945 abdication. The reason to come is the ground floor: six painted panels of the imperial tombs, recovered by conservators from under later paint.
A working monastery in a pine wood behind a crescent pond, and the temple where Thich Nhat Hanh was ordained in 1942. He came back in 2018 to live out his last years and died here in January 2022. Visitors are welcome as long as they stay quiet.
Minh Mang walled this ring in 1830 so the court could watch an elephant fight a tiger, the elephant standing for the dynasty and expected to win. The last match was staged in 1904. It is open, free and usually empty, which is most of the appeal.
The 1601 foundation and the seven-tier tower on the bluff. Still a working monastery.
Clam rice on Han Mac Tu, the street that specialises in it. Served cold, broth apart.
French and Vietnamese in a colonial villa a street from the Citadel. Book ahead.
A lane of incense stalls by Tu Duc’s tomb, colour-sorted and still a working craft.
Pham Ngu Lao, Vo Thi Sau and Chu Van An shut to traffic on weekend evenings.
Home of the non bai tho, the poem hat with a verse set into the lining.
The hotel strip facing the water. Convenient, calm after ten, short on character.
Pham Ngu Lao, Chu Van An, Vo Thi Sau. Hostels, bars, and the loudest streets in Hue.
The cliff road to Da Nang, about 500 metres up, with Lang Co lagoon at the end.
Cloud forest to 1,448 metres, with a five-lake waterfall trail. Cold at the top.
The largest lagoon in Southeast Asia. Fish traps, a flat horizon, and the sunset.
Lunar New Year. Court rituals inside the Citadel, and most kitchens shut for several days.
The first of the festival’s four seasons: Tet in Hue, folk games and revived court ceremony.
Boat processions to the cliff temple in the third lunar month, for the goddess Thien Y A Na.
Hue claims the ao dai as its own invention and dresses the whole city in it for a week.
The summer peak, announced for 13 to 18 June 2026, with stages set inside the Citadel.
The Buddhist festival of filial piety. Lanterns on the Perfume River, and full pagodas.
August and September carry mid-autumn programming, lantern parades and school-holiday crowds.
The winter season closes with a New Year’s Eve stage on the south bank of the river.
About 15 km south-east of the centre, 25 minutes by road. Mostly domestic routes, from a second terminal opened in 2023.
Opened in 1908, a kilometre west of the riverfront hotels. The Hue to Da Nang leg over the Hai Van cliffs is the best rail journey in Vietnam.
Two to three hours to Da Nang by car, depending on whether you take the tunnel or the pass. Open-tour buses run the route daily.
The monuments split across the river, so most days open with a short Grab ride. Cyclos work the riverfront and dragon boats run upstream to the tombs.
Lemongrass and shrimp paste in a beef bone broth, thick round noodles, chilli oil on top.
Cold rice under baby clams, crackling, peanuts and herbs, the clam broth served alongside.
Steamed rice discs in small saucers, topped with dried shrimp and crisp pork skin.
Tapioca dumplings around shrimp and pork belly, steamed clear inside banana leaf.
A small crisp rice pancake of pork, shrimp and sprouts, eaten open with peanut sauce.
Minced pork grilled on lemongrass stalks, rolled at the table with herbs and rice paper.
Sweet soups by the dozen, including lotus seed wrapped in longan, invented for the court.
Hue’s Buddhist vegetarian cooking, cooked citywide on the first and fifteenth lunar days.
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