central vietnam
 

Hi, my famiily and I are visiting Central Vietnam (Hue/Danang/Hoi An) in June.

1) I've read that it's best to find a local guide to show around the Imperial city , tombs and other sights in Hue.

does anybody have any recommendations and contact information ?

Do i need a guide for Hoi An as well ?

2) Aside from exploring the sights, we want to spend at least one day relaxing in a nice hotel by the beach. is that Danang or Hoi An / And any recommendations on hotels ?

3) Am trying to find a way to reserve train tickets from Hue to Danang on the internet. Cannot find any. does anybody know if we can do that and at what website ? If not, does that mean we need to book t hru a travel agent there ?


Thanks

Eric

For train tickets see:

http://seat61.com/Vietnam.htm#How%20to%20buy%20tickets

My last trip I bought through Tonkin Travel for Hanoi to Sapa and back. Previously I have bought from travel agencies in country, but I had flexible schedules. (Note: Vietnam is awash in TAs, often with copy cat names.)

we used danang kids in hoi an

I was in central Viet Nam in late Feb/early March. In Hoi An, my friend and I didn't use a guide; we wandered through the town, which is easy but I'm sure we missed a lot of valuable info. I have used Ha Noi Kids while in Ha Noi last year and it was a great experience to meet 2 young university students (per rhkkmk's post). In Hoi An, we stayed at the Life Heritage resort which is lovely, well situated to wander in to town. We had a river side room. If you need it, there is a woman just outside the entrance to the resort who does laundry for the next morning. Both my friend's and my laundry was beautifully cleaned and folded.

From Hue, we booked an excellent guide for a tour of the Demilitarized Zone. Mr. Vu was born after the war, but is an historian and a very engaging and informative guide. He lives in Dong Ha which is approx. 1 1/2 hrs north of Hue. He arranged a driver to pick us up at our hotel (La Residence) at 7:30 am. We drove to Dong Ha to pick up Mr. Vu and then continued. It was a full day and I'd highly recommend it.

Annam Tour
Van Ngoc Vu ( Mr. )
Mobi: 0905 140 600
www.annamtour.com
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
Add: 159B Quoc Lo 9 street, Dong Ha city, Quang Tri, Vietnam

Unfortunately, I can't give you a guide for Hue as our hotel did not give us a recommendation.

Sue

We stayed at the Hoi An Pacific Hotel. Nice. They picked us up from and dropped us off at Da Nang airport. There is a shuttle bus to the beach and a dedicated area there with deck chairs and a restaurant.

You don't need a taxi around Hoi An, it's very walkable. In Hue the hotel arranged a taxi driver for half a day around some of the tombs. We did the Imperial City ourselves.

Re the train, we just showed up at the station in Da Nang and bought tickets to Hue on the next train.

We took a motorbike tour of Hue, which was a blast. However, our particular guides didn't speak very good English, so if you decide to do it, make sure you ask for at least one guide who speaks good English. The tour was 8-1/2 hours, including lunch. We saw all the highlights of Hue - several of the tombs, the Citadel, several pagodas and monasteries. We also stayed at La Residence, which is a very fine hotel.

http://www.hueriders.com/

In HoiAn, we stayed at the very lovely Victorian HoiAn, on the beach. The beach in HoiAn is beautiful, and the pool at the Victoria is gorgeous with excellent service. The beachside hotels are about a 10-minute cab/shuttle ride from the center of town. We didn't really sight-see in HoiAn, just wandered around by ourselves soaking up the atmosphere (charming). Great food in HoiAn. (I wouldn't stay in Danang, although the beaches are very nice, the city is a city and not a particularly nice one at that).

In Hue we just rented a taxi and driver for the afternoon to take us to various tombs etc which we had picked from the guide book. Cheap and easy to do through the hotel and it was nice to be transported around from one to another with complete ease in an air conditioned car but to avoid the overwhelming barrage of detail that so many guides seem to offer. This approach suited us really well and is worth considering if you prefer to wander around on your own and linger in the atmospheric tombs as you please without being on anyone else's schedule.