Hue - History Tours
 

Hello,
My boyfriend Domino and I are history reseachers from Spain. We are interested in learning a bit about this city as we heard it is used to be the capital city of Vietnam with loads of history information and sites to see. Would there be any tour agency that offer qualified service to feed our hunger for in-depth information about Hue? What would be the best way to see Hue and what transportation to start our time in Hue? We will reach Hue on the 9 and plan to stay till the 12 of August.
Thank you.

Loads of travel agencies. Qualified? Good luck. Consult your hotel, your guidebooks and just possibly tripadvisor, but you are likely just as well off with a good guidebook on your own.

I agree with thursdaysd, but with that being said, I think that, other than the citadel, most of the historical stuff in Hue is outside of the city proper.

About a month ago when we were there, we wanted to see some of historical sites so our hotel arranged a driver for us. Once we met him, it turned out that he is a licensed guide in French as he speaks it fluently, but his English was excellent as well.

Not only did he know all of the history of the surrounding area, but he was happy to talk about lots of different subjects - ranging from economics and political feelings of the people in the area over the last few decades, to my love of learning language and he would discuss how the Vietnamese language has changed over the last 20-30 years.

We would highly recommend him, and he said that if you contacted him directly, his fare would be significantly less expensive than hiring him through the hotel.

This is his contact info:
Name: Ngo Van (Peter) Chinh
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 0905 137 169

I finding a "qualified" guide is difficult. Khtodd's recommendation sounds pretty good. We have visited Hue several times and employed different methods to visit the sights. A boat trip along the perfume river will take you to the Pagoda, a couple of Tombs and the citadel. Should cost around $20. A bus trip to some of the outlying tombs around the same. Don't expect any input from the guides apart from "here is the tomb" here is the bus etc..

Another pleasant way is to hire a couple of bikes and cycle around some of the tombs. Set out early as it does get incredibly hot from midday onwards.

A good guidebook will provide as much, if not more information, than most English speaking guides.

mr Lac of Lac Thien restaurant, a deaf mute guy did use to offer tours to the tombs of the back of his motorbike which were excellent, you couldn't try there but I am not sure he operates them anymore. Any entertaining and funny guy that communicates unbelievably well, even if you don't tour with him, eat at his restaurant, the food, esp. the Ban Xeo, is excellent.

Also, when we were there in June, he told us that the citadel had just started opening at night. Definitely worth a visit then even if you have seen it in the day time.

crellston is dead-on. Most "guides" are really just drivers who can barely communicate. The one referenced above was one of the few exceptions that we found, which is why I'm recommending him. He was knowledgable about all the sites - not just the citadel and tombs, but also we used him to visit the cu chi tunnels, the dmz and various other sites in that area. He was extremely knowledgable and was more than happy to discuss everything at length.

We were at Lac Thien, and while I don't think Mr. Lac operates the tours anymore, I think one of his daughters does now, and she is just as friendly and speaks English well. We met the whole family while we were there for dinner - as we were leaving, we tried to get a good taxi - after a few minutes of us not seeing anything, one of the daughters came up to us and offered to drive us back to our hotel for free on her motorbike (our hotel wasn't that far away) and she explained that she gives tours on her motorbike all the time to try to set our mind at ease since we were nervous about going on the back of her bike. We still declined, and they were happy to call a good taxi for us (you should really only use the Mai Linh taxi company there as the others' meters are rigged). Also, in the restaurant, there is advertising all over the walls for their tour company.

BTW - while the dish is called banh xeo in Saigon, in Hue, they call it banh khoai, and of the few we had all over Hue, the ones at Lac Thien were by far superior to all others.

Khtodd, About much does a taxi charge for a day's travel (5 or 6 hours perhaps) in the Hue area? Thanks!

We booked the driver through the hotel, so the cost is much more than it would be than if you contacted him privately (the hotel takes a decent cut). I seem to remember the hotel charging us around US$80 or somewhere around there. He picked us up at 8AM, and we returned around 5PM or so.