Hue or Ha Long Bay
 

I am going to Vietnam in December 05 and I am going to have to choose between Hue and Ha Long Bay. What would you do?

The Irish vote:
I would reccommend Hue without doubt.

have not been to hue but i found 20 minutes of halong bay quite sufficient..

Hue. There is more history, the citadel, tombs, pagodas. A Vietnamese person told me that I'd like Hue, it's where the Royal famiily lives (if i'm not mistaken). We only had one night in Hue but we arrived very early in the morning around 7:30 a.m. flying in from Hanoi, checked into the hotel, went to the Citadel, lunch at Lac Thien, briefly went to the market, then took a boat ride on the river, then motorscooters took us to a Tomb (it looks more like a large palace garden with statues), and the boat continued back to take us to a Pagoda.
Dinner, went to a bar where they had live music. The next day we went back to the market and lunch again near the market. Then hired a driver/car to take us to Hoi An.

Therefore, we arrived early in Hue, stayed overnight and stayed the morning.
1 1/2 days in Hue. I enjoyed it. The day was full.

I'm not saying I don't like Halong. We went there too on a one day trip. Enjoyable trip.

But there's more to do in Hue.

Yes, I agree Hue is the more interesting and more to do there. A trip down the Perfume River to one of the tombs(I went to Ming Mang's Tomb) is an interesting ezxperience to even see how they live on the river. Not sure how much of the Citadel is restored now,but I found that of interest. I found Hue a city easy to wander around walking. I have also been to Halong Bay overnight which I enjoyed. If you are already in Hanoi to go out there by bus through the countryside shows you how the people live out of the city. Men plowing water buffalo through the rice fields. Beautiful flowers being grown. Then a boat ride through those huge limestone cliffs that seem to come out of the water was a dreamlike experience in the fog which quite often covers that area.
For me it would be a hard choice to make as I found both worthwhile.

Thank you for the responses. It looks like I will be able to manage to see both places - althogh if I came down t a choice I would have taken Hue over Ha long bay