Hue with kids: taking it in manageable bitesize chunks

Your essential guide to visiting Hue with kids, including things to do, where to go, and where to stay.

The imperial city of Hue isn’t on every travelling family’s radar, perhaps because at first glance, the sights aren’t obviously kid-friendly. There’s some element of truth in that as Hue is all about heritage sites focused on the Imperial City and Emperor Tombs dotted around the outskirts of town.

In a city where the temperature is commonly stuck above 30°C, sightseeing is a challenge for adults, let alone for kids who tend to have a slightly lower tolerance to spending hour after hour looking at historical wonders.

A visit needs a carefully planned approach to keep the whinges at bay. It’s important to remember you won’t be able to do it all, so here we share the best things to do in Hue with kids and top tips to keep everyone sane.

Vietnam with kids travel guide

Your comprehensive guide to travelling Vietnam with kids, including accommodation suggestions and an itinerary, from a family that spent 45 day overlanding from HCMC to Hanoi.

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Contents

Top tips for visiting Hue with kids

We visited Hue in August and it was suffocatingly hot, so the usual rule of avoiding being out in the sun between the hours of 10am and 3pm really does apply here. Don’t try and do any heritage site visits in the middle of the day, instead aim for first thing in the morning or towards the end of the afternoon. To help with this, the Imperial City (for example) opens from 6:30am until 5:30pm.
The best place to spend the hottest part of the day is in the water, so book accommodation with a pool, ideally one which is large enough to comfortably handle some splashing and jumping around. Some hotels in Hue advertise swimming pools that end up more closely resembling ornamental plunge pools.
Consider visiting from January to March, when the weather is much cooler.
Don’t try and do it all. Pick the best bits and focus on them (we help with that further down).
Make sure you stock up on cash as entry tickets to sites are cash only.

How long should you spend in Hue with kids?

Two days is about the right length of time to visit the heritage sites in Hue. Any longer, especially during the summer, and you might be testing the boundaries of your kids’ patience.

Note that if you’re heading north, three convenient trains (SE2, SE4, SE6) depart Hue in the afternoon towards Dong Hoi (for Phong Nha). This opens up the possibility of ticking off an activity in the morning and then catching an onward train the same day.

Top 3 things to do in Hue with kids

At the risk of repeating ourselves, the secret to a successful Hue visit with kids is limiting how much you try to tick off. There are seven or eight Royal Tombs surrounding Hue, but you’ll experience diminishing returns if you try and visit more than one or two. Here are what we think are the best bits of Hue:

Imperial City of Hue

The former home and political centre of the Nguyen dynasty, the Imperial City of Hue makes for a fascinating, if slightly rambling visit. Built in the early 19th century, the walled enclosure was originally home to scores of buildings serving as residences, offices, shrines and other functions necessary for the smooth running of the state.

As with so many places in the country, the Imperial City was heavily damaged during the Indochina Wars, and many of the buildings have since been lost, although the UNESCO World Heritage listing in 1993 and subsequent renovation projects are slowly bringing the site back to its former glory. In the meantime, there’s a fair amount of construction work going on, and you often need to navigate broken tiles and gaps in the flooring. For us, this just added to its charm.

Before arriving, we were unsure how successful the visit was going to be, even though we’d left it to 3pm, and the sun was slowly losing some of its heat. But it was a brilliant couple of hours and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves. It’s the sort of place which suits random wanderings rather than a formal plan of attack (although guides are available if you want more structure). The mix of opulent buildings and crumbling walkways added to the sense of charm and we were often the only ones around, allowing us to enjoy the visit in some peace.

The Imperial City is open from 6:30am to 5:30pm, although people were still milling around the site after the official closing time. We arrived at 3pm and encountered very few crowds, although it did seem to get slightly busier towards 5pm. The ticket office is in line with the huge flagpole, click here for the Google Map point.

If you arrive by Grab taxi, you’ll be dropped off about two hundred metres to the east, ignore the rickshaw drivers who try and confuse matters. Although the signs aren’t always clear, the ticket office is obvious once you get near to it.

Entrance fees are VND200,000 for adults and VND40,000 for kids. Payment is cash only.

Visit a mausoleum

There are seven different mausoleums around Hue, but we just wanted to visit one of them with the boys. Each of the mausoleums (or Royal Tombs as they’re also known) were built for a different emperor as their final resting place. They’re very popular with tour groups so it helps to arrive early or late in the day to avoid them, and the heat.

We picked the Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh, located here, as we’d heard it offered a good balance between crowds (or lack thereof), architecture and ‘wow’ factor. It was easy to reach in a Grab and was only about fifteen minutes from the centre of Hue.

After leaving the hotel at 8:15am, we arrived at about the right time for our hour long visit, although an hour earlier would perhaps have been better to avoid the increasing heat. The tomb is significantly smaller than most of the other Hue tombs, which meant we could cover the entire site quite easily in the time we had.

The best part for the kids was the golden ornate tomb itself with its intricate design and decoration. Outside, we all just had enough energy for a walk around, with particular interest centring on the mandarin statues lining the entrance to the tomb. After a couple of photos and circuits of the upper level, we all retreated back to the base where a small shop selling drinks and ice-creams was most welcome.

Don’t expect to spend hours here with kids, but as an introduction and taster of the Royal Tombs, it felt just right. Entrance is VND150,000 for adults and VND30,00 for kids. It’s cash only again.

Hue Abandoned Water Park (Hồ Thủy Tiên)

We visited Hồ Thủy Tiên, an eerie abandoned waterpark, at the end of a one day motorbike tour from Hoi An to Hue. If you’re looking for an activity away from the splendour and crowds of Hue’s imperial past, this abandoned water park certainly fits the bill. Built at the start of the 21st century, the water park never managed to draw in the crowds and was forced to close not long after opening.

After several years of abandonment, the water park is slowly decaying, with only vague reminders of its former purpose. It’s by no means a traditional tourist activity but your kids will probably enjoy wandering around the huge concrete dragon and its crumbing staircases and views across the surrounding landscape. If you keep exploring, you might spot some of the waterslides and buildings that used to make up the waterpark but now sit silently in the Hue countryside.

The abandoned waterpark is about 7km away from Hue and you can order a Grab taxi here from town. It’s also a good place to stop on a motorbike tour (and the bikes can bring you closer to the dragon, otherwise it’s a ten-minute walk from the car park). It’s an unofficial tourist site so don’t expect much infrastructure other than a cursory ticket office (VND10,000 each) and a couple of drinks vendors.

How to get around Hue with kids

Grab is the best way to get around Hue with kids, especially if you’ve already installed the app and have used it elsewhere in Southeast Asia. It’s simple to book a ride and drivers will collect you from anywhere in the city (and beyond). We love that Grab saves on negotiation and navigation issues, and you’re always guaranteed a reasonable (and legitimate fare).

Where we stayed in Hue

We stayed two nights at Golden Star Villa Hue. The choice and quality of accommodation isn’t as strong in Hue as elsewhere in Vietnam and this place was a good example of that.

It wasn’t anything special, but it was clean, had a small pool, and the location is fine: away from the hustle of the city centre but still only a few minutes away in a Grab.

Our room rate included breakfast which wasn’t great (as is common in low to mid-range hotels in Vietnam). We ordered a food delivery from Grab on one of the evenings as the other food options nearby were limited.

The hotel did the job for a couple of nights and we were grateful for the swimming pool on the hot, hot afternoons.

How to get to and from Hue with kids

We were travelling the length of Vietnam from Saigon to Hanoi over 45 days. Before Hue, we’d spent eight days in Hoi An and then took a one day motorbike tour to get to Hue. If you have the time and budget, the motorbike tour is a fantastic option for a family, offering the chance to see some of the wonderful countryside and sights between the two cities.

Otherwise, Hue is ideally positioned on the transport trail and is well-served by trains and sleeper buses from most other tourist hubs in the country. In particular, there are convenient daytime trains heading to Danang (2.5hrs) and Dong Hoi (3hrs), which are both common next destinations after Hue.

From Hue, our next stop was Phong Nha. Whilst there are some sleeper buses going directly to Phong Nha, we decided to take the train to Dong Hoi and take a taxi up to Phong Nha. The SE6 train is a recommended option, departing Hue at 1.45pm and arriving just before 5pm.

Hue railway station is located on the south bank of the Perfume River, across from the Imperial City. It’s a decent railway station by Vietnam standards; slightly better than Nha Trang but less relaxing than Dong Hoi. Don’t worry about arriving here too early as there’s limited seating and air-con, but there are places opposite for a quick lunch break.

Final thoughts on visiting Hue with kids

Many families miss out Hue, making a beeline for Hoi An, which is widely promoted as Vietnam’s best destination for worldschooling families. However, with a bit of planning and setting expectations, it’s a very worthwhile stop and we really enjoyed our couple of days here.

During the hot season Hue is seriously hot and, as so many of the activities are outdoor sightseeing, you should plan to visit early or late in the day. We were pleasantly surprised how much our boys enjoyed looking around the Imperial City and Royal Tombs, both of which are best experienced at your own pace to soak in the faded glory.

Remember to set aside some time to visit the abandoned waterpark. It’s not the most traditional of tourist activities, but sometimes the weirdest can be the most memorable.