Explore Hue Countryside by Bicycle

Overview

The plaudits for Hue usually go to its impressive citadel and the tombs and pagodas that dot its surrounding areas along the Perfume River. However, a special mention must go to the handicraft villages of Hue, that lie in its rural enclaves amidst serene rolling hills, forests, and languid canals. The locals in these villages have been producing their own wonderful handicrafts for hundreds of years, be it jewelry, folk art, textiles, conical hats or paper flowers. This Hue Day Trip takes you on a trip around these villages under your own power on two wheels.

We save the majesty of Hue for another day as we cycle past its more humble surrounds. The beautiful scenery and much slower pace of life to be found just a few kilometers out of Hue are far removed from the idea of the royal court, which ruled from Hue for several hundreds of years. We visit small villages, pagodas, a beautiful bridge and Ho Chi Minh’s childhood home as the Explore Hue Countryside by Bicycle tour shows us the best that Hue’s perimeters have to offer.

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Places you’ll see

Hue

Highlights

Cycling through verdant scenery and watching farmers hard at work in the fields and orchards around Hue
Discovering symbols of national pride, namely Thanh Toan Bridge and the Ho Chi Minh Memorial House
Meeting the makers of wonderful handicrafts, hard-working people who have been honing a very specific skill for most of their lives

Itinerary

Activities: Cycling around the outskirts of Hue City through a beautiful landscape, visiting many important and attractive sites and seeing artisans at Duong No, Thanh Tien and Sinh villages producing wonderful handicrafts.

You will meet your guide at around 8.30 am at the designated meeting point. After trying out your bike, we will cross the ancient Thanh Toan Bridge with its tiled roof and picturesque appearance that have remained largely unchanged since its erection in 1776.

The artistic bridge is located in Thuy Thanh village, about 7km from Hue to the east. The beautiful rural surrounds of Thuy Thanh add much to the charm of Thanh Toan Bridge, where locals row small boats between its grassy banks.

We continue across more placid canals to Duong No village, just northeast of Hue. We have time here to visit a market to try some of Hue’s famous cuisine and take a look around the ornate temple as well as Ho Chi Minh’s childhood house, a great pilgrimage point for the Vietnamese.

We will check out some of the artisan crafts of the village including the making of wooden birdcages, which is a specialty of Duong No. At Phap Hoa Pagoda, we stop for lunch.

After our lunch break, we climb back onto our bikes and cycle to Thanh Tien Village, where beautiful paper flowers are the handicraft of choice. Our last handicraft will be the folk paintings of Sinh Village, where elaborate prints are made from pineapple root, woodblock and do paper. We will visit the house of Ky Huu Phuoc, a local artist renowned for his colorful works, to learn more about the complex painting and printing processes.

We return to Hue at about 16.00 pm where you will drop the bicycles back at our office. Thank you for coming along on the Explore Hue Countryside by Bicycle tour, we very much hope that you will consider our services in the future!

Meals: Lunch