Hue Food Tour by Walking, Cyclo or Scooter

Our local guides take small groups (max 8) to family eateries that don't advertise — where cooks have been making the same bánh nậm (flat steamed rice cake with prawn and pork), bánh khoái (crispy Hue-style pancake) and nem lụi (grilled pork skewers wrapped in rice paper) for generations. Eight signature dishes across three hours. These are the foods of Hue, a city where royal cuisine and home cooking have long influenced each other: techniques from the Nguyễn court traveled into neighborhood kitchens, and street-stall flavors made their way back into court banquets. Choose how to move: on foot through hidden alleys, by cyclo along the Perfume River, or by scooter to spots further outside the city center. The kind of tour we'd take a friend on if they came to visit.

1. 1

   Stop 1

   45 min

   Meet your local guide at 15 Lê Lợi, on the south bank of the Perfume River. A short walk away is the first tasting stop, a small family kitchen where three generations cook side by side. Four dishes come to the table: bánh canh Nam Phổ (thick rice-noodle soup with crab and prawn), bánh nậm (flat steamed rice cake with prawn and pork, wrapped in a leaf), bánh lọc (chewy tapioca dumplings filled with prawn and pork) and ram ít (a soft sticky-rice dumpling on a crisp fried base). The cyclo option makes the same stops as the walking tour; the scooter option follows a different route, to places further from the city centre.

2. 2

   Perfume River

   Pass by

   From the first tasting stop you walk along the south bank of the Perfume River and cross Truong Tien Bridge, the iron bridge that has linked the two sides of Hue for more than a century. There is no stop on the river; your local guide talks you across to the north bank, where the rest of the tour takes place.

3. 3

   Dong Ba Market

   30 min

   Dong Ba is the main market of Hue. When the group arrives while the market is still trading, your local guide walks you through it to see how traders make their living and how local families shop. On later departures the market has already closed for the evening, so you pass by it instead. Either way you taste bún hến (rice vermicelli with tiny river clams, herbs and peanuts), in the market or at an eatery close by.

4. 4

   Stop 4

   30 min

   You walk on into the Citadel, the walled old city where many Hue families still live. Here you sit down to bún bò Huế (the city's spicy beef and pork noodle soup, scented with lemongrass), served with fresh herbs on the side. This stop is in the residential streets inside the walls; it does not include a visit to the Imperial City.

5. 5

   Thuong Tu Gate

   45 min

   Near Thuong Tu Gate, one of the old gateways of the Citadel, come two Hue favourites: bánh khoái (a crisp rice-flour pancake filled with prawn, pork and bean sprouts, eaten with a thick peanut-based sauce) and nem lụi (minced pork grilled on lemongrass skewers, wrapped in rice paper with herbs). The last stop is for chè Huế (sweet soups of beans, fruit and jelly), and the tour ends there.

• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• The group option follows a fixed menu with pork, prawn, shrimp paste and peanuts and cannot be adapted, so it is not suitable for food allergies or special diets. On the private options, tell us when you book and we adapt the route.

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.