Avoid ground-floor rooms near the river in flood season

Phạm Ngũ Lão, on the south bank, is the practical base for a first visit: restaurants, cafes and the river are close, and rooms come in every budget. The strip gets loud on weekend nights, with bars playing music late, so ask for a room away from the street, or choose a guesthouse on a side lane. Read recent reviews…

Each year in the third and seventh lunar months, Huế holds the Điện Huệ Nam festival, also called Hòn Chén, honouring the Holy Mother Thiên Y A Na. The highlight is a river procession of dragon boats carrying the Holy Mother's palanquin about 12 km upstream along the Perfume River to the temple. Rites start early in…

Duyệt Thị Đường is the royal theatre inside the Imperial City, built in the 1820s under Emperor Minh Mạng, and today it stages short shows of Nhã nhạc court music and dance. Performances run in the late morning and mid-afternoon, and the show needs its own ticket on top of the Imperial City ticket. Plan your walk…

Ca Huế, the song tradition of the old capital, is performed on boats on the Perfume River, often alongside court music. Evening shows run nightly, so you can fit one in after the Imperial City and dinner. Ask your hotel or the boat pier near Tòa Khâm for the next sailing, and sit close to the singers. Keep your phone…

Nón bài thơ, the conical hat with a poem or picture pressed between two layers of leaf, comes from Tây Hồ village in Phú Hồ commune, about 12 km from central Huế. Families make and sell the hats at home and along the village roads, and you can watch the stitching, which runs at about three stitches per centimeter…

Trường Tiền Bridge looks best in the soft pink light of late afternoon, and again after dark when its color-changing LED lights come on and reflect in the Perfume River. Shoot from the shaded pedestrian walkway beside the bridge and keep to the inner lanes, since the middle lane is for bikes and cyclos. Arrive early…

The tomb of Emperor Tự Đức is the greenest of Huế's royal tombs, set among pines beside a natural lake and designed by an emperor who loved poetry to blend into the landscape. Signage is limited, so a guide or a good guidebook helps you read the pavilions. Go in the early morning or late afternoon, and avoid weekends…

The Museum of Royal Antiquities fills Long An Palace, built in the 1840s under Emperor Thiệu Trị on 128 columns and rich wooden decoration. Inside are Nguyễn court costumes, seals, porcelain and cannons, plus Cham pieces. It pairs well with a morning in the citadel, since it stands beside it. Leave the camera in your…