How to Get the Royal Treatment in Hue, Vietnam

The Nguyens, the last royal family of Vietnam, ruled from 1802 to 1945, a course that spanned 13 emperors. Their historic legacy is best discovered in Hue, a central Vietnamese city that later became associated with the devastating 1968 Tet offensive during the Vietnam War. Nowadays, this UNESCO World Heritage Site and former capital attracts visitors looking for a glimpse of the good life via an itinerary filled with pagodas, tombs, garden houses and river boats.

Eat
The Ben Xuan Garden House Theater is exclusive; Truong Dinh Ngo and his wife, Camille Huyen, host guests at their gorgeous Perfume River-front estate-turned-private theater about three times per week, maximum, and visitors can be denied if they don’t come recommended from a trustworthy source. All this vetting ensures that the couple’s vision comes to life, and that guests — usually one or two couples per night — feel like real Vietnamese royalty before the evening is through.

Huyen, a Hue-born painter, singer and all-around renaissance woman, is of royal ancestry, while her husband, Ngo, is a retired Swiss banker whose passion lies in chatting about art and hosting visitors. Combined, the two put on an intimate and welcoming evening which includes a multicourse dinner, a tour of their gorgeous home — designed by Huyen — and a private concert that features Huyen on vocals, accompanied by local musicians playing traditional instruments, including a high-pitched monochord and a 36-string zither. During the evening, clients will feel like they are being entertained at a royal court.

www.benxuan.asia

Sleep
During the French-colonial period, the governor to France had a lovely riverside estate in Hue. In 2005, that home became the 122-room La Residence Hue Hotel & Spa. Voted one of the top 25 hotels in Asia by Conde Nast Traveler during its Readers’ Choice Awards in 2017, the art deco property recently finished the first phase of an extensive renovation that will include upgraded guestrooms, an expanded spa, a relocated fitness center and pool and a brand-new, three-room villa.

Folks with a love of history should request a balcony room that overlooks the Perfume River and the Imperial City. And those who want to feel like royalty would do well to splurge on the Resident Suite at the top of the original governor’s residence — a room where modern-day royals stay when visiting Hue. For a crash course on the Nguyen Dynasty, visit the hotel’s gallery wall of emperor portraits.

www.la-residence-hue.com 

Play
There are countless locations built for — or by — one of the Nguyen emperors, so any sightseeing tour of Hue doubles as a history lesson on the country’s former royals. Urban Adventures — Intrepid Travel’s single-day tour product — offers a full-day Hue Discovery itinerary that balances the best of Hue’s Buddhist and royal influences, including a vegetarian lunch at a pagoda and a meditative walk around Thien Mu Pagoda to unrushed explorations of emperor Tu Duc’s tomb complex and the expansive Hue citadel — which contains numerous buildings that once contained emperors and their clans.

The comprehensive tour ends appropriately with a mellow cruise on the Perfume River. Keep the royal air alive by requesting a private tour which, in my case, included cake.

www.urbanadventures.com