HOME PAGE

   About Hue

   Hue Travel Guide

  Hue's culture

  Hue Train Tickets 

  Hue Travel Map  

  Hue Shopping

  Hue Restaurants

   Hue Travel Advice

    Vietnam Tours

    Cambodia Tours

    Laos Tours

    Contact Us

    Links

   

 

  Laos Tour Package

  Laos Travel Pacakges

  cambodia tour packages

  cambodia travel packages

  halong bay tours

  mekong tours

 

  Nha Trang Tours Nha Trang Resorts | Nha Trang Hotels  About Us Contact Us | Links

Hue Train Tickets

How to buy tickets...
Do I need a reservation? Can I stop off along the way? Can hop on and off?

Yes, yes, and no... All trains require a reservation, so you need a specific ticket/reservation for each individual train journey you make. If you want to travel from Saigon to Hanoi (or vice versa) stopping off on the way, this is not a problem, but you will need to book it as a series of separate journeys, with a separate ticket for each leg either bought in advance or bought as you go along. You cannot buy an open ticket and hop on and off trains without a reservation.

Buying tickets at the station...

It's easy to buy train tickets at the station when you get to Vietnam. Apart from peak holiday periods such as Tet, it's not difficult to book a soft sleeper a few days in advance, but be prepared to be flexible over your exact choice of class, train number or departure date. If you are booking for the same day or the following day, you might find the best quality trains full, but other trains will probably have berths available. Reservations were computerised in 2002, and you can buy tickets for most train journeys within Vietnam at Saigon and Hanoi station booking offices. So for example, you can buy both a Saigon-Hue ticket and a Hue-Hanoi ticket at Saigon station ticket office. However, at other stations such as Hue, Danang or Nha Trang, you can only book journeys starting at the station you're at. At ticket offices, you pay in Vietnamese Dong, US dollars are not generally accepted. If you're sure of your itinerary and it's important to be on a specific train on a specific date in a specific class, then you can pre-book by email with several travel agencies, see below.

Can I buy all 4 berths in a compartment to have a room to ourselves?

Privacy-loving westerners often ask this. The answer is that in theory yes you can, but it can't be guaranteed that the train staff won't allocate additional passengers to the berths they know to be empty. My advice is don't bother, just book 2 beds in a 4-berth soft class sleeper. The Vietnamese may view it as selfish to take up 4 beds when you only need 2, given that places on their national transport system can be in short supply at times. You'll be safe and comfortable sharing a 4-berth soft sleeper, and might actually meet some real Vietnamese people this way!

Rail-based tailor-made holidays in Vietnam..

Alternatively, there are UK agencies who will book Vietnamese rail travel for you as part of a tailor-made itinerary, such as www.regent-holidays.co.uk. These agencies are usually willing to book the trains you specify, but only if one or two hotel bookings are also made through them, usually at the more expensive tourist-orientated hotels.

What are the trains like?

Trains SE1 to SE6...
The best trains are the ones with 'SE' train numbers, equipped with modern air-conditioned coaches. They have:

soft class air-conditioned sleepers (4-berths per compartment).

hard class air-conditioned sleepers (6-berths per compartment)

air-conditioned soft class reclining seats.

a restaurant or buffet car.

in soft sleeper, simple tray meals are served in your compartment along with mineral water, included in the fare.

Train SE1/SE2 also has private 4-berth air-conditioned sleepers of a higher standard attached between Hanoi, Hue & Danang, see www.VietnamTripAdvisor.com.

The coaches on these 'SE' trains have large picture windows, unobstructed by the wire mesh that protects other trains' windows from stones. Choose these trains if you can.

Which class should you choose?

Air-conditioned soft sleeper is the recommended choice for most western travellers, for any journey involving overnight travel. Air-con soft sleeper cars have western-style toilets at the end of the corridor. However, air-con hard sleeper is perfectly acceptable if you're on a budget or if all the soft sleepers are sold out, so don't rule it out. Some hard sleepers have squat-type toilets only, if that's an issue for you. Air-con soft seat is a good choice for daytime journeys, but not for overnight trips as you can't sleep properly in a seat.

 

 

Copyright 2008 sapa tours  Travel wisely with Vietnam Travel. All rights reserved
Email:| vietnam tours | Tel: (84-4) 3926 3858 - Fax: (84-4) 3926 3847 | Address: 56 Ma May st, Hanoi, Vietnam