Hue Countryside: Motorbike Tour With Local Guide & Tea

4.99

(145 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I didn’t expect to feel so at ease on the back of a motorbike in Vietnam, but here I was—helmet a bit crooked, wind tugging at my sleeves as we zipped out of Hue city. Our guide, Linh, grinned in the mirror and shouted something about “real countryside life.” I just nodded and tried not to drop my phone while filming the rice paddies flashing by. The air smelled like wet grass and smoke from someone’s breakfast fire. It felt honest somehow—nothing dressed up for tourists.

We stopped at this old covered bridge—Thanh Toan Bridge, Linh called it—and I watched an old woman selling tiny bananas by the water. She smiled with her whole face when I tried to say hello in Vietnamese (I probably butchered it). The market nearby was loud but friendly; people waved us over to try weird fruits I couldn’t name. Later we visited a little rice museum where a man showed us how to grind rice flour by hand. My arms still ache thinking about it. There was laughter when I spilled some on my shoes.

The highlight for me was sitting cross-legged on a mat in an incense-making village, rolling sticks between my palms while two women chatted quietly in Vietnamese. They poured us hot green tea—earthy and almost grassy—and one of them handed me a half-finished conical hat to try on. It didn’t fit right but nobody cared. We ended at Thien Mu Pagoda just as the light started turning gold over the Perfume River. I took too many photos but none really caught that feeling of being there—just quiet for a minute before heading back into town.