Booking Danang - Hue Heritage Train (no fees) using official DSVN website

One of the main attractions in Central Vietnam is the train ride over the Hai Van mountain pass between Danang and Hue. There are lots of day-trip tours to Hue: For example,  Klook offers transfers to the train station, seats on the Heritage train to Hue, lunch, shuttle bus with tour guide to the main sights in Hue, and a drive back to your hotel in Danang. These tours are not a good option as they take care of all the logistics -- especially when the return trains back to Danang either leave too early (2:30 pm) or too late (7:43 pm) for a day trip.

However, if you want to Do It Yourself and don't need a tour, this post (based on my experience) walks you through how to reserve a train ticket on the official Vietnam Railways website. I created this post to help people solve the problems I faced  -- the issue of a rejected Vietnam phone number and confusion about which seats are on the "coastal" facing side of the train. While there are many other sites that can book rail tickets for you that are easier to use, but they often charge an extra fee. 

By the way, if you are unfamiliar with train travel in Vietnam, Seat 61 provides great background info. If you decide to go the DIY route online on the official DSVN website, continue reading.

Step by Step: Booking Heritage Train Tickets on the official Vietnam Railways website

1. Confirm that you want to take the Heritage Train instead of the regular (and cheaper) SE trains. The Heritage Train has cultural performances, local Hue food for sale in the dining car, cars designed to mimic the Imperial City of Hue and more comfortable seats. To my surprise, the Heritage Train was filled with local Vietnamese tourists so it's not just used by foreigners. The Heritage Train numbers start with "HD".
   
   
   
   
   
2. Go to the official Duong Sat Viet Nam website at https://dsvn.vn/#/. If the website is in Vietnamese, toggle on the top right nav where it says "English" (with the UK flag) to access the English version. 
   
   
3. Enter the cities Danang and Hue in the Search widget, select one way or round trip, and enter the dates needed. Remember that dates in Vietnam are in the DD/MM/YYYY format.
   
   
   
   
   
4. After entering the Search button, the available trains will show up in the results. Choose the train you want. In the example below, I selected HD2 (the Heritage Train with the better seats and the entertainment) which leaves early at 7:05 am from Danang.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Choose your seat. In most cases, you would choose a "soft seat" but there are seats in the dining car (with tables) available too. You can toggle around the coach numbers (1-6 in the example above) to look at the available seats and the prices for each. In the screen shot above, the red arrow shows the direction the train is moving in on the way to Hue.
   
   Choosing seats can be confusing as the official website doesn't clearly show whether the train is going from right to left, or left to right. We know the "right" side of the train has the coastal views when going North to Hue -- and the left side has coastal views when traveling South. However, the same seat number could be either on the left or right side because the railway cars support travel in both directions and seats swivel around 180 degrees to always face forward. Because the train does not have to physically turn around - seats could be on the right or left depending on which direction the train is going. From the trip going North to Hue, I found that the seats on the coastal side are 1/2, 7/8, 9/10, 15/16, 17/18, etc.
   
   
6. To to help you get an idea of the views from the seats, I've provided a photo of the view from 17/18 below when going North on the HD2 train. I think the seats in front (15/16) actually have the better view. 
    
   
   
    Here's the view from Seats 31/32 and 33/34 (going North)
   
   
   
   and 39/40 (left) and 41/42 (right) going North
   
   

   

   
   
   
7. When going South from Hue to Danang on HD3, the seats on the coastal "left" side are the same (1/2, 7/8, 9/10, 15/16, etc.) as the train does not "turn around" but just goes a different direction. However, note that going southbound, the swiveled seats facing the other direction will have windows on the left, and the backs of the seats will be on the other side, so a few feet to the left of what it looks like in the photos above.  
   
   Note: The railroad can choose to switch car directions at any time, so there are no guarantees that the seat numbers I listed above will always be on the coastal side. One way to know if things have changed is if you notice one side all "sold out" compared to the other side -- that is a hint that the "sold out" side is the side with the coastal view.
   
   

   

   
   
8. The seats you choose will show up in the cart on the right side of the screen. When you have selected the seats you want, confirm that your cart is correct and select the "Buy Ticket" button. 
   
   
9. At the next screen, enter your Full Name, Object = Foreigner Adult, and Passport info. Also enter the Ticket Booker information. I left the Invoice Issuing Information blank as I wasn't going to try getting my VAT refunded.
   
   Make sure your email address is correct as your ticket will be sent to the email address entered. I found that the website did not allow me to enter my full passport number, but it seemed to accept my partial. The tricky part is the Phone Number as there is validation and I was not able to use my USA mobile nor my local Vietnam number. I found that the website accepted a number starting with 077 - for example, 0770000000 or 0771234567. All communications came through email so it didn't seem like a valid mobile number was critical. Do remember the phone number entered as you will need it to access your boarding pass.
    
   
   
   
   
10. Select VNPay and select the checkbox to agree with the terms and conditions: I have read and abide all the online ticket buying regulations, promotion programs of Vietnam National Railway Group and will be responsible for the authenticity of above information
    
    
11. Hopefully, after you have entered the required information and hit "Next", you will not have any errors on the page. If so, fix it. Common errors I encounted included invalid phone numbers (try the phone numbers I provided above) or invalid Passport# (invalid number of digits), or time out (if you took too long, you will need to delete your seats and restart the process).
    
    
12. The payment step comes next. But before it, you should receive this warning (as I did). Then bring your credit card with you when boarding the plane. When I traveled recently, all they checked was a screen shot or printout of the ticket. There was no QR code reader, no ID checks, no credit card checks - but it doesn't hurt to bring your credit card just in case. 
    
    
    
    
    
13. When you agree to the payment and refund conditions, you get to the payment screen. Select International Payment Cards and enter your credit card information.
    
    
    
    
    
14. When the form is completed, you should get an email confirmation (which will be entirely in Vietnamese). The email confirmation will include your booking code that will be needed to access the boarding pass -- which I printed out to have ready for the trip. 
    
    
    
    
15. The link in the email will send you to this URL (with the embedded booking code) to download a copy of your boarding pass.https://dsvn.vn/#/thongtingiaodich?bookingCode=XXXXXX. You will then have to enter your email address and the phone number entered in the booking.
    
    
    
    
16. All I did was show a printout of the boarding pass to the gate agent at the train station and I was allowed to board the train -- no scanning of QR codes or checking of passport or ID. Some others were showing screen shots on their phone, but I personally prefer having the printout as it was easier.
    
    

I do not live in Vietnam and so am only sharing my experience booking tickets on the DSVN website. Hopefully, everything works for you, but if you are following the instructions and run into issues, please leave a comment below.

On my next post, I will walk through the experience of actually taking the train, with photos of the cultural performances and the food options. It was very interesting -- unlike any train ride I've taken in the US, Europe, Japan or Korea.