Elephant Springs — Attraction in Thừa Thiên Huế Province

Had an interesting experience here today. Rolled in with a friend on scooters. 1.3kms away there was a lone security guard standing next to a construction site with no signage requesting us to pay 100k each. We questioned him as it looked suspect. 3 other tourists rolled up on bikes and he had us all stopped. We collectively decided to ignore him and drive through without paying. Further along there was a pay gate. A second security guard had us stopped and was asking us for 80k each. In the meantime the first security guard came up the track on his scooter. They both demanded us to pay them but couldn’t decide on an exact price. One said 80 the other said 60. At this stage we were happy to pay albeit for 1. Wanted to see if the pools were any good and 2 for them to agree on a fixed price. As they wouldn’t let any of us pass to have a look, I agreed I’d pay them and walk up on foot a further 200m to see if the pools were in swimmable condition to check for the group of 5 of us. The security agreed on 60k. I payed them and I walked up. Came back and gave everyone the all clear that it was worth the 60k. The remaining four payed him 60k. However when I went to jump on my bike to ride it up the track with the others. The security guards said I must not enter. I asked them why and they said to me. ‘NO vietnam!’ And demanded I pay them. I explained to them that I had just payed them the 60k previously. Either they chose to ignore this or had conveniently forgotten. I rode up the track after one had softened up a little bit and was less aggressive. However at the top Carpark I was greeted by another guard. Who was quite angry. The three of them were convinced I hadn’t payed them and demanded I leave. After trying a few times to explain the circumstances I decided my efforts weren’t getting me anywhere and payed them on an agreed 80k (for a second time.) The pools were worth it. But to cop their attitudes and gaslighting on already much higher prices than other surrounding spots. I’d ask you to make your own judgment on whether you’d like to support their attempt at a 3 tier payment system. Expect fireworks. Yours truly. Vietnam...

We stopped here during a motorbike drive from Hue to Hoi an. It was 15,000 each get in plus 2,000 for the bike... We thought that would be the end of it. When we parked up a woman took our ticket and then walked us down to the springs, she sat us under a wooden shelter and demanded 20,000 each of us (which got lowered to 10,000) but we had just payed for entrance and this woman did not seem official just a local who lived there. We did not pay and ended up sitting being given some fruit by the lovely locals having a day out. We then moved to a different spot, the woman reappeared and began demanding money to swim, again we said no we had paid, I think she wanted money to sit in the shelter, so we tried to explain we would sit on a rock for free, at this point a nice local (who also spoke no English) stepped in and seemed to tell the woman to back off! The 2 local families we met there (who had just come for a day out and spoke no English) were incredibly welcoming and generous to us and made our day! The water itself was really lovely and refreshing (rocks quite slippery) the only disappointment was there was a lot of rubbish in the water and around the area. And if the local women are going to con us tourists the least they could do is keep the place clean, but it seems they were the ones dumping the rubbish! Worth a stop but...

Came here 7 years ago and again two days ago after the hai van pass. Pleased to report it’s as stunning as ever and exactly as I remember it. We got recommended a couple other places e.g. Dream Springs but really didn’t like what we saw from recent review photos regarding the shacks and excess tourist effect making it feel ugly.

This place is perfect. My wife and I arrived late on Thursday, around 5pm and were the only ones there. Yes as you arrive you need to pay the security 60k vnd per person but just pay it and enjoy yourself.

The road to the falls feels a little suspicious and is a bit of rough ride but it’s well worth the ride. We were glad to have the security guy accompany us after a short while to reassure us.

The mass tourism effect at these sorts of places appears to move in waves so it felt like we timed this one well, and although we had some safety concerns being alone and suspicious at first (perhaps about getting robbed or worse) we needn’t have worried - although we’d still caution solo travellers, particularly ladies to think twice as it was very quiet,...