Where it sits
Huế is about 100 kilometres north of Da Nang, on the Perfume River. The Nguyen emperors had their capital here. The citadel is a UNESCO site, and it is the reason most people make the trip. The Hai Van pass is the coast road between the two cities. Allow roughly one and a half to two hours by road if you are not stopping, and more when the pass is in cloud or the rain is heavy. The train is the version that does not ask you to ride a scooter over the hill.
A visit, not a slogan
One or two nights is the usual shape if you live in Da Nang or Hoi An. The citadel takes a morning if you actually walk it. The river, the pagodas, and imperial food are the rest of the day. You can do it as a long day from Da Nang. You will wish you had stayed the night once you have done that once.
It is a Vietnamese city with a visitor layer, not a second An Thuong. English is thinner. That is part of why people who already live on this coast like it.
The hospital
Hue Central Hospital is the large public hospital for this part of Vietnam. People come from Da Nang and further for serious treatment. It is not a stand-in for a Tuesday GP visit, and it is not a private international clinic. Private international-style hospitals that foreigners name day to day are in Da Nang. If you are weighing Huế as a place to live, the honest medical sentence is: emergency and specialist care at the public hospital, routine private care likely back on the coast.
Could you live here?
Some people do, especially people who want a smaller city, a university town, and less of the beach-resort week. Rents you will see online do not agree with each other. One published average for a one-bedroom can be a fraction of another, depending on who counted and when. This page will not pick a number. Ask a landlord, then ask a second one.
The wet months, roughly October and November on this coast, flood low ground in Huế the way they do in Hoi An. Ask about the street, not the city.
Neighbourhood notes on the city page — the citadel side, An Cựu, Kim Long — are orientation. They are not a rent table.
From the coast: getting around Da Nang, healthcare in Da Nang.