Dalat has long become one of Vietnam’s most popular tourist cities, with many beautiful and poetic natural landscapes. Someone once likened Da Lat to a city in the forest, where the air is cold, and nature and people are close to each other.
Da Lat City in Lam Dong province, Da Lat has cool weather and is an ideal resort suitable for the whole year. Once famous for attractions such as Valley of Love, Lake of Sighs, Pine Hill of Two Tombs, Elephant Waterfall, Xuan Huong Lake, Langbiang Peak, Bao Dai Palace, Hang Nga Villa (Crazy House), Truc Lam Monastery, Tuyen Lam Lake and Da Lat Railway Station. This is the ideal destination for you to have relaxing moments, and recover health after hard working days.
HOW TO GET TO DALAT, MOVE WHEN TRAVELING TO DA LAT
Airplane: Direct flights are available from Hue, Hanoi, Da Nang, or Ho Chi Minh City. HCM to Lien Khuong Airport (Dalat) of Vietnam Airlines and Vietjetair, Jetstar. Fares range from 500,000 VND to 1,200,000 VND, and flight times range from 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. If you want a cheaper price, take some time to find out the promotional ticket from time to time, last time I bought a ticket for only 280,000 VND from Hue to Da Lat of Jetstar.
Note: From Lien Khuong airport, you can take the airport’s intermodal bus to Da Lat (stop at the Aviation Hotel on Pasteur Street near Xuan Huong Lake) for VND 40,000 / 1 person; or take a taxi from 180,000 VND – 300,000 VND / time. (Call a cheap taxi company for the first 35km only 150,000 VND / 4-seater car and 180,000 VND / 7-seater car Phone 0633,666,777) A little trick for you to save a large amount of money is to invite some carpooling passengers to share money. Coach: Phuong Trang car and Thanh Buoi car have many trips to and from the Saigon – Da Lat route, Hue – Da Lat car (Da Lat – Hue car). ticket prices range from 230,000 VND – 335,000 VND (sleeper bed)/ticket/way. One trip a day. Phone number of Phuong Trang garage: call now to the total account 1900.60.67 The service of Phuong Trang garage is extremely good, this car company also arranges a shuttle bus to pick up passengers in the city center to the bus station, so it also saves you apart.
TRANSPORTATION IN DALAT:
Motorbike: price from 80,000 – 120,000 VND/day, the price of digital cars and scooters will be different. Depending on where you rent a car, they will calculate according to the day they have a place to park the car overnight, or from 12 hours the previous day to 12 hours the next day – Dalat road is mainly hilly, so you should rent a car to save gas, it is best to ask the motel, the hotel rents a car for more peace of mind in case of damage. Double bike: 20.000VND/hour. To rent a bicycle or motorbike, you need to bring your ID card. Car rental: Day rental price (from 8h00 – 17h00) from 1 million VND or more, overtime charged 100,000 VND/hour. I think I shouldn’t rent a car. Just give it savings and freedom, the distance between attractions in Da Lat is also close to each other, so just motorbikes that speed splits slowly. Bus: Bus routes from the bus station in the center of Da Lat City follow the routes to the communes and districts of Da Lat, Lam Dong. Fares are calculated for the whole route or by route, from 4,000 – 30,000 VND/person.
WHERE TO STAY IN DA LAT?
Dalat hotels are very diverse, depending on the conditions of the individual you can easily choose for yourself a suitable hotel. Dalat has countless Motel Hotels located almost on all routes, generally very affordable, but you should research and contact to book rooms in advance to ensure availability and the cheapest price. Last time, I chose Tan Dat Homestay (old Thanh Dat guesthouse) (8/37 Bis, Vo Truong Toan, Ward 8, Da Lat City, area near Phu Dong Thien Vuong – near Da Lat University) as a place to hide for 5 days. The price is cheap but the room is very clean, especially the owner is extremely nice, and enthusiastic to advise, so the trip is successful and very economical. The room rate in Thanh Dat Da Lat when I went was 120k / room for 2 people (full fan, hot water, television,… The room is decorated according to each theme so I like it very much). The groove space is large and airy. Tan Dat Homestay has a comic reading corner, dining area, and café corner for group activities. If necessary, the hostel also supports the kitchen area. Many people think that renting a motel should be placed near the city center, but Dalat City is quite small. I stayed near Dalat University and only ran to Xuan Huong Lake for more than 5 minutes. In a student area, the price of food is very cheap but very delicious, avoiding the situation of entering bad restaurants and being cut off.
WHERE TO GO TO PLAY IN DA LAT?
To make it easier and save time, I divide the attractions along the same route for your reference:
Inner city area:
City Flower Garden Route – Train Station – Da Lat Pedagogical College – Lam Vien Square Da Lat – Walk around Xuan Huong Lake
Flower Garden of Da Lat City: Perhaps anyone who comes to Da Lat has come to this place, this place is the gathering place of many beautiful flowers of Da Lat and the world. On every occasion of the Flower Festival, the City Flower Garden is one of the most popular tourist attractions.
Da Lat railway station: Dalat railway station, built in the early decades of the twentieth century, is the oldest remaining station in Vietnam. In 2001, it was recognized by the Ministry of Culture, Information and Tourism as a national architectural monument. With extremely unique architecture that makes visitors surprised, is a harmonious combination of Western architecture with the architecture of the Central Highlands Rong house, with beautiful decorative lines.
Da Lat College of Education: From the view from Xuan Huong Lake in the distance, you will see an ancient tower shaped like a pink-orange bell tower, which is Da Lat Pedagogical College. If you want to learn the architectural history of this school, or simply love photography, this is also a place you must visit!
Xuan Huong Lake: Coming to Dalat, you will pass by Xuan Huong Lake Da Lat several dozen times because the lake is located in the center of the city, you will be spoiled for romantic scenery, dream-like, around the lake there are pine trees, lawns, and flower gardens, very suitable for walking around, Ride a bicycle around the lake, or ride a horse-drawn carriage, etc.
Van Hanh Pagoda – Dream Hill – Valley of Love – XQ Su Quan – Dried flower showroom
Van Hanh Da Monastery in Lat is one of the Zen monasteries that attracts many visitors when coming to the city of thousand flowers, located on a hill in Ward 8 – Dalat, visitors will encounter the image of the majestic, towering, sanctified, and pure Shakyamuni Buddha exuding the beauty of Van Hanh Monastery.
Dreaming Hill: Dream Hill tourist area, in addition to enjoying the charming poetic natural landscapes with thousands of blooming flowers, a romantic and attractive space, you can also have fun, entertainment, and extremely interesting experiences with the art of stone inserting flowers, Golden Falls, lakes, restaurants, sports areas, entertainment, and souvenir sales.
Valley of Love: Perhaps referring to Dalat, people will think of the Valley of Love first. The Valley of Love is one of the ideal and attractive eco-tourism areas that has become very familiar to visitors near and far. Along with its natural beauty and long-standing cultural values, on August 31, 1998, the Valley of Love was recognized as a national tourist attraction
Palace 1 – Da Lat cable car – Con Ga church – Crazy House – Palace 3 – Van Thanh Flower Village – Elephant Waterfall.
Palace 1: is an ancient classical European architecture that is both majestic and elegant, located on a pine hill of more than 18 hectares, built by French millionaire Robert Clément Bourgery in 1940. Not only contributing architecturally, but these residences also carry with them a part of the history of the nation. Visitors to Dalat, most of them visit the 3 residences of the last king of Annam.
Crazy house – Hang Nga villa is a special project in Dalat. The house is built of reinforced cement but has a strange design. After 18 years of existence, this place has just been granted the ownership certificate of the project by the People’s Committee of Lam Dong province for female architect Dang Viet Nga. Serving tourists every day of the week, Crazy House has extremely interesting things waiting for you!
Van Thanh Flower Village is one of the largest and oldest flower villages in Da Lat City, almost every time of the day people here mainly stay and work in their flower gardens.
Suburban area:
Datanla Waterfall – Tuyen Lam Lake – Da Lat Truc Lam Monastery – Sculpture Tunnel
Datanla Waterfall is a place that most people who come to Da Lat also once visit, is one of the large waterfalls in Dalat, located inside a vast green pine forest. Visitors can walk down the falls by themselves by conquering hundreds of very steep and zigzag steps, or they can go by the resort’s slide system to experience the wonderful feeling of crossing each zigzag road and gliding gently through the pine foliage.
Tuyen Lam Lake area and around the lake have a fresh climate, extremely quiet space, and charming scenery, promising to become a large-scale tourist area with many types of unique tourism such as sightseeing, camping, healing, convalescence, fishing, festivals – beliefs, recreation,… especially the type of ecotourism. You can walk around the lake and visit the Truc Lam Temple.
Thien Vien Truc Lam is a tourist destination in Da Lat with the most visitors. The monastery is located on Phung Huang Mountain overlooking the beautiful blue Tuyen Lam Lake. Sculpture tunnel The clay tunnel tourist area, also known as the 500 m2 Dalat Star sculpture tunnel in the Tuyen Lam Lake area, Da Lat City. Located on a gentle hillside overlooking Tuyen Lam Lake extremely poetic with a 100 m2 earthen house nestled under an old tree, Outside the garden, deer and deer roamed in the meadow by the flowing stream, and below was a solid strip of earthen talu, on the base of the tally were elaborate and quite sophisticated earth-carved and covered artworks.
Langbiang Plateau – Golden Stream – Golden Valley – Cu Lan Village
Lang Biang Mountain is located in Luoyang district, 12km north of Dalat city center. This is a suitable place for ethnographers, for tourists who love traditional culture to study the culture of the Southern Highlands peoples. From the top of the mountain, visitors can see the Golden and Silver Suoi and the panoramic view of Da Lat on high with the fog floating in front of you makes you feel like you are in the clouds.
Suoi Vang Lake – Golden Valley: Suoi Vang Lake is a famous landscape of Lam Dong province, Vietnam. The lake is located in Luoyang district at the foot of the legendary Langbiang Mountain, 12km north of Dalat city. This is the largest freshwater lake in Da Lat with a capacity of about 20 million cubic feet of water. The lake is the place to supply domestic water for Da Lat city. Suoi Vang Lake looks like a young woman who has just entered her youth lying basking in the rolling green pine hills.
Cu Lan Village: Coming to Cu Lan Village, you will find a sense of peace and tranquility. The attractive natural beauty and a cultural tourism model like Cu Lan Village will surely bring a lot of meaning to the journey in the city of a thousand flowers – Dalat.
Minh Tam Flower Garden – Tau Pagoda – Pren Waterfall – Pongour Waterfall Da Lat Minh Tam Flower Garden:
Minh Tam Flower Garden is one of the great resorts with a combination of flowers and hotels in Da Lat City. If you have the opportunity to travel to Dalat, come to the city of flowers, and try once to visit here to blend into the climate, and nature here. Watch the flowers bloom all year round, watch the distant pine hills with immense green.
Tau Pagoda: The Ancient King Pagoda in Da Lat is also known as Tau Pagoda. Located at 385 Khe Sanh, built by Hoa Nghiem monks and Chinese Buddhists in 1958 and restored in 1989. Coming here is not only a place to wash away people’s worries but also a valuable architectural work with charming airy scenery, contributing significantly to the poetic discovery journey of tourists when visiting Dalat.
Prenn Waterfall Da Lat is about 13km from the center of Thousand Flowers City, located right at the foot of Prenn Pass. This is one of the most beautiful and majestic waterfalls in Lam Dong province.
Pongour Waterfall Da Lat is a famous waterfall that is beautiful, dreamy, majestic, and wildest in the Southern Highlands. Therefore, if you come to Dalat, you cannot forget Pongour Waterfall.
Linh Phuoc Pagoda (Ve Chai Pagoda) – Cau Dat Tea Hill – Dran Town
Linh Phuoc Pagoda is one of the famous landmarks of Dalat, a unique mosaic architecture, imbued with Asian identity. Arriving at Linh An Pagoda, the first image that impresses visitors is the tallest 7-storey tower in Vietnam today built with a beautiful shape. Another impressive work of Linh Phuoc Pagoda is the statue of Kannon Buddha made from hundreds of thousands of immortal flowers combined on the occasion of the Dalat Flower Festival 2011. Every year, we regularly welcome Dalat tourists from all over the country and abroad to worship and visit this unique crockery mosaic. On the way up to Linh Phuoc Pagoda, on the right-hand side, Doc No. 7 (opposite the model greenhouse), Ward 11, Da Lat City, there is a garden growing Dalat black tomatoes, Dalat chocolate tomatoes, Dalat strawberry tomatoes, (all kinds of tomatoes), Dalat giant pumpkin garden, There are also giant guavas, artichoke flowers, and healthy Dalat black carrots.
Cau Dat Tea Hill (Xuan Truong village) is a fresh destination for those who want to find quiet countryside in Dalat. This is also where many people choose to take wedding photos or take a romantic photo shoot in the green tea field, between sparkling golden sunshine or mist..
Dran town is small but peaceful, fresh with gentle hills, and small clear streams. The town is located in a valley, so looking in every direction, you can see mountains and pine hills, more poetic is that most of the inhabitants of this land live in houses made of pine wood. Not a tourist destination, but Dran keeps visitors who love nature with the beauty of wildflowers and small towns. For more impressive views, visit the Da Nhim River and Da Nhim hydropower.