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8 ways to make your Da Lat holiday one to remember
Update day: 20/09/2018
Da Lat, the foggy town in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, has many names after its natural beauty: the city of love, the city of flowers, or, thanks to its colonial heritage, Vietnam’s Little Paris. When you are in Da Lat, it would be huge miss not to wake up early and take in the beautiful, mystical sight of clouds and fogs lingering over the mountains tops. The vast sea of clouds and the tranquil atmosphere in Da Lat at the Suoi Vang Lake, Cau Dat Tea Plantation, Pinhatt’s Summit and Hon Bo Hill make cloud hunting the best way to start a day. These are dream destinations for photography enthusiasts.
About 10km from downtown Da Lat, on the way to Tuyen Lam Lake and Dat Set Village, stretch the lavender fields. The flowers are grown on a large scale, and planted in rows, so visitors can easily get in between them. There’s a VND50,000 ($2.15) entrance fee. A wooden bridge near the lake is a popular draw, too. To get there, go along Trieu Viet Vuong Street toward Tuyen Lam Lake. When you see a sign pointing to the Dat Set Tunnel, turn right. From there, continue straight for 4 km and turn left at the “Lavender Da Lat” sign.
Hoa Son Dien Trang lies deep inside a valley in the middle of the Ta Nung Pass, also less than 10km from Da Lat city centre. This eco-tourism site has a cherry blossom forest, a buckwheat flower road and a giant Buddha’s hand at the edge of a cliff. Other flowers found here include hydrangea, pansy and Sapa Rose… The entrance fee for adults is VND30,000 ($1.29), VND15,000 (64 cents) for kids. Kids shorter than 1m get in for free.
Da Lat is a paradise for beautiful homestays at very affordable prices, starting from VND100,000 ($4.30) per night. Each homestay has its own style and characters. Some houses are built in the middle of the forest, or besides a big flower garden, or hidden away in a small, quiet alley, while some even have bars with live music or a café. The options are almost handless, and you will feel like trying many of them.
A motorbike or scooter is the most convenient way to discover every corner of this mountainous city. For VND100,000 – VND150,000 ($4.30 – $6.44) per day, you can rent a two-wheeler and take on the winding roads that go around hills and valleys.
Renting a hammock tent gives you one of the deeply relaxing things to do. This type of camping that does not require a flat surface, just a lot of big trees. From the comfort of your tent, you can enjoy the view from up high, relax and sleep to the sound of waterfalls as the mountain breeze lulls you.
A dip in the cool waters of the Hang Cop waterfall at Tuy Son village, Xuan Tho commune is rejuvenating. The waterfall is 25m high and located in the middle of a vast, untouched forest. Warning: Be careful while swimming here, the current is quite strong.
In Da Lat, it is flower season all the time. They bloom in profusion in small alleys and gardens and parks, as also vast fields that seem to stretch into the horizon – cherry blossoms, white camel’s foot flower, jacaranda, lavender, pink grass, grass mace, hydrangeas, marigold and so on.
Update day: 20/09/2018
