Set in the Southern Central Highlands of Vietnam, Da Lat is a beautiful mountain town known for its flowers, coffee, strawberries, and fresh air. Da Lat has so much to offer by the way of food, culture, scenery, and adventure, that it would be a shame if overlooked. I spent three days exploring this gorgeous part of the country, but if you were strapped for time, it’s possible to see and do most of what you’d like to in two.

THE PERFECT 3-DAY ITINERARY

IN DA LAT, VIETNAM:

Day #1: Exploring Da Lat City

If I have multiple days in a specific destination, I always like to take the first day to wander around and get a feel for the city. My day of wandering in Da Lat was nothing short of amazing. From trying every street food in sight to strolling along the picturesque Xuan Huong Lake to the beautiful Flower Park, my day couldn’t have been better. I couldn’t recommend a better first day in Da Lat than this!

Relax by Xuan Huong Lake

The Xuan Huong Lake was littered with paddle boats in the shape of swans slowly gliding through the water surrounded by beautiful gardens and children on school break flying kites. I was very impressed by how well taken care of the grounds and the lakes were and can see this as a perfect place for families to come on the weekend to relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

Around the lake, it’s also a hot spot for street food vendors. You will items like Da Lat Pizza, Bahn Mi, an assortment of pastries and much, much more.

If you’re familiar with me at all, you would have guessed by now that I indeed ate all of the above-mentioned foods while I was wandering.

Treat yourself to a Vietnamese coffee at Windmills Coffee

I then wandered into Windmills Coffee which serves up all types of coffee and juices, but I opted for ca phe da, which is Vietnamese style coffee with sweetened condensed milk over ice (so yummy!) They have really cute decor and also have great views of the Da Lat Market and the surrounding neighborhood.

Address: 133 Phan Đình Phùng, Phường 2, Đà Lạt, Lâm Đồng, Vietnam

Get a taste for the local flavor at Da Lat Market

Next I made my way to the Da Lat Market where I perused the countless stalls of food, clothes and other goods and ended up buying a pint of strawberries for about $1. Strawberries are a really common fruit in the area as the weather conditions are apparently perfect for growing! The market had so many fresh fruits and veggies that it was hard to scale back and not buy everything in sight!

Stroll through Da Lat Flower Park

I then took a 30 min stroll along the lake and landed at the Da Lat Flower Park. This was totally by accident, but what a great accident it was! The entrance fee was $1.50 (USD), and the park was filled with gorgeous flower gardens, fountains, and shrubs shaped into dragons.

It is definitely worth a look! After hours of perusing the countless different types of flower gardens, I retired to my hostel for the night, preparing for day two.

Day #2: Canyoning & Local Nightlife

Day two is the perfect opportunity to get in touch with your adventurous side and try out a new extreme sport: canyoning! After a super adventurous day trip visiting the nearby waterfalls, make a local friend and get to know the local flavors and local nightlife scene. That’s what I did and it’s a day I’ll never forget!

Adventure to nearby waterfalls on a Canyoning trip 

Around 8:15 am, Da Lat Canyoning Tours picked me up from my hostel and we headed into the mountains for our canyoning trip. This was my first time canyoning, and I was super excited to participate in a new type of adventure sport. An activity that involves hiking, cliff jumping, and rappelling down 25m waterfalls? –count me in.

The guide was AMAZING and so hilarious throughout the entire tour. He was super enthusiastic and although he put safety as the absolute number one, he also challenged everyone to push beyond their comfort zones and just have a blast with the whole experience. I couldn’t imagine having had gone with a better guide, and the equipment was top notch.

I heard that some companies try to cram as many people into the trip as possible and don’t use proper safety gear, but I can assure you that this company is legit. We only had 6 people in our group and that made waiting to go down each waterfall a lot shorter. It would have taken forever going with a bigger group!

After rappelling down a few dry cliffs, two waterfalls, cliff jumping, and floating down the river, the staff put out a spread of fresh fruit and all the fixings for a bahn mi, as well as tea, coffee, and beer (score). After lunch, we had a nice scenic drive back to town, and they dropped me off back at my hotel with still an entire afternoon to play with. The tour was a bit shorter than I would have liked, (I could have done that all day) but it was an A+ experience.

Eat like a local at Cha Ram Bap

Later that night, Jen, the receptionist from the hotel I was staying at, invited me and two others from the canyoning trip that were staying at the hotel out for an authentic Da Lat nightlife experience.

She took us to to Cha Ram Bap, where I tried one of Da Lat’s specialties, nem nuong. Nem nuong is a roll your own spring roll dish, using thin sheets of rice paper, a variety of herbs, pork, and fried sweet corn rolls, dipped in a thick peanut sauce. It is insanely delicious and is an absolute must while in the region!

Address: 62 Nguyễn Công Trứ, Phường 8, Thành phố Đà Lạt, Lâm Đồng, Vietnam

Experience the nightlife scene at B21Beer

After eating five (or 15, I don’t recall…) Jen took us to one of her favorite bars, B21Beer, where they had a live DJ, reasonably priced beer, and hookah. The music was great and the company, even better. I was so happy to have met Jen and her friend Hien; they showed me, Ale and Bianca an authentic weekend night out for a Vietnamese 20-something in Da Lat, and for that, I am so grateful.

Address: 68 Trương Công Định, Phường 1, Thành phố Đà Lạt, Lâm Đồng 670000, Vietnam

Day #3: Easy Rider Da Lat Countryside Tour

Now that you’ve explored the city, gotten a feel for local life, eaten every local food in sight, and tried a new extreme sport, day three is the perfect opportunity to get out of the city and see the beautiful highlands. This was definitely a highlight of my trip to Da Lat and is not to be missed.

Take an epic ride through the countryside on an Easy Rider Tour

The morning I arrived in Da Lat, a man named Philip approached me at the bus station and told me about the tour company he runs with some other guides. I took his card and ended up calling the next day to book a one day Da Lat countryside tour. As promised, an Easy Rider guide picked me up at 8:30 am, and we made our way towards the countryside.

Stop #1 on the Easy Rider Tour: Chua Linh Quang

Our first stop was at the Chua Linh Quang, the oldest Pagoda in Da Lat. It was decorated with ornate and incredibly colorful sculptures both inside and outside of the pagoda. The most notable sculpture was the giant dragon surrounded by bright flowers and perfectly maintained shrubbery.

Next, we rode through the winding roads in the rolling hills of Da Lat. It was a gorgeous ride with incredible views of acres and acres of vegetable farms.

Stop #2 on the Easy Rider Tour: Vietnamese Coffee Plantation

The coffee plantation specialized in weasel coffee, a Vietnamese traditional coffee where coffee farmers harvest the beans from weasel poo. No, I am not making that up. Apparently back in the day, weasels well, weaseled their way onto to coffee farms and had a particular appetite for coffee beans. Once the farmers realized where their crop was disappearing to, they captured the weasels and waited for them to digest their precious crop.

When they cleaned it off and made coffee with it, they noticed that the coffee had a new flavor to it that they really liked. Fast forward to today, and now they purposely use weasels to harvest this coffee. Yes, I did try this coffee and it was…strong. The scenery from the deck of the café was beautiful, but I was a bit turned off by all of the caged weasels. It made me sad to think that they are now forced to eat coffee beans.

Stop #3 on the Easy Rider Tour: Silk Factory

The silk factory was an interesting stop, as I had never really thought about how silk was made before. I was shocked to see how many workers there were as well as the sheer number of silkworms needed to create silk.

Watching the workers pull out the massive silkworms as they spun the silk was quite a gross process, but an interesting thing to see for sure.

Stop #4 on the Easy Rider Tour: Happy Buddha Monastery

This Monastery was very much off the beaten path and was quite a ways out of town, so unless you’re with someone who knows where they’re going, there’s no way you’re going to find it! It was instantly peaceful upon stepping onto the grounds of The Happy Buddha Monastery, and the grounds themselves were beautiful.

I was most excited to see monks dressed in the traditional orange robes walking out of the Monastery, carrying on with their day in however monks do! It was my first time seeing monks in person and it reminded me of how exciting it was to be in a completely new place.

Stop #5 on the Easy Rider Tour: Elephant Waterfall

One of the last stops was to Elephant Waterfall, which was certainly more touristy than I expected, but is definitely still worth a visit. The stairs going down are extremely slippery, so I wouldn’t advise anyone who isn’t sturdy on their feet to attempt this climb! The slippery stone stairs wind down to a few different viewpoints and some secret caves where you can get drenched with the force of the waterfall above! I wandered a little off the path and found a perfect rock to sit and relax on. I even saw some local fisherman swimming in the river below manually casting nets in hopes of catching some dinner.

Recommendations for booking an Easy Rider Tour:

Although my guide brought me to all of the places promised on the tour, he was less than enthusiastic and only gave me a very short briefing on each place we stopped. He would tell me a sentence or two about each place and then would tell me to go on my own and he would wait for me. I was definitely hoping to learn more, and it was disappointing that when we stopped for lunch and I attempted to make conversation with him, he gave me one-word answers and played on his phone.

Since all the tours pretty much take you to the same places, I ran into another tour guide, Hai Nguyen, along the way who got off of the bike and went to each destination with his customers and explained in detail about each place. I ended up running into him later in the evening when we were both catching a bus at the bus station, and he helped me get the right bus and even helped me order dinner at the rest stop later on! He was an incredibly helpful man, and I wish I had met him earlier because I absolutely would have gone on a tour with him instead.

Hai’s tour company is Ocean Easyrider Tour Vietnam, and you can reach him via Facebook or by email at ocean_easyrider@yahoo.com.  Despite my lackluster guide, I still had a great tour and was happy I got to see so much of the Da Lat countryside.

How to Get to Da Lat

By overnight bus

I took the Futa Bus Lines night bus from Ho Chi Minh City at midnight and arrived at the Da Lat bus station by 6 am. The trip was advertised as a 7-hour journey, but we must have had a fast driver… The bus costs less than $10 USD and was actually quite comfortable. They make a few bathroom breaks throughout the night, but most people just slept through. Besides the excessive use of the bus horn (very typical Vietnamese driving), it was not so bad, and I would absolutely recommend taking the night bus over taking a flight. It’s quick, easy, and super cheap.

Where to Stay in Da Lat

Indigo Home

My first night, I stayed at Indigo Home, which was recommended by a friend, and it was really cute. It was decorated so beautifully and was tucked away far from any sort of touristy areas. So tucked away in fact, that it took me about an hour of wandering around to find! At only $5 a night for a dorm style room, it’s hard to beat.

Address: 1, 2 Khởi Nghĩa Bắc Sơn, Phường 10, Thành phố Đà Lạt, Lâm Đồng, Vietnam

Hotel Dang Uyen

Looking to continue your journey in Vietnam? Why don’t you head to the lantern strung streets of Hoi An next, or maybe Da Nang, home to the Dragon Bridge!