Da Lat — subjective guide
After quick Mui Ne trip, we went straight to Da Lat. We heard it’s a beautiful town in a French style (whatever that means). They call it the Paris of Vietnam. It was supposed to be spring all year round. Everything covered in flowers with young couples having their wedding photoshoots there. At least that’s a picture you could imagine after reading some opinions on the Internet. 🤔
It was second place in Vietnam we run away from. 🏃♂️ Just after 2 nights. We also had our first bad food experience in the country. To be honest, comparing the Da Lat to the Paris is really off. Only a few leftover French buildings, nothing more.
What Da Lat definitely has is a beautiful setting. 🖼️ It’s situated on a plateau between the mountains. In surrounding area, you can find plenty of outdoor activities. There is a gibbon park, an elephant park, bird watching places, rafting, hiking, coffee plantations, ethnic villages and many many more. It’s true that the climate is different here. Very much like spring in Europe. It’s the only place in Vietnam where they are able to grow some flowers, vegetables, and fruits. You can see stalls literally bending under heaps of huge avocados, artichokes, beautiful strawberries and many more.
Market by the main square is rather dingy. And by now I’ve seen markets all over Vietnam. Food served in the big dining area by the night market is the worst I had in Vietnam. There are spending cafes nearby with delicious coffee. But good coffee isn’t hard to come by in Vietnam.
We had problems with finding a place to sleep. The prices got us surprised as from outside it looked like a rather budget friendly place. 💸 But after browsing hundreds of pages with accommodation it was hard to choose something nice. Rooms were usually not very nice. On top of that most didn’t even had windows. We decided to book 2 night somewhere and find something more when we arrive. After visiting few guesthouses and hotels we decided to run away! We bought a trip around the Da Lat area and straight from it, we went to the bus. Prices like 900 000 VND (around $50) for a windowless room? That’s the Da Lat.
Another hard thing was finding a place serving fruit juice or shake. Vietnam is full of it, but not Da Lat. When we found a nice cafe with fruit shake in the menu it was out of the fruit shakes for 2 days in a row. “Oh we just run out of the avocado” — they said. And just around the corner was a stall with the biggest avocados I’ve ever seen. So the fruits were there…
To sum everything up. Da Lat is a nice place as a base to do some trips around the area or some outdoor activities. ⛺ The city itself has nothing special to offer. I would even say it was frustrating. What is good is the area around. Nature and the landscapes are beautiful. I will describe it in a next post.
Da Lat prices ($1 is around 22 000 VND):
- Pho — 30 000 VND
- Vegetables with lemongrass and chilli — 40 000 VND
- Street food skewers with mystery meat — 10 000 VND/piece
- Ca phe sua da (Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk and ice) — 8 000 VND — 30 000 VND higher prices is in Len’s Cafe. Coffee there is exceptional. I never had any better. I recommend coffee with condensed milk but without ice to feel the taste.
- Pancakes with chocolate and strawberries — 60 000 VND
- Hot pots — 200 000 VND — 250 000 VND
- You can buy a lot of dried fruits, jellies, and other friut stuff. The prices vary a lot.
- Organised tour around the area — $25/person. You can choose car or EasyRider style motorbike. Same (same) price. We went to many tour agencies in Da Lat but the prices are identical so there is little room to bargain. We chose one we wanted to do a rafting with (adventuredalat.com) and decided on Da Lat area tour.
- Sleeper bus Da Lat — Nha Trang — 80 000 VND. We had a discount 60 000 VND for choosing the same operator we went to Da Lat with. Original price was 140 000 VND. But it’s hard to say as we haven’t checked other companies.
