The Best Things To Do in Dalat, Vietnam’s City of Eternal Spring
Dalat is my favourite city in Vietnam. Known as the “City of Eternal Spring,” thanks to its temperate climate, Dalat is surrounded by lakes, waterfalls, hills and gorgeous countryside. The city itself is clean and modern, with a huge selection of places to eat, drink and shop. I absolutely fell in love with its charm.
I would recommend spending at least three days in Dalat, but I personally think it deserves about 5 days to enjoy everything it has to offer. Here’s a list of my 8 top things to do in Dalat, to help you see the best of this incredible city.
Stroll around Xuan Huong lake (and stop for coffee)
Xuan Huong lake is situated in the very heart of Dalat. There are lots of cafes, restaurants, parks and gardens dotted around its shores, which makes a stroll around the lake a lovely afternoon out. I recommended stopping at Cafe Bích Câu for tea/coffee and gorgeous views across the lake.
Visit Elephant Waterfall
Just 28 kilometres out of Dalat’s city centre is a beautiful, cascading waterfall called Elephant Waterfall. It’s an impressive sight and only takes about 10 minutes to walk down from the road to the base of the falls. This walk is slippery and rocky though, so I wouldn’t recommend attempting it in flip-flops! The spray of the water makes the path very muddy, and bits of jagged rock poke out from all directions. It was worth the walk down though.
I was told by a friend who had been here previously that there’s a little coffee shop right by the entrance to the falls. She reckoned this coffee was amazing and told me to have a coffee there. I obliged, and can confirm, yes the coffee shop by Elephant Falls is really good.
Tip: I highly recommend you stay at Mr Peace Backpacker’s House when in Dalat. The owners are super friendly and will go out of their way to make sure you’re comfortable and happy. They even host a family dinner every night which everyone staying at the hostel is invited to, making it a great place to meet other backpackers!
Hike up Lang Biang Mountain
Dalat’s highest mountain, Lang Biang, sits at 2,169m above sea level and will treat you to gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside. The start of the hiking trail is a short drive from the city centre and will take you right up to the mountain’s summit. It’s very steep in places — particularly the last 300m or so — but it’s completely worth it. Once you reach the top of Lang Biang, take some time to enjoy the lush hills of Central Vietnam.
Visit a coffee plantation
The central highlands of Vietnam are pretty well known for their coffee. And, to be fair, their coffee really is good. I visited a plantation called Me Linh Coffee Garden, which provided stunning views across the countryside — a great place to sit and enjoy a warm beverage! This mountainous farmland is famous for its Moka, Robusta and Arabica coffees, as well as the luwak coffee.
Go canyoning
Dalat is home to a plethora of waterfalls, and what better way to explore them than by canyoning? On a Dalat canyoning tour, you’ll abseil, climb and swim through canyons, waterfalls and rivers.
Visit a minority village
The countryside surrounding Dalat is home to over 40 different minority groups. These proud people live in basic farming communities, producing coffee, grains and hand-woven products. The village we visited was really interesting to look around – one of the ladies who lived there gladly showed us around and explained what her day-to-day life is like. These people clearly work very hard but seem very happy.
Have a drink at The Maze Bar (100 Roofs)
Easily one of the most fun things to do in Dalat, Maze Bar is a bar that’s… well… a maze! On arrival, you can purchase a drink, then head off down to where the maze begins. It’s really easy to get lost, and there are many secret rooms and nooks where you can sit and drink. We had a right laugh playing hide and seek with shots! Eventually, you’ll probably find the stairwell to the rooftop, where you can sit to appreciate the views over Dalat.
Visit Linh An Tu Pagoda and Happy Buddha
About 30km outside of Dalat you’ll find Linh An Tu Pagoda. This beautiful temple boasts colourful buildings, impressive dragon statues and, most notably, a huge, white, grinning Buddha statue. It’s worth a trip to the pagoda purely just to see the Buddha.
Stroll around Dalat Flower Park
This beautiful garden is super colourful and a pleasure to stroll around, with 7000 square metres of over 3000 species of plant. It’s not too far from the centre of Dalat — we visited while on our walk around the lake. The garden is incredibly well maintained, featuring hedges cut into the shape of elephants and spectacular flower arrangements.
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About The Author
Lauren Pears is a freelance travel writer and blogger who writes about active adventure travel. She’s been blogging for almost 10 years, and has written for publications such as Lonely Planet, World Nomads, and Southeast Asia Backpacker.
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I have never been Vietnam but this place surely looks worth visiting during my Vietnam tour. Elephant Waterfalls looks stunning and visit to coffee plantation must be very interesting trip too.
The De Lat Flower Garden looks amazing! I love visiting gardens & arboretums whereever I go and would love to see this one – it looks so colorful! I think the Elephant Waterfall and coffee shops would be my next favorites. I’ll definitely book this for future reference, hoping to make it to Vietnam one day soon!
The flower garden was so colourful! And I hope you do make it to Vietnam, it’s a really beautiful country 🙂
Dalat is a relatively lesser known and underrated destinations of Vietnam. Probably this adds to its allure as it sees lesser tourist footfalls as compared to some other places. But it comes across as such a charming place which still retains its pristine old world charm. The Elephant falls look really huge and spectacular while the Happy Buddha and the Flower Park are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face.
It’s definitely a lot less touristic than many places in the country – it’s a little more inland than most of the tourist hot spots so that’s probably why. And yes the falls were really spectacular!
So sorry about your shoulder injury 🙁 It’s awful when you get hurt, but even more so when you’re on holiday
Yeah it was pretty annoying! I couldn’t do anything too crazy for about a month 🙁
On my way up from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, I had two nights in Da Lat and did enjoy it a lot, especially the tour that you are describing. Viet Nam definitely has the tastiest coffee in the world – I took so much with me (from a non-touristy market in Ho Chi Minh city, though, since they had the local prices 😉 )
Glad you got to visit Da Lat! Vietnam did have some pretty good coffee, although I have to confess I still much prefer the European style of making coffee.
I’ve never been to Vietnam, and I always think of it as a country rooted in tradition, so this was a very interesting read for me. I love when a city develops coffee culture, even though I don’t drink coffee, but I’m always happy to sit for a tea or a matcha latte. 🙂 Visiting waterfalls (or even worse, mountains) in flip flops is never a good idea and yet so many people do it! You mentioned in a comment above that you didn’t enjoy Vietnam as much as you thought you would- I am curious, of all the Asian countries you visited, which one was your favorite?
It is a country rooted in tradition for the most part, but there are pockets of Vietnam which have become quite developed and/or ruined by tourism. Da Lat was definitely very different from much of the country I’d seen by this point, but not in a bad way as I thought it was really beautiful.
I didn’t enjoy Vietnam as much as I thought I would, probably because I had some bad luck (it rained a lot and I got the Zika virus) and I also found it to be quite cold towards tourists at times. It was beautiful though and I enjoyed my time there – especially in Da Lat and Hoi An. I would say though that my favourite Asian country I’ve visited is Cambodia!
I’d love to visit Dalat, it seems there are so many similarities to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand (where I’m based). The minority villages, coffee, waterfalls….. looks great and I hope I can visit one day
Yes it is quite similar to Chiang Mai! The town itself has a similar sort of vibe as well. I hope you do get to visit one day 🙂
I hope to stay in Chiang Mai for a long period of time to work at some point, how do you find living there?
What a great list of natural and fun things to do. Elephant Falls is impressive and I would love to walk around the falls and the lake. I have heard of weasel coffee, but did not know about the unseemly conditions of the weasels so thanks for that information. We love a good flower or botanic garden, so a stroll through the Da Lat Flower Park would be ideal for my family. The countryside around Da Lat looks spectacular.
Yes the weasels are kept in pretty poor conditions. I visited a coffee plantation in Bali where they made weasel coffee and they were kept in tiny, wired floor cages without water! I asked them to please fill the water but they didn’t seem to care.
The countryside around Da Lat really is spectacular – I definitely recommend anyone to go and visit!
I would love to sip on some coffee (the place your friend recommended) and watch the Elephant Waterfall. Great tip about not wearing flip flops. I definitely want to avoid slipping and falling.
The Elephant Waterfall was a highlight for sure!
Da Lat does seem to have something for everyone! If I had to pick favourites, I’d probably go for the waterfall though 🙂
Yes it really does! The waterfall was definitely a highlight 🙂
A couple of years ago I spent three months in Vietnam and quite frankly wasn’t all that impressed. I took the tourist route from Hanoi to Saigon and then also did the Mekong Delta. I hear the real Vietnam is not along the touristy coast but inland. The closest I came to Dalat was through… wine from Dalat region (which in fact wasn’t bad at all). Cheers and happy travels. Eva
That’s a shame! I enjoyed Vietnam, although admittedly not as much as I thought I would. I also did the typical Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh route, but wish I’d travelled inland a lot more!