Dalat, Vietnam Travel Blogs

Dalat - honeymoon capital of Vietnam!
Aug 28, 2003

Dalat is a picturesque town in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, well known as a local honeymoon destination because of its cool weather, lakes and surrounding waterfalls. One of the first things we noticed was how rugged up the Vietnamese people were for ...

From the Mekong to the mountains...
Nov 3, 2003 (2 photos)

... grounds. Expecting an escape from the traffic and pollution of Ho Chi Minh City for the reputed cool nights and calmer pace of Dalat, we were suprised to find that Dalat is actually a pretty big, busy place. It was funny to see locals wearing insulated ...

Big Chickens & Crazy Monks
Aug 9, 2008 (116 photos)

... Photo's Added... ====================== Today we hired out some bikers for the day to take us to the many different areas of Dalat. It was only about 10 dollars and they stay with you throughout the day. First port of call was Datanla Waterfall. ...

Not So Easy Riding
Jun 7, 2006 (9 photos)

... and huge funky garden dragon which beats a garden gnome any day. With one last stop at the oldest train station in Vietnam, despite the trains not actually going anywhere useful, I said farewell to Phong and ended up spending the evening competing with ...

(Yet another) Easy Rider adventure
Jun 2, 2006 (72 photos)

... is a quaint small mountain town with winding cobblestone streets and a vaguely European feel, located in the central highlands of Vietnam. Because of the higher altitude of this place, even in the heat of the Vietnamese summer the climate was quite cool ...

It's all about the Journey...
Mar 20, 2006 (15 photos)

... a stream running down the middle and surrounded by mountains covered in either jungle plants or re-forested with pines. This was Vietnam, about three hours hike from the central highland city of Dalat, and I had just about killed myself getting up to ...

The Central Highlands
Feb 21, 2008 (17 photos)

... this language?  The amusing thing is that I think I've been begging for noodles all over southern Vietnam for quite some time now. After a quick look around the countryside, which included a tour of a coffee plantation, a ...

Cool Breeze in Dalat
Sep 2, 2008 (5 photos)

... the first time! Strange fruit that is often mistaken for tomatoe. They taste like a cross between peach and mango, delicious. Dalat has a lot of green houses. Alot of fruit and vegetables are grown here. The region is famous for coffee production and of ...

Arrival into the mountains
Aug 8, 2008 (27 photos)

... at a Vietnamese restaurant and then hit a Vietnamese nightclub. Now I have concerns about nightclubs in Mansfield, but this one in Dalat is just stupid! They play techno rave music....but dance the waltz and the salsa!! What's going on? Then they started ...

Mad Monks and Crazy Houses
Feb 14, 2006 (33 photos)

... for an ice cream. After a terrible lunch (terrible dinner to come later), we made our way to oldest train station in Vietnam called Cremalliere, which still has some old steam engines running, just for tourists, but you had to be in a group of at least ...

Motorbike Tours
Jan 9, 2006

... have such huge backpacks then we may have ridden the whole of the country, maybe one for next time! As a quick note if your in Vietnam then you have to make a stop in Hoi An if only to get your tailor made clothes. Within 24hrs we had a silk dress, 2 ...

Ahhh, the mountains!
Aug 26, 2004

... , like Estes Park. Maybe I'm just missing the Rockies?? Spent time on the back of a motorcycle driven by one of Dalat's (in)famous Easy Riders--local entrepreneurial guys who act as guides and whiz you around the hills on their hogs. Had some very ...

Easy riding around the central highlands
Dec 5, 2005 (21 photos)

... country. This town of thousands was not here 20 years ago, with many of the new residents trucked in from the north of Vietnam - much to the consternation of local southerners. Still, the party has its way always and here the new town is. A blast from ...

Central Highlands
Jan 27, 2005 (5 photos)

... Jeremy Stein who is a dead ringer for Chuck Norris. He's been there for 10 years and had built a diving empire in Vietnam. Needless to say, I proceeded with presenting my resume and an informal introduction. I'm thinking about working for a few weeks or a ...

Dalat - Hilltribes, Rain and Giant Swan Boats
Sep 10, 2008 (13 photos)

... the road and into a small hill tribe village. These tribal people live sprinkled around the countryside in this area of Vietnam. Almost without exception these people live poor lives in distinct contrast to the relative wealth of the Vietnamese who have ...

Flower power Vietnamese style
Dec 4, 2005 (16 photos)

Dalat is a lakeside town in the central highlands of Vietnam, a place non-existent until the French established a settlement here to escape the heat of the Mekong Delta late in the late nineteenth century. I was looking forward to escaping the heat of ...

Head To The Hills
Jun 6, 2006 (7 photos)

... to sign a 'contract', I agreed to meet him early tomorrow for a spin around the local sights. Dalat appears to be one of the few places in Vietnam not covered in paddy fields and instead is plastered with vegetable fields most of which can be bought at ...

Hit the beaches and northbound!!!
Dec 15, 2004

... following day we then booked an open bus ticket which is priced from $21 which allows you to travel throughout the entire length of Vietnam, getting on and off wherever you like (as long a you've booked it ahead!!).We were warned that the buses would take ...

Motorcycle Diaries
Jun 14, 2007

... to its higher altitude. It is also a very beautiful place, centered on a huge lake, and is 'the romance capital of Vietnam', very popular with honeymooners apparently. It is also very very kitch, with shops selling all kinds of random goods, like plastic ...

Motorbiking from Dalat
Dec 6, 1999

... were coming up to us. These people were the leftovers from war. Even a legless man came. Quite sad. We arrived in Dalat, grabbed a hotel and had a walk around. Big difference in temperature here. We were higher in the mountains. The following morning, at ...

I'm a rider too.
Oct 16, 2004 (5 photos)

... I got lost on our way to Tiger's Den Falls. I drove for over an hour in the terraced hills and countryside surrounding Dalat. It was absolutely gorgeous. About the same time, my newest strain of acquired Flu kicked in and I started feeling even worse. (I ...

Easy Rider
May 27, 2003

... paid for her which showed us that not all Vietnamese people are aggressive and impolite (by Western standards anyway). Dalat is up in the highlands of central Vietnam and so is supposed to be cooler. It was but it was rainy and looked quite a miserable ...

Central highlands tour
Oct 5, 2007 (22 photos)

... for many years. They are mostly Catholic, having been found by the French missionaries, being left relatively untouched by the Vietnam war due to their remoteness. The people up there were mostly farmers and were much more friendly and approachable than ...

No Mama Hahn
Jul 16, 2000

We arrived in Dalat and jumped into the Peace Hotel. Walked out, and arranged a bike trip for pretty much the whole bus. All the guides here hang at the Peace caf�, and remembered me from 6 months previously. They were all excited and asked where Lucy was. ...

Disappointing Dalat
Aug 19, 2008 (3 photos)

... on the next bus and just after leaving I read about the experience of the first Lonely Planet author to visit Dalat, in the late 1980's when tourism in Vietnam was just starting. I have pinched some of it for you to enjoy: Dalat, word on the street had ...

Dalat's the way (uh huh, uh huh), I like it!
Apr 15, 2003 (4 photos)

... to have some other Westerners in. They turned out to be a couple of Dutch guys, who were saying the reason that Vietnam is so quiet, (especially Dalat) is because of the war and the SARS outbreak. I sort of expected this, but was not prepared for actually ...

Dalat
Mar 5, 2008 (17 photos)

... looked down and concerntrated very hard, then burst into fit of giggles, "No, you're no lawyer, you ride a motorbike in Vietnam, you're not a lawyer." One by one each of the Easy Riders came to show us their comments books, something they treated ...

Freezing Ass Cold
Aug 10, 2005 (5 photos)

(This is Ben) Ahhhh Dalat...... Well this place was some what of a bust. The guide book paints a picture of a quaint, mountain town. A place to escape the hustle and bustle and the insane heat. Well it was right about the heat. This place was cold and ...

I took the bus 164kms further south from ...
Dec 24, 2001 (1 photos)

... 1 (the road we travelled on) has a terrible record for head on collisions, and with no emergency rescue services in Vietnam, and basic medical treatment hours away, made me wonder what would happen if we did have an accident lucky enough to survive, only ...

Christmas day was really good waking up to ...
Dec 26, 2001 (1 photos)

... ' had brought them.!! The guide book (and commonwealth advice online) mentions that Saigon is by far the WORST place in Vietnam for petty theft and street robberies. They advised not to walk the streets at night, and dont have anything hanging off ...