” Dalat is Vietnam’s alter ego: the weather is spring-like cool instead of tropical hot, the town is dotted with elegant French-colonial villas rather than stark socialist architecture, and the farms around are thick with strawberries and flowers, not rice. “
Da Lat City in Lam Dong Province is known as a city of romance and love. In Da Lat, there are 4 season in a day, Spring in the morning, Summer at noon, Autumn in the afternoon and Winter in the evening. Fantastic, right?
The city goes by many names, “City of Eternal Spring”, “City of Love”, “the Paris of Vietnam” being but a few and the names are well deserved as it is a beautiful place with the main city center boarding a large lake (6km in circumference) and most of the major buildings being of French colonial descent.
In Da Lat City, there many famous places when you shouldn’t miss, I’ll note some places where I visited and others famous place you should visit.
1, Xuan Huong Lake.
Xuan Huong Lake is a beautiful lake in the heart of Da Lat city surrounded by pine trees, lawns, and flower gardens. This is a favorite place for tourists as they can take a walk, ride a horse or hire a bike to tour the center of the city.
If you go to Da Lat in February or March, you can see cherry blossoms that blooms around the lake. It’s very beautiful.
Not only by the lake, you can see the cherry blossoms spread along the roads in Dalat.
2, Da Lat Market – “Am phu Market”
This is the trading center of Da Lat city, is situated on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street and is next to Xuan Huong Lake. It is not only a market for trading activities, but also an attractive destination for visitors to the city. Coming to the market, visitors may find local produces such as fresh artichokes, dried fruit, vegetables and a lot more available throughout the day. Apart from the produces, clothing, artful silk embroidery products among other things can also be found. In the evening, the roads around the market are closed to traffic and the night market of Da Lat spills onto the surrounding streets.
Because in the evening is cold, so there are many hot food to choose such as Soymilk, corn milk, green bean milk, hot tofu, …
3, Tuyen Lam Lake:
The largest water body in Da Lat is 7 km from Da Lat city center and just 2km from Datanla Waterfall. Tuyen Lam Lake is a beautiful scenery complex with various tourist services. In the lake, there are small islands and it is surrounded by pine trees. From the site, visitors can take the cable cars through to Robin Hill, admiring the pine forest, Tuyen Lam Lake, and Phung Hoang Mountain from high above.
4, Dalat Train Station
Built in 1943, Dalat Railway Station is small but offers interesting original ticket windows with a wood-burning steam train. Visitors can also hop on for a short ride of about 5km following the historic line to a tiny village named Trai Mat and enjoy the countryside along the way. The train operates about five times per day and needs at least a group of four to five people to be able to make the trip.
You will have many beautiful pictures in Da Lat Station with ancient scene of the 90s.
5, Bao Dai’s Summer Palace
Bao Dai was the last emperor/king of Vietnam and ascended to the throne in 1926. He was only 12 years old at that time. With a reputation as a man who enjoyed parties and the good life, Bao Dai spent a good amount of time in Dalat.
His summer palace was made up of three imperial buildings with the part called Dinh 3 being the best known and most visited. Built in 1933, the restored palace is still furnished with a lot of its original furniture and fittings and offers a rich insight into the life of the royal resident. The parts that are open for the public are the emperor’s throne, office and bedroom, dining room and the empress’s quarters. Many portraits and sculptures of the royals are on display too. Photography is not allowed inside the building.
6, LangBiang Mountain
Langbiang Mountain, one of the must-see Da Lat attractions in Vietnam, is situated on Lang Biang Plateau, Lac Duong district, Lam Dong province. This is only approximately 12 km far from Da Lat centre and sometimes named Lam Vien Mountain (núi Lâm Viên) as well. Legend says that the Langbiang name was originated from the name of a couple who were deeply in love with each other – the man named K’lang and the woman named Ho Biang. Langbiang contains the two highest peaks of Lam Vien highland (Cao nguyên Lâm Viên) and one of them is usually regarded as the roof of Da Lat. The mountain is well-known for its wonderful nature and its marvelous view of the whole wide region of Da Lat City, the rivers, the forest, and houses of tribal people.
When visiting Langbiang Mountain, you could enjoy a lot of interesting activities, such as camping, bird-watching, exploring the natural flora and experiencing the great but unique culture of the ethnic minority groups.
7, Valley Of Love
Valley Of Love – one of must-see Da Lat attractions in Vietnam, is a very romantic destination for couples. Indeed, this is popular with Vietnamese newlyweds. The valley has the poetic landscapes and a lot of interesting activities and games. Some people even bring hammocks here and spend their time on reading, napping, and people watching. It is really relaxing place, which caters for all. The valley of love is about 5 km far away from the center of Da Lat, to the North.
7, Pedagogical College of Da Lat (Grand Lycée Yersin)
Dalat Pedagogical College is Architect is recognized by worldwide architecture association as one of the 1,000 unique constructions of the world in the 20th century The college was founded in 1927 by the French architect – Professor Moncet,
Class rows are built as an arc, brick is used to build this college is red brick was transported from Europe. Highlights of arc blocks is the bell tower . Heretofore, outside the bell tower is a clock but now may have been removed, visitors can see traces of the big clock on the tiled. Above the bell tower was no longer bell so perhaps was dismantled during the former regime..
Moreover, there are many beautiful and new place near Da Lat City, just take 15~30 minutes to move. We will introduce them and say about how to travel Da Lat in the next posts.
Let look forward to our next article!!
