Sightseeing in Da Lat

Sightseeing in Da Lat comes in two registers. The first is the hill station the French planned: a Gothic cathedral, the Bao Dai summer palace, the Linh Phuoc Pagoda with its mosaics, and the Zen monastery over Tuyen Lam Lake. Those fit in a day. The second is the countryside, where most of the variety is: silk workshops, flower farms, coffee plantations, a cricket farm, the Elephant and Pongour waterfalls, and Ta Nung, a village of the people who lived on the plateau before the French came in the 1890s. Newer photo parks have been added to this second kind, among them Mongo Land, a miniature Japan, a strawberry farm and a puppy farm.

The classic day is private: eight hours, leaving at 8:30 and starting at the Robin Hill cable car station, then the monastery, Datanla, the palace, a lunch stop, and in the afternoon the Valley of Love, an embroidery village and the cathedral. A seven-hour private version runs through the highlights with a guide. In a small group, the countryside day with Pongour takes about seven and a half hours, and a coffee-class day, run in the coffee season, takes eight. Half days of four and a half hours, mornings or afternoons, bundle a rainbow slide and go-karts. One private five-hour outing is built around the sunrise at the Cau Dat tea hills.

Practical. Hotel pickup in the centre is usually free; outside it, expect a fee or a meeting point. Alpine coaster, cable car and some farm tickets are often paid separately. On small-group days, children under 90 cm travel free and those up to 110 cm pay half. Dress modestly at the monastery. A jacket helps for early starts, since January dawns are near 12C, and afternoon showers are common from May to October. The usual terms are free cancellation until 24 hours before the start.