Asia > Vietnam > Da Lat: Weather, Climate and Travel Guide

City of Viet Nam located at 1500 meters of altitude on the highlands of the center of the country, Da Lat counts a little more than 200 000 inhabitants and was one of the biggest climatic stations of French Indochina. Today still very tourist because of its beautiful environment and its temperate climate, it offers to the visitor its innumerable flowers and its fruits, its lakes, its waterfalls, its colonial villas of Art Deco style and its beautiful cathedral, as well as its hotel Dalat Palace built in 1922. Very influenced by the French architecture, the city is sometimes nicknamed "the little Paris", and even the station built in 1932 was inspired by that of Deauville, while one finds there also a radio antenna shaped like an Eiffel Tower. In addition to the buildings, you will be able to visit some unmissable sites outside the city, like the summer palace of Bao Dai, residence of the last emperor of the country (1926/1945); the extravagant Linh Phuoc Pagoda with its 37-meter bell tower, the tallest in the country, and its statues covered with shards of bottles and pieces of pottery, including a 49-meter long dragon; Elephant Falls Falls (30 km from the city), very impressive; Mount Lang Biang with its two peaks; Crazy House, unusual house designed by a local architect. You can reach Da Lat by bus from Saigon (9h journey), or by plane if you have the means. To get around the city, you can use the tuk-tuk, or rent a bike or moped.