Da Lat tours in 2026: prices, programs, tips

Prices current as of July 2026. Rate used: 1 USD ≈ 25,000 VND.

• Datanla Falls (Thac Datanla): 30,000 VND (~$1.20) — 10 km from the centre
• Crazy House (Hang Nga Guesthouse): 80,000 VND (~$3.20) — 08:30–19:00
• Valley of Love (Thung Lung Tinh Yeu): 250,000 VND (~$10) — 5 km from the centre
• Xuan Huong Lake (Ho Xuan Huong): Free — City centre
• Lang Biang Mountain (LangBiang): Jeep ~200,000 VND (~$8) — 12 km from the centre
• Linh Phuoc Pagoda (Chua Linh Phuoc): Free — 8 km from the centre
• Prenn Park (Thac Prenn): 30,000 VND (~$1.20) — 10 km from the centre
• Da Lat Flower Gardens (Vuon Hoa Da Lat): 30,000 VND (~$1.20) — City centre

Why Da Lat is a must-do trip in Vietnam

Southern Vietnam is hot everywhere except Da Lat. Here you get pines instead of palms, waterfalls and coffee plantations instead of beaches. In 1893 the French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersindiscovered this highland area, and Da Lat has been called "little Paris" ever since. Red-roofed villas, bakeries with baguettes, wide boulevards — the colonial charm is still here.

Lam Dongprovince grows about half of all Vietnamese coffee. Strawberries, artichokes and flowers thrive here too. The town's other nickname is the "city of eternal spring."

Who it suits:

• Couples — Xuan Huong Lake, the flower gardens, the lantern-lit promenade in the evening
• Families with kids — the alpine coaster at Datanla, Prenn Park with ostrich rides, the maze-like Crazy House
• Adrenaline seekers — canyoning from about $55, Easy Rider motorbike trips through the hills
• Fed up with the heat? It stays +18–25 °C year-round. After +35 °C in Nha Trang it feels like another country

For the deep-dive on the town, see the Da Lat guide. If you're weighing up day trips from Nha Trang, Da Lat wins on value for the impressions you get. Da Nang trips also include mountains, but the character is different: there it's beaches and pagodas, here it's waterfalls and coffee.

How to get to Da Lat

There are no flights straight into Da Lat from abroad; the town has its own small airport, Lien Khuong (DLI), served mainly from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. Most travellers arrive overland from Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh City or Phan Thiet. The nearest coastal airport is Cam Ranh (Nha Trang), 130 km of mountain road from Da Lat.

From Nha Trang and Cam Ranh

The road climbs the Ngoan Mucmountain pass. The views are superb — jungle, plantations, mist in the valleys. But roughly one traveller in three gets carsick, so buy motion-sickness tablets in advance. Leave Nha Trang at 7 a.m. and you're in Da Lat by 10. The return is the same three hours.

From Phan Thiet and Mui Ne

It's about 150 km from here — 4–5 hours of driving. Tours leave at 5 a.m. to fit a full day in. There's a mountain pass and a couple of stops on the way. A group tour from Mui Ne starts around $35 with a full group of six or more.

From Ho Chi Minh City

By bus it's 6–7 hours, from 300,000 VND (~$12). By air to Lien Khuong(DLI) it's 50 minutes, from $40–80 on VietJet Air or Vietnam Airlines. From the airport it's another 30 km to central Da Lat.

One-day Da Lat tours — programs and prices

A one-day group tour from Nha Trang costs about $30–45 per adult. That covers the transfer, an English-speaking guide, entrance tickets and lunch. Group size is 8–15, departure at 7 a.m., back by 8–9 p.m. You can book the same style of day trip online through GetYourGuide or Klook, which is handy if you want free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

What a typical one-day tour looks like

1. 07:00 — pickup from your Nha Trang hotel
2. 10:00 — coffee plantation and tasting
3. 11:00 — Datanla Falls + alpine coaster
4. 12:30 — Crazy House
5. 13:30 — lunch (Vietnamese food)
6. 14:30 — Linh Phuoc Pagoda
7. 16:00 — Da Lat central market
8. 17:00 — start of the return drive
9. 20:00–21:00 — back in Nha Trang

You cover four or five stops in a day. Pongour and Elephant Falls don't make a one-day tour: they're 30–50 km from the centre and there simply isn't time.

Group tours from Nha Trang

What to check before you book an operator

Book two or three days ahead, and in high season (December–February) a week ahead. Slots fill up fast.

• Group size. 8–10 is fine. 15+ means crowds at the waterfalls and queues for the alpine coaster. Ask for the cap before you pay.
• Lunch. Check whether it's included. Some operators run "all-in," others give you only transfer and guide.
• Cancellation. Klook and GetYourGuide give free cancellation up to 24 hours out. Local operators are as you agree with them.
• Pickup from Cam Ranh. Staying near the airport (Amiana, Diamond Bay)? Ask whether they'll collect you. A Cam Ranh pickup surcharge runs $3–6.

Private tours

Don't want to move at the group's pace? A private tour with your own guide runs roughly $120–160 for 1–4 people. The route is flexible: linger at a waterfall, stop at a silkworm farm, nobody rushes you. The guide picks you up at your hotel.

💬 "Our guide was knowledgeable and the whole day was well organised. The itinerary was full and we saw the sights at a comfortable pace." — traveller review on Tripadvisor, 2025

Two-day tours — when one day isn't enough

A two-day trip from Nha Trang starts around $110 with a night in a 3-star hotel. You see twice as much: three waterfalls instead of one, the cable car, the Clay Tunnel village — plus a free evening at the night market.

The two-day program

Day 1:

• Coffee plantations
• Pongour Falls (the most powerful in the region)
• Eco-park
• Van Hanh Pagoda
• Clay Tunnel village
• Hotel check-in
• Night market (on your own)

Day 2:

• Crazy House
• Datanla Falls + alpine coaster
• Cable car
• Truc Lam Monastery
• Flower greenhouses
• Return drive to Nha Trang

Prices and accommodation options

One day vs two — how to choose

Got 5–7 days in Vietnam? Take the two-day tour. One night in Da Lat changes the feel of it: the evening market, mountain air after dark, morning mist over the lake. On a 3–4 day trip a single day is enough to work out whether it's worth coming back (spoiler: it is).

Tours from Phan Thiet and Mui Ne

Phan Thiet and Mui Ne run trips too, but the drive is longer — 4–5 hours. A 5 a.m. start, back by 7 p.m. The program is much the same: coffee plantations, a weasel-coffee farm, Linh Phuoc Pagoda, the Crazy House, Datanla, a wine tasting and lunch.

Mui Ne is a longer haul than Nha Trang: two extra hours on the road means two fewer in Da Lat. If you have the choice, start from Nha Trang.

💬 "The two-day tour was a solid five out of five, we saw so many places, and the three waterfalls were the highlight." — traveller review on Tripadvisor, 2025

What to see on a Da Lat tour — top 10 sights

Da Lat is compact: everything sits within 50 km of the centre. Here's what usually makes the tour programs.

1. Crazy House (Hang Nga)

• Entry: 80,000 VND (~$3.20)
• Hours: 8:30–19:00
• For whom: all ages

A hotel-museum that looks like a giant tree of tangled branches — as if Gaudí had moved to Vietnam. The architect, Dang Viet Nga, was the daughter of a Vietnamese Communist Party leader and studied in Moscow. Mazes of rooms, bridges between the "trees," the whole town spread out from the roof. Come before 10 a.m.: after lunch the tour groups arrive and the staircases genuinely jam up.

2. Datanla Falls + alpine coaster

• Entry: 80,000 VND (~$3.20); coaster round trip 250,000 VND (~$10)
• Hours: 7:30–17:00
• For whom: all (coaster from age 6)

Da Lat's headline attraction. An alpine coaster flies through the pine forest down to the falls — two minutes of pure adrenaline. There are two tracks: Alpine Coaster 1 (100,000 VND) is the easier one, Alpine Coaster 3 (200,000 VND) is longer and steeper. Canyoning also starts here.

3. Pongour Falls

• Entry: 10,000 VND (~$0.40)
• Hours: 7:00–17:00
• Distance: 50 km from the centre

A multi-tiered cascade 40 m high. In the rainy season it spreads to 100 m wide — a serious sight. One of the most powerful waterfalls in southern Vietnam. It only makes the two-day programs: 50 km from the centre.

4. Elephant Falls

• Entry: 10,000 VND (~$0.40)
• Distance: 30 km from the centre

30 m high, 15 wide. You can climb down to the base over wet rocks — hold the rail, it's slippery. There's a coffee plantation next door that pours a free tasting cup.

5. Lang Biang Mountain

• Entry: 30,000 VND (~$1.20); jeep to the top 50,000 VND (~$2)
• Distance: 12 km from the centre

At 2,167 m it's the highest point around. On foot the summit is 3–4 hours. Not feeling it? Twenty minutes in an old Soviet-era jeep up the dirt track and the whole of Da Lat is laid out below.

6. Linh Phuoc Pagoda

• Entry: free
• Hours: 7:00–17:00

A Buddhist temple sheathed in mosaic made of ceramic and glass shards, built between 1949 and 1952. Nearby is a heritage station where a tourist train runs (150,000 VND).

7. Clay Tunnel village

• Entry: 60,000 VND (~$2.40)
• Distance: 13 km from the centre, on the shore of Tuyen Lam Lake

40,000 m² of clay sculptures — the whole story of Da Lat from Yersin's expedition to French Indochina. Very photogenic, but the light matters: come before midday.

8. Cable car → Truc Lam Monastery

• Entry: 80,000 VND (~$3.20) round trip
• Hours: 7:30–11:30, 13:30–17:00 (a break in between!)

Cabins glide over pine forest and Tuyen Lam Lake. Below is a working Buddhist monastery. The grounds are immaculate down to the last detail: the monks grow their own orchids and bonsai.

9. Prenn Park

• Entry: 30,000 VND (~$1.20)

A small waterfall, a mini-zoo and ostrich rides. Yes, real ostriches. Kids love it. The park is right at the entrance to town, so tours often start here.

10. Da Lat railway station

• Entry: free (train to the pagoda: 150,000 VND)

Art deco from 1938, a national historic monument. A heritage train runs from here to Linh Phuoc Pagoda: 7 km, 30 minutes. The building itself is a great photo stop.

Bonus: Xuan Huong Lake and the night market

The lake sits right in the centre — you can walk around it in 40–60 minutes. In the evening the lanterns come on, Vietnamese families stroll with their kids, someone plays guitar. Beside it is the night market (18:00–23:00): Da Lat strawberry wine (~50,000 VND a bottle, ~$2), artichoke tea, dried fruit, and hot soy pudding tao pho for 15,000 VND (~$0.60).

Coffee deserves its own line. Da Lat is the country's main coffee region. You taste freshly roasted arabica right on the plantation, and it's nothing like a Starbucks cup.

Canyoning and adventure tours

Abseiling down waterfalls, a zipline over the gorge, natural water slides, jumps into the pools at the base of the falls. Da Lat is one of the cheapest places for canyoning in Southeast Asia: about $55–65 versus $100+ on Bali.

What the tour includes

• Abseiling: from 7 m (practice) to 25 m (a waterfall)
• Zipline: 40 m over the canyon
• Water slides and the "washing machine" (a 14 m rush of white water)
• Jumps into waterfall pools
• Gear, briefing, guide, snack, water

Operators and prices

Start slots: 8:00, 9:00, 10:00, 11:00, with up to 12 people per group. Ordinary fitness is enough — no special training needed. The usual minimum age is 12.

Easy Riders — motorbike tours through the hills

Easy Ridersare Da Lat's motorbike guides, ferrying travellers around since 1991. The format is simple: you ride on the back, the guide takes the mountain roads, narrates the history and stops at waterfalls and villages the buses never reach.

• Price: from $50–80 a day
• Routes: Da Lat → the coast, hill villages, coffee farms
• Language: English (the guides speak it well; it's their whole trade)

It's not for everyone: 6–8 hours on a motorbike is no gentle stroll. But you see the Vietnam the tour buses miss — rice terraces, mountain villages of the K'Hopeople, waterfalls where you're the only one there.

Coffee-plantation tour

Da Lat is Vietnam's coffee capital. Dedicated coffee tours include:

• The plantation: how the coffee tree grows, how robusta differs from arabica
• A ca phe chon (weasel-coffee) farm: the palm civets, the process behind the world's priciest coffee
• Roasting and tasting: you try four or five varieties and buy beans at factory prices
• Price: usually included in a standard tour; a stand-alone coffee tour is from $20–30

Da Lat on your own — a one-day itinerary

Not a group person? Rent a scooter and ride it yourself. Da Lat is compact: everything is either in town or 15–30 minutes away.

Step-by-step route

Total for the day: ~820,000–1,000,000 VND (~$33–40) — about half the cost of an organised tour, but without the transfer from Nha Trang.

Transport

• Scooter: 100,000–150,000 VND/day (~$4–6). Check the brakes before you set off — Da Lat has serious climbs and descents
• Grab / Maxim: both work, but a ride out of town (Datanla, Clay Tunnel) runs 100,000–200,000 VND one way
• Cash: essential. Entrance tickets, food, fuel — all cash. There's an ATM by the central market

A two-day route (if you stay the night)

Staying over? Day two is for the outlying sights:

Day 2 total: ~200,000–240,000 VND (~$8–10). Cheaper than day one: the tickets for the far waterfalls are token amounts.

Where to stay in Da Lat: from 300,000–500,000 VND (~$12–20) a night in a guesthouse near the market. 3–4-star hotels are from 800,000 VND (~$32).

How much tours cost — a price summary

By tour type

Entrance tickets

Prices current as of July 2026. Entrance tickets are paid in cash.

Where to save

• On organised tours the entrance tickets are already included — you don't pay twice
• On a scooter you can cover 5–6 sights for about $30 (not counting the transfer from Nha Trang)
• Pongour and Elephant Falls are only 10,000 VND (~$0.40) each, but they're a long way out
• Lunch at the market: 40,000–60,000 VND (~$1.60–2.40). At a tour restaurant it's twice as much

When to go on a Da Lat tour

At 1,500 m the climate is a different world. Daytime is +18–25 °C year-round, nights can drop to +15 °C. After the coast it feels like moving to another country.

The rainy season is no reason to cancel. Waterfalls are fuller and the greenery brighter. Just schedule your activities for the morning.

Tet and public holidays

Vietnamese New Year (Tet, late January to early February) is the peak of domestic tourism. Vietnamese love Da Lat themselves: room rates jump two- or threefold, the roads clog up, and every waterfall has a queue. If you can, avoid Tet week.

Other holidays (30 April, 2 September) bring a surge too. Book two weeks ahead.

What to bring and what to avoid

Checklist: what to pack for a Da Lat tour

• A sweater or windbreaker — Da Lat is 10–15 °C cooler than the coast
• Grippy-soled shoes — the rocks by the waterfalls are wet
• Motion-sickness tablets — three hours of switchbacks
• Cash (VND) — cards are taken only at bigger cafes
• A rain poncho (May–October)
• A change of clothes — for canyoning or if you get caught in the rain
• Sunscreen — mountain sun is deceptive, you burn faster than on the beach

The honest downsides

The drive is tiring. Three hours of switchbacks each way — six hours on the road in a single day. That leaves 5–6 hours for Da Lat itself. Kids get carsick almost for certain, adults about one in two. Bring the tablets in advance.

The group sets the pace. 30–40 minutes at each stop. Want longer to photograph a waterfall or sit in a cafe? The bus leaves without you. A private tour solves it, but costs four or five times more.

Pushy vendors.At the waterfalls and the Crazy House, souvenir sellers follow you around. A calm "no, thank you" works. It's the same at Linh Phuoc Pagoda, though you can slip in through a side entrance.

The night market is overrated.Been to the markets in Nha Trang or Ho Chi Minh City? The Da Lat one won't wow you. But do try the artichoke tea and strawberry wine — they're a local thing you won't find elsewhere.

💬 "Visit the Crazy House and Datanla Falls before 10 a.m. — after lunch the organised groups arrive and you end up queuing." — traveller review on Tripadvisor, 2026

Handy tips

• Book the tour ahead rather than on the street in Nha Trang. The "discount tours" touted on the pavement are often resellers with a markup
• Ask for a seat on the right going out — that's the side with the mountain and plantation views (leaving from Nha Trang)
• Bring a power bank — bus sockets don't always work, and you'll be shooting a lot of photos
• Eat at the market, not the tour restaurant. Banh trang nuong (the Vietnamese "pizza" on rice paper) is 15,000 VND (~$0.60) and genuinely good
• Leave your bags at your Nha Trang hotel. You don't need a heavy pack for a day trip. Most hotels store luggage for free

Frequently asked questions

How much does a Da Lat tour from Nha Trang cost?

A one-day group tour is about $30–45, all in. A two-day trip with a 3-star hotel starts around $110. A private tour is roughly $120–160 for 1–4 people. On a scooter by yourself you'll keep it near $30–40 for the day, but without the transfer from Nha Trang.

One day or two — which is better?

A single day gives you the overview: Crazy House, Datanla, a pagoda, the market. Two days are a different pace — Pongour and Elephant Falls, the cable car, an evening at the night market. If your schedule allows, the two-day tour is worth every extra dollar.

Can I get to Da Lat from Cam Ranh on my own?

Easily. A Nha Trang–Da Lat bus is 250,000–350,000 VND (~$10–14), 3.5–4 hours. A Grab car is from 1,500,000 VND (~$60); split four ways that's about $15 each. Once there you rent a scooter or use Grab.

What should I wear on a Da Lat tour?

Above all, a sweater or light jacket. It's 10–15 °C cooler than the coast, and the air-conditioned bus is cold too. Long trousers, closed shoes (the waterfalls are slippery). From May to October a rain poncho helps.

Are there Da Lat tours from Phan Thiet?

Yes. A group tour is from around $35 with six or more people, a private one from about $130. The drive is 4–5 hours each way — longer than from Nha Trang. Departure at 5 a.m., back by 7 p.m.

Which Da Lat activities are good for kids?

From age 4 the Crazy House and Prenn Park (with ostrich rides) work well. The alpine coaster at Datanla is from age 6, canyoning from 12. With small children a two-day tour is easier: six hours on the road in one day is hard on a child.

Can I pay by card in Da Lat?

Mostly no — Da Lat runs on cash: entrance tickets, the market, cafes. Bigger hotels and a few restaurants take Visa and Mastercard. There's an ATM for foreign cards by the central market. Carry VND.

Data current as of July 2026. Prices and conditions can change — reconfirm on the operators' sites before booking.