9 Fun Things To Do In Da Lat, Vietnam

Last Updated on 26th September 2023

This post about the best fun things to do in Da Lat contains affiliate links.

Despite only spending a few nights in Da Lat, it turned out to be one of my favourite places that we visited while backpacking Vietnam and is definitely a place I’d recommend visiting if you’re in the country.

It’s quite a hilly city and is centred around a stunning lake and golf course and is surrounded by beatific hills, lakes, forests and more. Da Lat is also pretty cold in comparison to many other places in Vietnam as it’s so high up in the mountains, but it’s still well worth a visit.

There’s not a tonne of things to do there, but the few things that we did do, we enjoyed immensely and they’re actually some of my favourite travel memories from our trip.

Check out some of the top fun things to see and do in Da Lat, Vietnam!

Where to stay in Da Lat

I included a more detailed review of where to stay in Da Lat in my guide to backpacking Vietnam post but it was such a cute little place that I thought I’d include it here too.

We stayed at Redhouse Backpacker Hostel which was located just a little outside of the city centre. It’s a decent 20-minute walk into the middle of town, if not more, and there are virtually no shops or restaurants nearby apart from other hotels and hostels but the place itself is lovely.

The owners are nice and friendly, there’s free breakfast on a morning and it has a great backpacker vibe which makes it really easy to chat to people and meet new friends. When we stayed in March 2020, the owners’ dogs had just had puppies so there were a couple of adorable little fur babies running around!

Redhouse Backpacker Hostel was also one of the cheapest places we stayed during our entire time travelling so I’d highly recommend it!

Find somewhere to stay in Da Lat

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1. Cable Car at Robin Hill – Da Lat itinerary

The Da Lat cable car is one of the most popular and best things to do in the city and as soon as we stepped into a little cabin for ourselves and took a look at the view, it was clear to see why.

The 2.4km each way trip takes you from Robin Hill to the Truc Lam Monastery and offers stunning, sweeping panoramic views of the city and beyond. On a clear day, like the one we were blessed with, you can see for miles around and the views are truly breath-taking.

The cable car costs 100,000VND (£3.41) per person for a return ticket, or 80,000VND (£2.73) one way – it’s definitely worth getting the return trip otherwise you’ll be a little stuck when you get to the other side!

When we were there, it was at the beginning of the COVID-19 global pandemic, so pretty much everywhere in Da Lat was extraordinarily quiet, including the cable car.

Once you get to the Truc Lam Monastery end of the cable car journey, you’ll be able to enjoy several more activities, including seeing the monastery itself, the surrounding gardens, a cafe and best of all – the Datanla rollercoaster and waterfall…

2. Datanla rollercoaster and waterfall

Once you arrive at the Monastery and get off the cable car, there’s a 20-minute walk to get to the Datanla Alpine Rollercoaster.

Of course, it’s not an actual rollercoaster, more like a luge-type thing on tracks. It is however, an incredible amount of fun and I’d highly recommend joining in!

The Alpine Coaster takes you through beautiful scenery for a good couple of hundred metres before you arrive at the bottom of Datanla Waterfall.

Datanla Alpine Rollercoaster – 170,000VND (£5.80) per person round trip (or 300,000VND (£10.24) per person round trip for the fast pass. This definitely wasn’t needed when we visited as it was so quiet, so I’ll let you be the judge of whether it’s worth the extra money or not!).

While Datanla Waterfall certainly isn’t the most impressive waterfall I’ve ever seen, it is still pretty beautiful.

You can walk up a few steps to get closer to the top of the waterfall, so that you’re looking down on the stream and crowds of people below (see picture above), but be very careful as the rocks and steps can be a little slippery and uneven.

You don’t have to pay to see or access the waterfall itself – just the rollercoaster – and it is well worth seeing if you can. There are a few picnic benches set up around it, but I imagine they’ll get very busy during peak season.

3. Hành Trình Trên Cao High Ropes

This next activity wasn’t even on our agenda of fun things to do in Da Lat but as soon as we saw signs for it and saw how awesome it looked, we knew we had to give it a go!

As you can see from the map screenshot above, the Hành Trình Trên Cao High Ropes are located almost next to the Alpine Coaster, and it’s just a short walk from where the Coaster drops you off once you get back to the start.

Datanla High Ropes - what to do in Da Lat

The Hành Trình Trên Cao High Ropes Course (also often referred to as the Datanla High Ropes Course, but be aware that there’s another course of the same name located in the city centre) is undoubtedly the most physically, mentally and emotionally challenging thing I’ve ever done (including pushing myself to scuba dive and bungy jump!) 😱

It sounds so extreme and dramatic to say that, but I literally had two panic attacks while completing the course, and I’m not even afraid of heights…

I’ve done many high ropes courses like this before (or at least I thought I had), but nothing compared to the intensity of this one.

I realise I’m not really selling it to you – it really is still so much fun and well worth doing, even if just for the mega long zip-lines alone – but just be wary that it’s a tricky course to navigate and you’ll inevitably be exhausted by the end of it!

The Hành Trình Trên Cao High Ropes Course isn’t very cheap by Vietnam standards at 350,000VND per person (£12), but it’s worth every penny and if it wasn’t so labour-intensive, I’d happily pay to do it all over again!

4. Crazy House – fun things to do in Da Lat

The aptly named Crazy House is often cited as one of the top things to see in Da Lat and I was sure that it was just going to be one of those classic tourist traps.

However, once we got there and paid 60,000VND (£2) each for the privilege of seeing it, I can happily say that it was worth the money we paid to see it, in my opinion, at least.

Also known as Hằng Nga Guesthouse (yes, you can actually pay to stay there!), this eclectic creation was designed and built by Vietnamese architect Đặng Việt Nga.

Her vision was inspired by the city of Da Lat, as well as things she’d seen on her travels as an architect – personally, I’d say it looks like something she envisioned while being high as a kite on psychedelics!

The intricately designed “house” is split into various sections and is much bigger than it appears from the street outside.

There are lots of interwoven staircases, bridges and paths to follow and when it’s busy, it can be very crowded as you try and navigate across the impossibly small bridges that connect different parts of the house.

Every single part of the house fascinated me – especially the bit where the architect herself lives with her family!

While you can’t actually see her living quarters, there is a whole gallery inside of her artwork and inspiration over the years, as well as stories from her past. They’re mostly in Vietnamese, but it’s still cool to see the pictures, nonetheless!

Speaking of the interior of the Crazy House, you can also see into some of the bedrooms that guests pay to stay in. They’re all open and not very private at all so I definitely wouldn’t want to stay there, but I bet it would be a fun experience and certainly a memorable one!

5. The Maze Bar

My last, but certainly by no means least, recommendation of the best fun things to do in Da Lat is to have a drink (or two) at the Maze Bar.

This weird and wonderful bar is without a doubt the most interesting place I’ve ever had a drink and it’s somewhere that I’d recommend adding to your Da Lat itinerary.

The Maze Bar reminded me somewhat of the Crazy House in that it’s unbelievably eclectic and so unusually designed.

From the front of the bar, it looks absolutely tiny, but once you enter “the maze”, you’ll discover just how enormous it is and how far back it goes.

You could easily spend hours getting lost and exploring everything inside the Maze Bar and even though we were there almost an hour, we still didn’t manage to walk down all the little staircases and see all the varying “rooms”, nooks and crannies.

Unfortunately, you do have to buy a drink at the Maze Bar in order to go inside but at just 55,000VND (£1.88) for a wine and 45,000VND (£1.54) for a cider, it’s not very expensive to have what’s sure to be one of the strangest drinking experiences of your life!

Bonus fun things to do in Da Lat

As well as the things to do in Da Lat that I’ve listed above, there are a few other things you might want to add to your itinerary. We did manage to see the Flower Garden and the Lam Vien Square but they’re not really noteworthy things so I didn’t include them in my main guide.

Flower Garden
Lam Vien Square
Clay Tunnel
Elephant Waterfall

Da Lat was definitely the strangest place we visited in Vietnam but it was also one of my favourites and I love it so much! I hope you guys get to experience it for yourself one day and let me know if you ever manage to do the High Ropes Course!

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