Itinerary
Day 1: Arrived HCMC, spa, dinner, VIP cabin limousine bus to Da Lat
Day 2: Arrived Da Lat, Da Lat Fairytale land, Lunch, Check in hotel and rest, Da lat night market
Day 3: Join 1 day tour (Robin hill, Datanla falls, LangBiang mountain, Crazy House, Strawberry farm)
Day 4: Cloud chasing at Cau Dat Tea Plantation, Son Pacamara Coffee Farm tour, Lam Vien/ Da Lat Opera House
Day 5: Da Lat Railway Station, Still café, VIP cabin limousine bus to HCMC
Day 6: Shopping and R&R at HCMC
Day 7: Vung Tau Christ the King, Cape Saint James, Back Beach. If time allows, visit Song Vinh Church (Notre-dame like cathedral) on the way
Day 8: Last min shopping in HCMC
Da Lat
Da Lat, known to be a popular honeymoon destination for local Vietnamese, has been gaining popularity over the years with foreign tourists. Da lat is known to be the "Paris of Vietnam" or sometime "City of flowers". Due to its high altitude of 1500m (4921 ft), it has cool weather all year round which ranges between 12 to 23°C. There are only 2 seasons: dry (Nov to Feb) and wet (Mar to Oct) season. There are actually 2 such cool weather locations in Vietnam. The northern Vietnamese will goes to Sapa and the southern Vietnamese will go to Da Lat. When the French stepped feet on this fresh mountain and pine trees forest to escape from the heat during their occupation, they have built many French colonial architectural buildings and some of these buildings are still kept till now.
How to get to Da Lat?
From HCMC, you can either:
1) Take a 50min internal flight.
2) Take a 7 hour bus or hire a private transport.
Though flight seems to be a shorter route with only 50min duration compared to 7 hours bus ride, it has it's own minus point. Firstly, you will need to be at the airport 2 hours before boarding and upon reaching Da Lat, the Da lat airport is 30km away from the city. So adding up, it may easily takes you 4 to 4.5 hours to get there. Cost about S$100+ per pax for the flight ticket.
Alternatively, you can take the 7 hours VIP cabin limousine sleeper bus (with 2 or 3 20-30min break stops) or hire a private transport (about 5 hours). There are a few bus services from HCMC to Da lat. I have narrowed down 2 companies:
1) An Anh
Pros:
- Booked via KLOOK cos no difference in price as compared to book direct from their website. Safer to book via KLOOK app with verified payment gateway. Confirmation will be sent via WhatsApp the day before departure.
Cons:
- Can't choose seats via KLOOK even with online customer service request.
- HCMC to Da Lat only night buses (5 timing: 10pm, 10.30pm, 11pm, 11.30pm, 12am).
2) Futa bus:
Pros:
- Book and choose seats from Futabus website.
- Many time slots to choose from. Both day and night.
- Different types of buses available. From 24 to 46 seaters. Some are normal sitting bus, some are lower quality sleeper bus, do check what you are booking.
Cons:
- you will have to navigate in their website and not too sure of the payment security. They have an app but only for those with Vietnamese phone number, if you have a prepaid phone card and booking in Vietnam, shouldn't be an issue.
My choice:
I choose An anh and booked through Klook for the convenience also to save a night hotel accommodation. The disadvantage to this option is that:
1) you will reached Da lat in the wee hours and nowhere to go if you can't check in to the hotel.
2) Night bus ride was quite disrupting cos you can't really sleep well
3) Early morning fog for the driver to drive through looks pretty scary and of course we were also worried about the driver's level of tiredness.
An Anh VIP cabin limousine bus HCMC boarding place at An dong (chinatown)
Fully stretch incline cabin. It's like business class bus. Book 1 person per cabin though there is an option to book for 2 paxes per cabin. It will be too cramp for the 7 hrs journey.
Lights off and you can close the blind if you don't want to be interrupted by the street lights.
Early morning fog
For those taking Futa Bus, this is the bus terminal in Da Lat.
Day view of the VIP Cabin Limousine.
Where to stay in Da Lat？
There are many accommodation options in Da Lat that won't cost an arm or a leg. Ranging from airbnb to atas hotel. I would categorised based on:
1) Rural/ scenic/ farm stay
- Relax/ peaceful lodging and greeted with beautiful scenery when you open hotel window/ door but transportation may be an issue if you don't have your own private transport.
2) City (around Da lat market)
- Easy access to places and grab/taxi. Will have to bear the noise and chaos of the road, especially car honk cos hotel room walls and windows are generally not very sound proof.
My choice:
I chose to stay in Lasol Boutique Hotel. Generally cos it is a relatively new hotel and review on its cleanliness was good. Location not too far from Da lat market so getting grab taxi was pretty easy.
Places to visit in Da Lat
You will have to arrange for half day (4 hrs) taxi transport for this place. Taxi will pick you up at 4am in the morning. Journey to the tea plantation is about 50min and entrance to the place is VND120,000 (S$6.80) per pax. It is pretty cold at dawn, so do prepare warm attire.
There are many instagram-able places for you to take nice photos, so dress up for the purpose.
Datanla New Alpine rides, Datanla falls, LangBiang mountain, Robin Hill cable car, Crazy House (highly recommended)
You can do all these activities within a day. Either opt to join a 1-day tour (Klook via Happy Days travel or The Sinh tourist) or hire a driver for a day to bring you around. Do note that day tour doesn't include all the entrance or ride fees. I chose to join the day tour to save the hassle of planning and telling the driver where to go.
If you need driver in Da Lat, I have a contact which I got from forum.
Mr Quy +84 91 867 58 70. I did not engage him as he was not available on that day.
View of pine trees from Robin Hill. Vietnam grows 40% of pine trees in the world
Datanla New Alpine ride and Datanla Falls
Datanla New Alpine ride. This is a must try in Da lat.
Get off the Alpine rides halfway down and enjoy the view of Datanla falls.
Crazy House
Architect was inspired by Gaudi and created this Crazy House which houses 10 theme rooms for hotel stay but nobody stays in there due to the continuous stream of tourists visiting.
Took a jeep up to LangBiang mountain
One of the many instagram-able places
Entrance to the station is VND5,000 (S$0.29). Basically nothing much other than 2 defunct train for photo taking
this is a real moving train to another city
this is a prop
looks like Thomas the train
a real train cafe
Da lat Opera House and Lam Vien Square (Landmark must visit to 打卡）
Lam Vien Square
Shape of a flower bud or artichoke
looks nicer at night
Da lat Opera House
Pink church was easily accessible by taxi from the city. It's a peaceful and nice church on a slope.
This place is similar to Thailand Khao Yat hobbit town with several Hobbit houses and some man-made fairytale land. It house a wine cellar and you can do wine tasting at the cellar too.
Though Vietnam is second largest coffee grower in the world, it produces mostly Robusta coffee. Da Lat being on a higher altitude has a favourable climate for the full-flavoured, full-bodied Arabica coffee. Son Pacamara Coffee farm is a private farm that specialised in growing Pacamara coffee. We have learnt a lot more about coffee from this interesting farm tour, got to taste coffee cherries and understand a bit more on coffee production. First time taste coffee in a wine glass too.
After the farm tour, head over to their roastary shop (different location but it is down the same road nearer to town) to experience different type of coffee as well as to buy more coffee.
Where to eat in Da Lat
Frankly speaking we didn't get to try many eating places especially those at the outskirt with beautiful view due to the lack of transport. If the place is too far out of the city, you will have issue getting a grab taxi out and may be stranded for hours.
Goc ha thanh (recommended) One of the best Da lat meal we had. It's a local Vietnamese food fare. Their must try are the rice paper spring rolls (both fried n summer roll) and their speciality dishes. All good except for the curry which I find it too sweet for my liking.
Le Chalet Dalat This restaurant is over hype and touristy. I wouldn't recommend. Food were served cold and rather pathetic.
Good place if you need a warm hot thick chocolate. Their handmade chocolate are good.
If you want traditional biscuits or bread/pastry. You can have your customised Banh Mi in this shop too.
Dalat market Street food - Da Lat pizza (rice paper)
Avoid if you have weak stomach though it is the thing to try in Da Lat.
Primavera (recommended)
This place serves very good fire wood pizza and steak. 
Vung Tau
Places to visit in Vung Tau
Christ the King Statue (This is a must go place in Vung Tau)
Jesus Christ the King statue is the largest Christian statue across Asia and slightly taller than the one in Brazil. It is 32 metres (105 ft) high, standing on a 4 metres (13 ft) high platform, for a 36 metres (118 ft) total monument height with two outstretched arms spanning 18.3 metres (60 ft). You will need to climb 811 steps to the foot of the statue and another 133-step staircase inside the statue.
Take note: Jesus Christ (interior) statue will be closed between 11.30am to 1.30pm. Avoid these hours if you intend to climb up the statue.
This is not my aerial shot, photo taken from a photo on the statue wall.
Cape Saint James
Directly opposite to the entrance to the Christ the King statue is the Cape. Good to drop by for the coastal scenery.
There is another island beside it that is accessible by foot during low tides
Back Beach
Known to be the Gold Coast for the city dwellers in HCMC. Resort and hotels line the beach.
How to get to Vung Tau?
1) Greenlines High speed ferry (50min).
Pros:
- Board the ferry at the jetty readily accessible in town.
- Faster than road trip and you get to see the saigon River
Cons:
- more expensive
- No vehicle to bring you around VungTau and you have to hail grab/taxi separately in Vung Tau
- 3 (weekday) to 4 (weekends) ferry schedule per day. Last ferry at 4pm from Vung Tau. Thus, limited time in Vung Tau and came be quite rush if you are doing a day trip.
2) FutaBus
Pros:
- Cheap
- High frequency (1 bus every hour)
- Last bus in the late evening
Cons:
- 2.5 to 3 hours traveling time from HCMC to Vung Tau
- No vehicle to bring you around VungTau and you have to hail grab/taxi separately in Vung Tau
3) Book private car
Pros:
- Flexi time and Own time own target and select your own destination
- 2 to 2.5 hours traveling time from HCMC to Vung Tau
- Vehicle to bring you around
Cons:
- Expensive (6 seaters MPV - 10 hours for VND2,500,000)
- not as fast as ferry but cheaper than taking ferry if you have more people.
- communication with the taxi driver may be an issue.
My choice: Private car to Vung Tau via An Travel.
Where to eat in Vung Tau
Oc Tu Nhien
There are 3 branches for this seafood restaurant, just go to any one. Fresh and cheap seafood as Vung Tau is a port city. Do note that this is a local restaurant and waitors/waitresses can't speak English, put your google translate to good use.
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