We stayed at the Goldient Boutique hotel for the remainder of our time in Dalat, and it was a nice hotel. It was big, however, and thus not very boutique, it was a good stay. We had a balcony room with this city view, which was great, as we slept with the doors open and enjoyed the cool evening breezes. A welcome change from the heat of SE Asia.
A 10-minute walk across a busy street and down a couple narrow ones, we visited the Maple Leaf Tourist Area (Khu du lịch Lá Phong), which had lots of Japanese Garden elements, while highlighting the Maple Trees that are common to Dalat. The park ticket included a coffee, which was a full sized, iced salt coffee, bonus! We had a lot of fun walking around the park, which had many paths, a Japanese style street, a big bell that we could ring, a cafe, and all sorts of green space to explore. While not huge, we spent a couple hours here enjoying the nice weather and scenery.
They rented traditional kimonos for ladies and kids to wear for park photoshoots and there were also original art works for sale. Some of these paintings were semi-3D as they incorporated painted pine cones, as you can see below.
It was a very cool place and highly recommended when visiting Dalat, as it is a bit secluded and maybe not as well known as other places.
The high point of our whimsical trip to Dalat was the appropriately named Dalat Fairytaleland, but before we visited there we stopped at nearby Van Thanh Flower Village.
Its namesake is very appropriate, as there are so, so many beautiful flowers to appreciate, arranged in all kinds of ways.
A lot of this place is inside, and they grow all kinds of flowers and strawberries, massive squash and gourds, tomatoes and other vegetables in their greenhouses.
There is a big store where they sell all kinds of fresh vegetables and dried fruits, jams and souvenirs; we purchased some fresh cherry tomatoes and a bag of sweet potato chips, which went really well together. We then ventured outside, and saw an old American friend, Lady Liberty herself!
We walked along the path, appreciating all the flowers and sniffing fragrant roses, which we always make sure to do (thanks Ferris Bueller). As we’ve never visited the real Statue of Liberty (yet) we had to take pictures with her.
There were also some really cool Bonsai trees to appreciate near the exit.
It was a very pretty place and we were basically the only people there. Once we left we decided to walk the fifteen minutes to Dalat Fairytaleland, which is also a winery (big bonus!). It was a bit stressful as there was no sidewalk and we were basically walking on the side of a semi-busy two lane road, and it started to rain, but we made it in one piece.
Lucky for us the rain stopped as we arrived, and we ordered some refreshing drinks from the outside cafe before heading inside.
Fairytaleland has a Lord of the Rings meets Snow White vibe to it, with lots of places to climb into and around and many paths to take. We were joined by more people and kids than we had seen at the previous two places combined (still not a lot) as we explored the park. This was Jessica’s favorite place we visited in Dalat, as you can tell by the pictures.
We eventually found our way to the winery at the center of it all and tried some of the wine. It was not the greatest wine, but it was fun to taste in their bonkers tasting room.
After we had our fill of Fairytale fun, we stopped at the Hoa Thong Brewing Co., and did a tasting of their beers. We are fans of craft beers, and we have not run into many on our travels, but when we find one on the map, we want to stop and try.
We had passed the brewery before on our way around town, and made a note to return. It stood out due to the ornate mansion house next door; this place was so over-the-top we didn’t easily forget it. Google says its a real estate office, but it looks more like a church.
It is crazy to think that we saw all these places and these are only a fraction of whimsical places that can be found all across Dalat, and there are many that are specifically kid-centric too. If the kid in you, or your kids, enjoy these types of places, Dalat is highly recommended. We aren’t done exploring all Dalat has to offer, as there are some cultural and religious places we visited too. More to come!
Phil's WayPastCool 