dalat.place
EN
EN English RU Русский VN Tiếng Việt
← Catalog

Săn mây in Da Lat: where to catch the sea of clouds and when you have a chance

Săn mây means hunting clouds. Get up at three, climb to a high point and meet sunrise above a sea of cloud lying in the valley below. It is a lottery: nobody forecasts this. But a cloud sea is made of measurable things, and we hold 12,995 days of records since 1991 — so we do calculate the odds.

When you have a chance this week

Nothing lines up in the next seven days: rain gets in the way. Plan this trip for January, February, March, December: that is when everything lines up on about 5 nights out of thirty.

When to plan the trip

January 5 nights out of 30
February 2 nights out of 30
March 2 nights out of 30
April 2 nights out of 30
May less than once a month
June less than once a month
July less than once a month
August less than once a month
September less than once a month
October less than once a month
November 1 night out of 30
December 2 nights out of 30

Bar length is how often all conditions lined up over 35 years. Da Lat weather station, from 1991.

Hon Bo peak
Lam Vien (old Ward 12), 9 km north-east of the centre
0₫
free entry
The main cloud-hunting spot near Da Lat: 1,709 metres, with the cloud sea settling into the valley right below the summit. Twenty to twenty-five minutes from town by bike, then a 20–30 minute walk — short, but in the dark and on dirt.
Worth knowing. Leave at 4:15–4:40 or sunrise catches you on the way up. Route: from Xuan Huong lake past the station, along Huynh Tan Phat through the Thai Phien flower village to the Hon Bo campsite. It is 10–15 °C at the top before dawn — bring a jacket. Entry is free, a rented bike costs 120,000–150,000 ₫, a guided tour 450,000–600,000 ₫. The map pin is the summit itself from elevation data; the campsite and parking are lower.
Khu cắm trại Hòn Bồ, đường Huỳnh Tấn Phát, Thái Phiên, Đà Lạt Directions
Langbiang Mountain
12 km north, 30 min
50k₫
entry · jeep 100–120k
The mountain the city looks at. Radar Peak is a 2.5 km trail, an hour and a half up; the true summit at 2,167 m is a 7 km, 4–5 hour commitment.
Núi Langbiang, Lạc Dương, Lâm Đồng Directions
Cau Dat Tea Farm
20–25 km southeast, 40–50 min
—
free to walk
A 1920s French tea estate at 1,650 m, with wind turbines standing over the rows. This is the best public spot in Vietnam for san may — cloud hunting.
Worth knowing. Cloud-hunting tours arrive 04:30–05:30 and the clouds burn off by about 07:00. The viral wooden sky-bridge has been closed after overcrowding damage — the hills themselves are still open and free. This is where people hunt the sea of clouds: monthly odds and a week ahead are on the cloud hunting page.
Cầu Đất Farm, QL20, Phát Chi, Xuân Trường, Đà Lạt Directions

Where people hunt

How it works

A sea of cloud is night fog that pools in the valleys. Through a clear, still night the ground gives back the heat it stored during the day, cools down and chills the air right above it to the dew point — dense fog settles in the low ground. Higher up, at fifteen hundred metres, the sky stays clear: you stand above the cloud and look down on it. That is why four things must line up at once: a dry night, clear sky, light wind and enough moisture. Meteorologists call this radiation fog — after the heat the ground radiates into the sky, nothing to do with radioactivity.

What to bring

This is an estimate of conditions, not a guarantee. We calculate from the city weather station, while a cloud sea also depends on what happens in one particular valley — and nobody measures that. Even in the best month half the trips end with nothing: that is part of the thing.