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Three Da Lat waterfalls: on your own or with a tour
The standard three-waterfall run — Datanla, Pongour and Elephant Falls — costs 550,000₫ to 1.3M₫ a head with an operator, a two-and-a-half-fold spread for the same road. On your own the same three stops come to 250,000–350,000₫ per bike, but that is a hundred kilometres of riding and a full day. Here is what the price covers and when a tour genuinely wins.
Which three waterfalls
- Datanla — 7–10 km from the centre, fifteen minutes down the Prenn road. Entry 50,000–80,000₫, open 07:15–17:00. The draw is not the fall itself but the kilometre-long alpine coaster through the pines; at weekends the queue for it reaches forty-five minutes.
- Pongour — 45–50 km south, about an hour each way. Entry 20,000–30,000₫, open 07:00–17:00. Seven tiers and a hundred metres across: the most photogenic fall in the province and the only one worth an hour of road.
- Elephant Falls — on the Nam Ban road, next to the silk factory and the pagoda that usually come with the same trip. The descent to the base is a steep, wet staircase without railings; flip-flops are a bad idea.
Who runs it and for how much
Prices from operator sites as of 23 August 2026. The route is the same everywhere; the difference is group size, lunch and whether tickets are included.
- Highland Sport Travel — $21, about 550,000₫. The cheapest in town, and from an operator with 2,246 Tripadvisor reviews at 5.0.
- Dalat Tours — from 580,000₫ on a group departure. Group means a fixed route and however long the guide decides at each stop.
- Highland Holiday Tours — $50, about 1.3M₫. Twice the price; the operator holds an international tour licence from 2011 and works in English and Korean.
On your own: what it comes to
- A bike for the day is 100,000–160,000₫, petrol for a hundred kilometres about 50,000₫. For two people that already beats any tour.
- Tickets: Datanla 50,000–80,000₫, Pongour 20,000–30,000₫, Elephant Falls has its own gate. All in, 250,000–350,000₫ a head including the bike.
- It takes as long as the tour: leave at eight, back by five. Reverse the usual order — distant Pongour first, then Elephant Falls, and leave Datanla for last since it is fifteen minutes from town.
When the tour honestly wins If you do not ride, book the tour: a hundred kilometres by taxi costs more than any excursion. In the rainy season, May to October, the afternoon is almost guaranteed wet — a tour leaves early and gets round before the downpour, while a solo trip often ends waiting it out under a roof. And third: someone breaks an arm on those wet staircases every year, and with a group there is at least somebody to call for help.
Entry fees and hours come from our place cards, checked in August 2026. Tour prices are from the operators' own sites as of 23 August 2026 — their list, not our receipt: we have not ridden with these groups ourselves.
Options and prices
Lam Vien, 9 km north-east of the centre
free
entry · approx.
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.
entry · coaster 247–300k · checked
The one-kilometre gravity coaster down through the pines is the single most-booked activity in Da Lat, and it deserves it.
Worth knowing. Expect 45-minute queues at weekends. Children ride tandem with an adult.
Pongour Falls pick
45–50 km south, ~1 hour · 07:00–17:00
20–30k₫
$0.75–1.15
entry · checked
Seven tiers, a hundred metres wide, and by a distance the most photogenic waterfall in the province. Worth the hour each way.
25–30 km southwest, 45 min · 07:00–17:00
20–50k₫
$0.75–1.90
falls · pagoda free · approx.
A loud thirty-metre curtain you can walk behind, with a 24-metre laughing Buddha twenty metres from the gate.
Careful. The rock stairs down to the base are steep, unrailed and genuinely dangerous when wet. In rainy season, look from the top.
12 km north, 30 min · 07:00–17:00
50k₫
$1.90
entry · jeep 100–120k · checked
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.
Careful. The hiking window officially closes at 13:00 because of afternoon fog. Treat that as the rule for every mountain road here.
1.37M₫
$52
a day of canyoning · approx.
The operator with the biggest pile of reviews in town: 2,246 on Tripadvisor at 5.0, of which 2,210 are «excellent» (checked 23 August 2026). They run canyoning at Datanla, SUP on Tuyen Lam lake, trekking and overnight camping. Cheaper than most: a canyoning day is $52, the extended version with more descents $73.
Worth knowing. Prices from the site as of 23 August 2026, in dollars as the operator lists them: canyoning 52, canyoning with the full set of descents 73, three waterfalls tour 21, half-day SUP 21, SUP with trekking 44, trekking with picnic, SUP and camping 75, canyoning with sunset SUP and a night out 70, two-day combo 110, a campsite pitch 4. The office is in Lam Vien; the phone opens under the «Get contact» button.
Careful. We have not been out with them: this card rests on public reviews and the operator's own price list, which is why the price is marked approximate. Canyoning carries real risk — ask about insurance, the state of the gear and how many guides per group before you pay, not at the water.
1.18–1.45M₫
$45–55
a day tour · approx.
An operator holding an international tour licence issued in 2011 — a rare case where the licence number is printed on the site. They run both sightseeing and active trips: the city with the cable car and the old station, the countryside with a silk factory and a coffee plantation, three waterfalls, cycling days and a motorbike tour. They answer in English, Korean and on Zalo.
Worth knowing. Prices from the site as of 23 August 2026, per person: city tour $45, countryside 50, three waterfalls 50, a cycling day around town 55, a 100 km motorbike tour 45, trekking to Tiger Falls 45, the ride to Mui Ne or Nha Trang 85. Canyoning has no price on the site — ask. Every tour is advertised with a discount for large groups.
Careful. We have not been out with them. The company has noticeably fewer Tripadvisor reviews than Highland Sport Travel or Phat Tire — that does not mean worse, but it is harder to verify, so ask about gear and insurance in more detail.
a day of canyoning · approx.
The oldest adventure outfitter in Vietnam and the first to bring canyoning to Da Lat; 765 reviews on Tripadvisor (checked 23 August 2026). The range is wider than anyone's: besides canyoning there is mountain biking, overnight trekking and multi-day rides to the coast, to Nha Trang and Hoi An. Roughly half again as expensive as the competition, deliberately: own gear, English-speaking guides, insurance.
Worth knowing. Prices from the site as of 23 August 2026, per person: canyoning at Datanla $82, Razorback trekking 45, Jungle Boogie 50, mountain biking 45–52, hiking and kayaking on Tuyen Lam 57, the Da Lat–Nha Trang ride 86, Da Lat–Mui Ne 90. The office is on Nguyen Van Troi; the company also has a branch in Hoi An, so state that you mean Da Lat when you write.
Careful. We have not been out with them: the card is built from public reviews and the operator's price list. The price sits above the local average — compare not just the sum but what it includes: transfer, lunch, photos, insurance.
a day of canyoning · approx.
Canyoning at Datanla for 1,390,000₫ a head, with hotel pick-up in the centre and a ride back. Groups run 2–12 people with two to five guides — the ratio worth asking any operator about: it, not the price, decides how long you queue at each descent. Gear, lunch, water, entrance fees and photos are included.
Worth knowing. Price from the site as of 23 August 2026. Group discounts: 5% from four people, 7% from seven, 10% from eleven — worth counting in if you go as a group. Guides are internationally certified and speak English; promotions come and go, so ask for the current price.
Careful. We have not been out with them; the card comes from the operator's price list and reviews. Promo prices last weeks rather than months: confirm the sum before you go rather than from this card.
Da Lat, group and private departures
500–1215k₫
$19–46
a day tour · approx.
For when you want the city rather than adrenaline: sightseeing tours with an open price list that separates group departures from private ones. Group tours cost about half; private ones run to your plan — a walk through the French architecture, coffee and flower farms, Langbiang, Pongour falls, the Valley.
Worth knowing. Prices from the site as of 23 August 2026, in thousands of ₫. Group: countryside 500, gong show 300, three waterfalls from 580, canyoning 2,214. Private: city and architecture tours 675 each, coffee, farms and flowers 675, trekking to Heaven's Gate and Langbiang from 540, Pongour from 810, the Valley from 1,215, the high-rope park 729.
Careful. We have not taken these tours ourselves — the prices come from the site, hence the «approx.» mark. The gap between a group and a private tour is not only money: on a group tour the route is fixed and you stay at each stop as long as the guide decided.
entry · cable car 80–100k · checked
A working Zen monastery above Tuyen Lam Lake with the best-kept gardens in Da Lat. The place widens your inner range for beauty by sheer concentration of it per square metre: bonsai terraces, paths with stone lanterns among the pines, flower beds in the courtyards and a white statue in the main hall — all on one hillside. The 2.3 km cable car over pine forest takes twelve minutes and lands at the gate.
Worth knowing. Shoulders and knees covered. Historically the cable car pauses over lunch, roughly 11:30–13:30.
Da Lat, hotel pick-up
A small outfit grown out of Phat Tire: some of the guides came from there. On Tripadvisor it rates 4.7 across 213 reviews (checked 23 August 2026) — fewer than the big names, but consistent. They run mountain biking, rafting, the Langbiang summit, canyoning and multi-day rides to the coast.
Worth knowing. There are no prices on the site — they are quoted in correspondence, hence the «ask» mark on this card. For scale: a canyoning day in Da Lat runs 1.39–2.21M₫, a biking day from 1.2M. The office is central, the phone is a landline.
Careful. No prices and no first-hand experience: this card rests on public reviews. Before paying, ask about group size and what the price covers — with small operators that varies more than with the big ones.
Hiep Thanh, 25–30 min from the centre
1.8M₫
$69
for a deluxe room · day entry 190k₫ per person · checked
A hotel and a park at once: a hundred hectares of pine forest at the foot of Nui Voi — Elephant Mountain — half an hour from Da Lat along the airport road. It is built not as a hotel with a garden but as a park with villas inside it: you are driven around in a buggy, and you can either stay the night or come for the day on a ticket. The themed zones are borrowed from other cultures and each sits on its own slope: a Japanese garden with a red torii gate, a house under a curved roof, clipped ball-shaped shrubs and beds of hydrangeas; a Chinese courtyard with a round moon gate in the wall, a pavilion under a hundred silk lanterns and carved wooden screens; a Korean hanok; a Central Highlands village with longhouses. In the middle is a lake with a fountain, a gilded seated Buddha on a platform in the middle of a white bridge, and above it, up the steps, a Zen monastery with an orange tiled roof and a white statue of Guanyin. Between the zones run stone paths, boardwalks along the stream and benches under bamboo and pines. The lodging is scattered over the hills: three-storey white villas with mansard roofs and flower names — Tulip, Mimosa, Lavender — on one slope, a row of container bungalows with wooden decks above the valley on another. The rooms are modern and expensively finished: backlit timber battens on the wall, a full-height window with two armchairs and a small table, a freestanding tub by a blinded window. The view over the pine hills is the main reason to come: in the rain the mist crawls along the ridges, and you see it just as well from the decks as from the room window.
Worth knowing. A day visit runs from 8:00 to 17:00 every day, and a voucher is exchanged for a ticket until 16:00.
- entry 190,000 ₫ per adult, covering the electric-buggy ride around the grounds and four attractions: kayaks, the rope park, the caterpillar ride and the haunted house
- at the on-site ticket booths the same combined ticket goes for 180,000 ₫
- children under a metre go free, under 1.4 m at half price
- karting, boat rides and the tea ceremony are paid for separately
Lodging: 10 villas and 20 bungalows, including a row of converted containers and tents with hotel furnishing by the stream. A deluxe room is 69 dollars a night, about 1.8M ₫, which is what our booking cost for the end of August 2026. An eight-bedroom villa for sixteen people goes for 13M ₫ Sunday to Thursday and 14M ₫ on Friday and Saturday by the resort's own list; breakfast, a welcome drink and the buggy are included. Guests staying over do not pay the entry fee separately. Check-in from 14:00, check-out by 12:00.
Food: several restaurants and coffee shops around the grounds, Vietnamese cooking. Portions are large and the prices are not resort prices — a salad 110,000 ₫, noodles with meat and vegetables 120,000 ₫, a cola 20,000 ₫, a beer 28,000 ₫ (checked on the spot on 29 August 2026).
Getting there: Km 214 of the Lien Khuong — Prenn road, K'Long village, Hiep Thanh commune. From the centre of Da Lat it is 25–30 minutes on the new road over the Prenn pass, and 12 km from Lien Khuong airport. There is no public transport to the gate: people come by bike, car or taxi.
Careful. The zones are decorative. The Japanese garden, the hanok and the Chinese courtyard were built as places to walk through and photograph rather than as historical buildings — this is not where you come for genuine architecture. You come for a walk in the forest, the views and the pictures.
It is not a quiet forest hotel but a park with attractions: at weekends and in the school holidays the paths and the lakeside are busy, and you can hear the go-kart track and the zip line. If you want silence among the pines, take a room away from the lake and the entrance.
The site is large and all of it is on slopes. Walking the whole thing in one go is hard work, and the buggy runs a fixed route rather than on call. A pushchair is awkward in places: cobbles, steps and boardwalks.
The weather decides a lot. In the rainy season, May to October, the downpour usually arrives after lunch: paths get slippery and the water attractions and the zip line close. Come at opening time rather than at midday.
Read next
Canyoning, full day, licensed 1.37–2.21M₫ Pongour Falls: an hour of road for seven tiers → Langbiang: climbing the mountain the town looks at → Canyoning in Da Lat in 2026: who is licensed and why cheap tours kill →Reader notes
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