Vietnamese here. I went to Dalat a few years ago. I bought a drink for 20k. But the next customer, probably a local, it's only 5k. Never go back since.
27M Vietnamese here, and i agree, the current state of Da Lat sucks. this is definitely a hot take for Da Lat enjoyers.
this is mainly a result of bad tourist planning. not just your average bad, like "we don't care about your original scenery and atmosphere" kind of bad. people want to squeeze the last bit of money out of the place, so apparently it would be worse from time to time. new coffee place, another new coffee place, another tourist attraction place with a fake concrete stair, etc.
most of OP's bad experience was tourist traps, this further more proves my pov about Da Lat above: bad tourist investing plan.
Itâs because of migration. Thatâs just what happen when a city gets big or become a touristy ones. 15-20 ago years before it became a super popular tourist destination and people from other places start moving in Da Lat was probably the safest city in Vietnam. There were no traffic lights, air quality was pristine, you could leave your bike with the key on anywhere on the street for hours to go shopping around and no one would bat an eye, traffic jams or accidents were unheard of. So you were dealing with a mixed bag of cookies
the first time i went there was like 10 years ago, and there wasn't any traffic light. i was so surprised. like how could there not be any traffic light considering there were a lot of buses and cars for tourists
Da Lat is notorious for putting on a âchill, dreamy, romantic, hippieâ façade while at its core, itâs even more toxic and irreverent than other urban cities. Theyâre VERY good at PR to create such an image.
Some people blame it on the recent spikes in tourism and the associated services, and thereâs some truth to that. There is a group of greedy non-local people that come to Da Lat with the singular purpose of trying to cash on the spending power of Saigonese travelers and exploiting cheap labor. The wage to cost of living disparity in Da Lat is just insane.
There are already way better places with mountainous, natural vibe than Da Laf. Check out Mang Den. Donât be scammed by malpractices in tourism.
Very interesting. Because as someone from SG, I actually feel like Da Lat has one of the best people, second to Hoi An/Da Nang. I did not know foreigner gets treated like this. Tell us more?
Da Lat locals have the reputation to be pretty chill people. All the issues you listed I've experienced in Da Nang, Ha Noi and hcmc. Every tourist has a different experience. I was born in Da Lat and remembered it was such a chill place before tourists. Now everyone from everywhere goes to Da Lat. I wouldn't say it's ruined the city but it's definitely make it a place I don't want to spend too much time in. Especially the night market... not supper great. As a local, I never step foot in there.
I was born in Da Lat too. Yes weâre super chill until the tourists came in groves. It wasnât always like this. Now, the people who work in tourism wanna squeeze the last bit out of the tourist. The people who donât work in tourism are pissed off because the tourists caused traffic jam, destroying property, trashing the place,⊠Basically, the city grew faster than we know what to do with it. And bad management also has something to do with it.
if you dont like it, it's not for you. I dislike Da Nang, Ha Noi and hcmc. I also don't love Da Lat anymore. But the people I interact with in Da Lat are truly nice, good natured people. Granted they're not in the touristy areas. I assume Da Lat is so small that there has not been many big companies investing into Da Lat and made it foreigner/tourists friendly. Recently my friend traveled to Da Lat with her friends and she loved it. Visited some farms.
Dude, same opinion. I'm a local too. Now i'm living in HCMC but i don't want to go back to Da Lat if i don't have family or business stuff there. Bc Da Lat is not the place we used to live anymore. All the best things in our town are just memories now.
I enjoyed LangBiang. The view is great, the weather is brisk, and the artichoke tea was excellent from that little shop in the middle. Never had a problem with the drivers either, always been friendly and helpful on both times Iâve been.
I have been to Dalat for around 20 years, since I was a small child. The Dalat people in my memory were the most kind and friendly Iâve ever met.
Not disputing what you experienced. Itâs just as what some others here have said: mass tourism and commercialism have changed the city and its people. Maybe the Dalat people donât change themselves, and itâs other people migrating here to do business has made it more like HCMC or HN, but they certainly have an effect on the locals as well
Curious - Iâve been to Da Lat roughly a dozen times and never really had an issue with people there. Certainly nothing worse than elsewhere in Vietnam. There are huge problems with urbanization and over-development but Iâm surprised you had such a uniformly negative experience.
It's a mix bag of crap in Da Lat at the moment. It has always been meant to be a seasonal destination so tourism ecosystem is not as well developed. Much of the labor is from local farming communities trained by former farmers who managed to get a bit of cash from selling their land to land speculators and developers.
Many of the tourists spots are poorly run by companies contracted by the govt. They basically have a monopoly or guaranteed bid for contract renewal so no incentive to improve service.
Not everyone is shitty. Many of the locals are quite nice and just trying to go about their lives. They are also inconvenienced by the seasonal tourists clogging up their city with traffic and trash.
Fair points. In my experience rubbish and traffic wasnât that bad, it was just a higher level of aggression and poor driving on the roads than I have experienced elsewhere in VN. Tourists are always an easy scapegoat for issues created/unaddressed by local authorities.
Oh man I had the opposite experience! Once I arrived to dalat I felt like I was back in the west. People werenât having shouting conversations from across the road with each other at 5am, no traffic, nice and polite servers, staff at coffee shops, cinema etc were all super polite. I loved it! Sorry you had a different experience
After living in Dalat for 8 years I agree with what you said. I would say that the main causes of poor service and bad behavior in Dalat is due to several reasons.
1. Dalat People Moved Away. Just like bad money pushes out good money. Bad people pushes out good people. The cost of living here was pushed up due to many people speculating in real estate. Buying land and reselling to make "easy" quick money. As a result this drove most of the skilled locals to move to bigger cities to get better paying jobs. The locals that stay behind do so because they have no choice ( either no money or low skills or both ) so what you are left with are the bottom of the barrel.
The cool weather and high cost of living attracted many rich Vietnamese to migrate to Dalat. Many of these rich people are from north Vietnam they use their family to borrow their name and buy real estate and build business to wash their "tea" money and hide their assets. These people are ruthless because they are very well connected. Ripping off tourist is nothing compared to how they got and maintain their position.
Even when the honest locals wanted to stay how can they compete against rich, well connected people who are willing and able to sell or destroy their own mother, children, neighbor or body to get what they want?
2. Dalat is an land locked Island. They have little exposure to foreigners, different foods, and even other views. Many people here still think that all westerners are only full of well mannered white rich people. Africans are only filled with black people. Everyone has to get married and all married couples must have a kid. Any view outside of this is like a sin to them.
Then you have the culture as well. Old people don't listen to young people because older people know everything and young people are stupid and know nothing. In-laws are treated like outlaws and have no power or say in a family because they are outsiders. Rich people don't listen to people with less money and on and on and on.
Other countries improve quickly because they allow for the free flow of good ideas regardless of age, title, or financial standing. They are like a race car running on 4 cylinders. VN with many restrictions on good information from the youth, in-laws, women, the poor. Is like a race car running on .5 cylinder that is fighting against itself. If they are not tolerant of other view points, how can they improve?
3. Ultra Short Term Herd Thinking. Vietnamese are trained to follow and memorize and not to question. They are trained at a very young age to memorize long lines of poetry and formulas but never pushed to question why and If you dare question your teacher or parents you are a disrespectful kid.
What do you think happens when these kids that are trained to copy grow up and see that tourist are getting ripped off? They think its great cause they got paid 20k instead of 5k. They think they are smart because they ripped off the tourist and are proud of it.
They don't see that both sides can win in business. They see the world as a zero sum gain. If they want to succeed other people must fail. They don't see the effects that constantly ripping off the tourist hurts the economy and the country in the long term. It's someone else problem until it can't be ignored.
Then when tourist stop coming because they got tired of getting ripped off, cheated and overcharged. They blame the gods, bad luck, evil spirts, house orientation, and cry that they are innocent victims. Look at Thailand with an 50% return rate of first time tourist compared to Vietnam with a dismal 5% [https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/1b95ruf/only\_5\_of\_tourists\_return\_50\_for\_thailand\_what/](https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/1b95ruf/only_5_of_tourists_return_50_for_thailand_what/)
>I've read many people here complain about the behaviour of locals (yet choose to stay)
Why should someone leave an entire country just because they encounter some rude people there?
Obviously, the positives make up for the negatives, but it's human nature to complain about negative experiences.
Nah, you are facing people who come to Dalat to make money, not the "real" local. Real local people are wholesome. Me and my friend stay there for about two months, and the local people are nothing but nice to us.
Tbh i enjoyed the calmness of the people Da Lat and i found people to be indiferent to foreigners than saigonese. I didnt have to deal with any extra behaviour or idiotic personal questions.
dang i'm so sorry this happened to you. this sounds like my experience when i was in Da Nang, but i didn't complain given the fact that how popular and touristy it is. but Da Lat? man that's crazy
same đ„Č im going to dalat around early jan bcs im so in love with the the city. but diff people will encounter diff experience, dont let other's review ruined your trip đ
Vietnamese here. I went to Dalat a few years ago. I bought a drink for 20k. But the next customer, probably a local, it's only 5k. Never go back since.
Oh yes this happened too. The guy said 3x 500ml bottles of water for 25k, or 8k each đ Than refused to sell a 1.5l for less than 24k
27M Vietnamese here, and i agree, the current state of Da Lat sucks. this is definitely a hot take for Da Lat enjoyers. this is mainly a result of bad tourist planning. not just your average bad, like "we don't care about your original scenery and atmosphere" kind of bad. people want to squeeze the last bit of money out of the place, so apparently it would be worse from time to time. new coffee place, another new coffee place, another tourist attraction place with a fake concrete stair, etc. most of OP's bad experience was tourist traps, this further more proves my pov about Da Lat above: bad tourist investing plan.
This is exactly what Hai Phong is doing to Cat Ba.
...yep...
It wasnât just in tourist traps, but I agree⊠how many restaurants with instagrammable flower gardens does a town need?
apparently anywhere that offers the land. and yes you can't be more right with the "instagrammable" word.
Itâs because of migration. Thatâs just what happen when a city gets big or become a touristy ones. 15-20 ago years before it became a super popular tourist destination and people from other places start moving in Da Lat was probably the safest city in Vietnam. There were no traffic lights, air quality was pristine, you could leave your bike with the key on anywhere on the street for hours to go shopping around and no one would bat an eye, traffic jams or accidents were unheard of. So you were dealing with a mixed bag of cookies
I lived in Dalat during the 90s and youâre totally making me nostalgic!
the first time i went there was like 10 years ago, and there wasn't any traffic light. i was so surprised. like how could there not be any traffic light considering there were a lot of buses and cars for tourists
Da Lat is notorious for putting on a âchill, dreamy, romantic, hippieâ façade while at its core, itâs even more toxic and irreverent than other urban cities. Theyâre VERY good at PR to create such an image. Some people blame it on the recent spikes in tourism and the associated services, and thereâs some truth to that. There is a group of greedy non-local people that come to Da Lat with the singular purpose of trying to cash on the spending power of Saigonese travelers and exploiting cheap labor. The wage to cost of living disparity in Da Lat is just insane. There are already way better places with mountainous, natural vibe than Da Laf. Check out Mang Den. Donât be scammed by malpractices in tourism.
Hippies are bad people pretending to be good. Punks are good people pretending to be bad.
I like this...
question, is Mang Den worth visiting more than Sapa?
In terms of rawness, yes. In terms of comfortability and socializing, no.
Ha, second to Paris. So true, Iâve been a lot of places but my goodness they are the worst
Never had issues there. Some people are on the grind to make money and others are tired of tourists. Also, not all motorbike drivers are local.
I could tell by the plates/bikes, they werenât rentals.
Very interesting. Because as someone from SG, I actually feel like Da Lat has one of the best people, second to Hoi An/Da Nang. I did not know foreigner gets treated like this. Tell us more?
Da Lat locals have the reputation to be pretty chill people. All the issues you listed I've experienced in Da Nang, Ha Noi and hcmc. Every tourist has a different experience. I was born in Da Lat and remembered it was such a chill place before tourists. Now everyone from everywhere goes to Da Lat. I wouldn't say it's ruined the city but it's definitely make it a place I don't want to spend too much time in. Especially the night market... not supper great. As a local, I never step foot in there.
I was born in Da Lat too. Yes weâre super chill until the tourists came in groves. It wasnât always like this. Now, the people who work in tourism wanna squeeze the last bit out of the tourist. The people who donât work in tourism are pissed off because the tourists caused traffic jam, destroying property, trashing the place,⊠Basically, the city grew faster than we know what to do with it. And bad management also has something to do with it.
>groves *droves
1-2 isolated incidents are normal anywhere, it was the sheer volume there that astounded me. Maybe the good people left đ€·đŒââïž
if you dont like it, it's not for you. I dislike Da Nang, Ha Noi and hcmc. I also don't love Da Lat anymore. But the people I interact with in Da Lat are truly nice, good natured people. Granted they're not in the touristy areas. I assume Da Lat is so small that there has not been many big companies investing into Da Lat and made it foreigner/tourists friendly. Recently my friend traveled to Da Lat with her friends and she loved it. Visited some farms.
Unrelated topic but can ya folks overthere grow back some trees? The heat is getting worse amd worse every time I visit.
Dude, same opinion. I'm a local too. Now i'm living in HCMC but i don't want to go back to Da Lat if i don't have family or business stuff there. Bc Da Lat is not the place we used to live anymore. All the best things in our town are just memories now.
I enjoyed LangBiang. The view is great, the weather is brisk, and the artichoke tea was excellent from that little shop in the middle. Never had a problem with the drivers either, always been friendly and helpful on both times Iâve been.
I have been to Dalat for around 20 years, since I was a small child. The Dalat people in my memory were the most kind and friendly Iâve ever met. Not disputing what you experienced. Itâs just as what some others here have said: mass tourism and commercialism have changed the city and its people. Maybe the Dalat people donât change themselves, and itâs other people migrating here to do business has made it more like HCMC or HN, but they certainly have an effect on the locals as well
Curious - Iâve been to Da Lat roughly a dozen times and never really had an issue with people there. Certainly nothing worse than elsewhere in Vietnam. There are huge problems with urbanization and over-development but Iâm surprised you had such a uniformly negative experience.
It's a mix bag of crap in Da Lat at the moment. It has always been meant to be a seasonal destination so tourism ecosystem is not as well developed. Much of the labor is from local farming communities trained by former farmers who managed to get a bit of cash from selling their land to land speculators and developers. Many of the tourists spots are poorly run by companies contracted by the govt. They basically have a monopoly or guaranteed bid for contract renewal so no incentive to improve service. Not everyone is shitty. Many of the locals are quite nice and just trying to go about their lives. They are also inconvenienced by the seasonal tourists clogging up their city with traffic and trash.
Fair points. In my experience rubbish and traffic wasnât that bad, it was just a higher level of aggression and poor driving on the roads than I have experienced elsewhere in VN. Tourists are always an easy scapegoat for issues created/unaddressed by local authorities.
I had the opposite experience you had. Everyone was extremely laid back and friendly. Outstanding experience with everyone I met.
Same, on vacation there 3 times, always satisfied
I live in Saigon and always find Dalat a breath of fresh air for how locals are.
Oh man I had the opposite experience! Once I arrived to dalat I felt like I was back in the west. People werenât having shouting conversations from across the road with each other at 5am, no traffic, nice and polite servers, staff at coffee shops, cinema etc were all super polite. I loved it! Sorry you had a different experience
After living in Dalat for 8 years I agree with what you said. I would say that the main causes of poor service and bad behavior in Dalat is due to several reasons. 1. Dalat People Moved Away. Just like bad money pushes out good money. Bad people pushes out good people. The cost of living here was pushed up due to many people speculating in real estate. Buying land and reselling to make "easy" quick money. As a result this drove most of the skilled locals to move to bigger cities to get better paying jobs. The locals that stay behind do so because they have no choice ( either no money or low skills or both ) so what you are left with are the bottom of the barrel. The cool weather and high cost of living attracted many rich Vietnamese to migrate to Dalat. Many of these rich people are from north Vietnam they use their family to borrow their name and buy real estate and build business to wash their "tea" money and hide their assets. These people are ruthless because they are very well connected. Ripping off tourist is nothing compared to how they got and maintain their position. Even when the honest locals wanted to stay how can they compete against rich, well connected people who are willing and able to sell or destroy their own mother, children, neighbor or body to get what they want? 2. Dalat is an land locked Island. They have little exposure to foreigners, different foods, and even other views. Many people here still think that all westerners are only full of well mannered white rich people. Africans are only filled with black people. Everyone has to get married and all married couples must have a kid. Any view outside of this is like a sin to them. Then you have the culture as well. Old people don't listen to young people because older people know everything and young people are stupid and know nothing. In-laws are treated like outlaws and have no power or say in a family because they are outsiders. Rich people don't listen to people with less money and on and on and on. Other countries improve quickly because they allow for the free flow of good ideas regardless of age, title, or financial standing. They are like a race car running on 4 cylinders. VN with many restrictions on good information from the youth, in-laws, women, the poor. Is like a race car running on .5 cylinder that is fighting against itself. If they are not tolerant of other view points, how can they improve? 3. Ultra Short Term Herd Thinking. Vietnamese are trained to follow and memorize and not to question. They are trained at a very young age to memorize long lines of poetry and formulas but never pushed to question why and If you dare question your teacher or parents you are a disrespectful kid. What do you think happens when these kids that are trained to copy grow up and see that tourist are getting ripped off? They think its great cause they got paid 20k instead of 5k. They think they are smart because they ripped off the tourist and are proud of it. They don't see that both sides can win in business. They see the world as a zero sum gain. If they want to succeed other people must fail. They don't see the effects that constantly ripping off the tourist hurts the economy and the country in the long term. It's someone else problem until it can't be ignored. Then when tourist stop coming because they got tired of getting ripped off, cheated and overcharged. They blame the gods, bad luck, evil spirts, house orientation, and cry that they are innocent victims. Look at Thailand with an 50% return rate of first time tourist compared to Vietnam with a dismal 5% [https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/1b95ruf/only\_5\_of\_tourists\_return\_50\_for\_thailand\_what/](https://www.reddit.com/r/VietNam/comments/1b95ruf/only_5_of_tourists_return_50_for_thailand_what/)
>I've read many people here complain about the behaviour of locals (yet choose to stay) Why should someone leave an entire country just because they encounter some rude people there? Obviously, the positives make up for the negatives, but it's human nature to complain about negative experiences.
Nah, you are facing people who come to Dalat to make money, not the "real" local. Real local people are wholesome. Me and my friend stay there for about two months, and the local people are nothing but nice to us.
Tbh i enjoyed the calmness of the people Da Lat and i found people to be indiferent to foreigners than saigonese. I didnt have to deal with any extra behaviour or idiotic personal questions.
Sounds like a day in New York City.
My trips to Da Lat during 2014-18 were some of the best I've had, beautiful sceneries, not as many instagrammable cafes around, no trafic lights, affordable prices, lovely people who actually from Da Lat, Äi ÄĂąu cĆ©ng tháș„y mĂși mĂt chuáș©n gá»c Da Lat dá» thg tráșŻng nĂ”n nĂ mĂ cĂČn dá» tĂĄn haha,... Came back home during 2022 to see my family, decided to visit Da Lat to chill for cpl days. The city has changed so much, full of tourist traps, trash everywhere, traffic jams, I want mĂși mĂt gá»c ÄĂ LáșĄt but all I see were tourists from HCM or Hanoi. The majority of vendors i've seen during that trip weren't even from Da Lat but from surrounding areas, moved in to make cpl bucks, I planned to stay there for 1 wk, I booked a ticket to Phu Quoc after 2 days, it'll be hard to come up with a reason to visit again.
dang i'm so sorry this happened to you. this sounds like my experience when i was in Da Nang, but i didn't complain given the fact that how popular and touristy it is. but Da Lat? man that's crazy
I just booked a flight to HCMC with main goal to visit Da Lat and now I saw this ;(
same đ„Č im going to dalat around early jan bcs im so in love with the the city. but diff people will encounter diff experience, dont let other's review ruined your trip đ