Dalat Palace

Dalat


With unimpeded views of Xuan Huong Lake, this grande dame of Dalat hotels has vintage Citroën cars in its sweeping driveway, and lashings of wood panelling and period class. The opulence of French-colonial life has been splendidly preserved – claw-foot tubs, fireplaces, chandeliers and oil paintings – though in low season the cavernous, silent hallways feel like something out of The Shining. Look for online deals.

The hotel was originally built as the Lang Bien Palace Hotel in 1922 and was restored in the 1990s by Larry Hillblom, then joint-owner of DHL.


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Nearby Dalat attractions

1. Dalat Cathedral

0.2 MILES

The gingerbread-style Dalat Cathedral was built between 1931 and 1942 for use by French residents and holidaymakers. The cross on the spire is topped by a…

2. Xuan Huong Lake

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Created by a dam in 1919, this banana-shaped lake was named after an anti-authoritarian 17th-century Vietnamese poet. It has become a popular icon of…

3. Hang Nga Crazy House

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A freewheeling architectural exploration of surrealism, Hang Nga Crazy House is a joyously designed, outrageously artistic private home. Imagine…

4. Linh Son Pagoda

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Built in 1938, the Linh Son Pagoda is a lovely ochre-coloured building that fuses French and Chinese architecture. The giant bell is said to be made of…

5. Crémaillère Railway Station

0.98 MILES

From Dalat’s wonderful art deco train station you can ride one of the nine scheduled trains that run to Trai Mat (return from 108,000d, 30 minutes) daily…

6. Dalat Flower Gardens

1.07 MILES

These gardens were established in 1966 and include hydrangeas, fuchsias and orchids, the latter in shaded buildings to the left of the entrance. Like any…

7. Lam Dong Museum

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This hillside museum is a stampede through Dalat's history, with a side trip into natural history, complete with outrageously bad taxidermy, and plenty of…

8. Linh Quang Pagoda

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Flanked by enormous coiling concrete dragons rearing out of a pond, and with a fabulously kitsch outdoor tableau featuring the young Buddha atop a lotus…