Da Lat

Resembling a cross between Vietnam and the French Alps, Dalat was originally the playground of the French who built villas in the clear mountain air to escape the heat and humidity of the coast and of Saigon.

Many of its hotels and houses are built in a European/ French style. The city spreads across a series of pine-covered hills, with a small lake in the center and surrounded by a man-made lake and higher peaks, making for some lovely scenery quite different from the rest of Vietnam.