Our arrival in Dalat was a little underwhelmeing- we'd expected it to be a cute little quiet alpine town (as the Lonely Planet led us to believe) instead, it is packed full of traffic and quite ugly at first glance.
However, our faith was restored pretty quickly as our recommended Hotel - Dreams (1 for anyone planning to go there, 2 is more expensive), very much lived up to the good things that we had heard. The owner is a lovely friendly Vietnamese lady who speaks superb English, offers helpful advice (rather than the usual "very-good-tour-please-buy-from-me-then-i-get-my-commission-too"). More importantly, we had been promised great things from the breakfast buffet and it was every bit what we had been promised. A generous spread of bread and fruits (and in particular large quantities of mango - Caroline's favorite), as well as coffee, juices, and wait for it - peanut butter and vegemite - oh, such treats!
The thing with Dalat is to get out of the town - so off we went on 2 brilliant day trips: The first day we cycled with our guide out to the local mountain, and then hiked to the top and back again, and then cycyled back to town. It was a great way to see the local countryside and get great views from the mountain. The second day we went with the same guide for an 18k hike among rice fields, coffee planatations, a local tribe village, along the river etc. We really hadn't seen scenery like it anywhere in Vietnam.
