Dalat Palace Luxury Hotel & Golf Club

Dalat

Vietnam, bordered by Cambodia, Laos and China, is characterized by its rice fields, mountains, high plateaus, fertile plains and tropical forests. In the center of the country, perched on the high plateaus of Trung Bô, formerly Annam, the city of Dalat has preserved its colonial charm. Nicknamed the city of eternal springtime because of its mild climate, this former high-class resort is a little piece of France in the tropics. Its architecture is a mixture of 1930s houses, with half timbered Normandy style homes, and Basque or Savoyard chalets.

In the center of town, the ocher colored summer villa of Bao Dai is totally intact, and the railway station with its yellow façade is an imitation of the Deauville station in Normandy. There is also a mini Eiffel Tower, a scale model of the original “iron lady.” Simply speaking, the atmosphere is totally French.

Thanks to its special climate, the region is rich in flowers, fruits and vegetables that are often impossible to find elsewhere in the country. Persimmon fruit, plums, apples, peaches, strawberries and grapes imported from France can all be found in the stalls of the market alongside cabbages and Jerusalem artichokes. It’s here too, at the foot of the Lang Bian, the region’s highest point, that a great many ethnic minorities live including the Co Ho, Ma and Chu Ru known for their hospitality and their traditional festivals.

Memories of Indochina

When a certain Doctor Yersin discovered the region of Dalat in 1893, the city did not exist, but it seemed the ideal site to open a sanatorium. A few years later, Paul Doumer, the governor of Indochina at the time, decided to create a climatic retreat where colonists could go to relax, far from the oppressive heat of the plains. Nevertheless, until World War One, the French did not have a retreat worthy of the name in Dalat. It was therefore decided to build a palace hotel like those that existed on the French Riviera. The Long Bian Palace was completed in 1922 and became THE palace in the region. Spared by the economic collapse of 1929, it was renovated in an art deco style in the 1940s. This magnificent building with its long white façade thus became a living part of history. It was the headquarters of the Japanese military and then occupied by the French before being taken over by the Viet Minh. After another renovation, the Lang Bian Palace is now the Dalat Palace Hotel, having lost none of its splendor or its old world charm.

The hotel’s 43 rooms are all elegantly decorated in a neo-colonial style, offering luxury and refinement that one would expect in such an imposing building. The curtains and the bed are draped in silk, and the period style bathtub with its light tones restore the atmosphere of the palace’ prestigious past. Everything here is evocative of France: the old phonograph records in the reception area, the names of the restaurants (Rabelais and Monet), the 1920s cars and the Aquitaine spa. In short, the Dalat Palace is an ideal site for tourists in search of a timeless luxury.

In 1929, the palace was threatened by the economic crisis and had to reduce the number of its staff and chose to let its gardeners go. Reputed for its incredible nightlife, the hotel opted to conserve its orchestra to the detriment of the park. After all, you can’t dance to flowers!