The city of Da Lat, in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, is one of 52 places to go in 2016 as selected by the New York Times.
In this year’s list, the tourist city ranked 30th. Last year, it stood in 42nd position.
Pine forests, locally grown avocados, and artichoke tea aren’t commonplace in Viet Nam, but they are in Da Lat. The south-central-highlands town, a former French-colonial hill station with eternal spring weather, is an agricultural El Dorado, growing asparagus, strawberries, coffee, artichokes, roses and more, according to the newspaper.
Besides these positive attributes, Da Lat has built a reputation for outdoor activities; golf, white-water rafting, mountain biking, canyoning and splashing under the roaring Elephant Falls or terraced Pongour Falls.
The annual Da Lat Flower Festival is also a good chance to lure international visitors to Viet Nam’s tourist city.
The top destinations in the list are Mexico city (Mexico), Bordeaux (France), Malta (the Mediterranean), Coral Bay (St. John, the US Virgin Island), and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (North Dakota, the USA).
In Southeast Asia, apart from Da Lat, Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Ubud town (Indonesia) are included in the list.