Da Lat

Market dawn, the Trai Mat train and the Robin Hill cable car

Plan three days in Da Lat: the town on the first, the hills to the south on the second, and Lang Biang or canyoning on the third. Day one runs from the Central Market to Xuan Huong Lake, the Crazy House and Palace III; day two takes the Trai Mat train and the Robin Hill cable car.

Day one starts at the Central Market as traders stack artichokes, persimmons and strawberries under the awnings; have breakfast upstairs or a bowl of noodles at a stall nearby. Walk down to Xuan Huong Lake and follow the shore path for an hour while the mist lifts off the water. After lunch, climb through the tree-root stairways of the Crazy House, then continue to Palace III, Bao Dai's summer villa, where the 1930s furniture still stands in the rooms. Come back to the market steps after dark, when the night market opens and the grills start.

On day two, catch the morning train from the art deco railway station to Trai Mat and wander through Linh Phuoc Pagoda, every surface covered in broken pottery and glass. Return by train, take a Grab to Robin Hill and ride the cable car over the pines to the Truc Lam Zen monastery. Walk down to Tuyen Lam Lake and sit by the water before heading back for dinner on Phan Dinh Phung.

A third morning belongs to the hills. Climb Lang Biang north of town for the view over the plateau, or book a half-day canyoning trip near Datanla with a licensed operator. Afternoons in the rainy months are often wet, so do outdoor plans early and save the cafes for later.

Grilled rice paper, Lau Ga La E and artichoke tea

Da Lat's cool nights suit hot food: banh trang nuong straight off the charcoal on the market steps, hot soy milk, and a shared pot of lau ga la e, chicken with the peppery e leaf. Visitors from the lowlands come partly for dishes that make no sense in 35C heat.

Banh trang nuong, sometimes called Vietnamese pizza, is a sheet of rice paper crisped over charcoal with quail egg, spring onion and dried shrimp, folded and handed over hot; the stalls on the steps below the market are the classic place. Wash it down with sua dau nanh, hot soy milk, from the stall on Nguyen Van Cu or the carts round the market. In the morning, look for Da Lat's version of banh can, small rice cakes served with a bowl of xiu mai meatball broth for dipping, and banh uot long ga, soft rice sheets with shredded chicken and offal.

For dinner, lau ga la e is the local hot pot: chicken simmered with the lemony, peppery e leaf, best shared on a cold night. Da Lat is also a good town for vegetarians, with several com chay restaurants near the centre and a small vegetarian counter on the market's upper floor.

Take home the produce: dried artichoke tea, strawberry jam and mut, the candied fruit preserves sold by weight on the market's ground floor.

Cherry blossom, wild sunflowers and the afternoon storms

Visit Da Lat between December and March for dry, sunny days, cold nights and the sharpest hill views. Temperatures barely change all year, with highs of 21C to 25C and lows of 12C to 16C, so rain sets the seasons: April to October brings afternoon storms, heaviest in September.

January averages under 10mm of rain and February around 20mm. These are also the flower months. The wild sunflowers (da quy) turn the roadsides and hill slopes yellow in November and December, and the pink mai anh dao cherry trees flower around the lake in late January and February, often just before or after Tet. Tet itself fills the town with visitors from the south, and prices and traffic follow.

Rain arrives in April, at around 170mm, and builds through the summer to a peak of about 280mm in September and 245mm in October. The pattern is usually a dry morning and a heavy storm in the afternoon, so the rainy season is still workable if you start early. Waterfalls such as Datanla run fullest then, but trails on Lang Biang get muddy and canyoning trips may be cancelled after heavy rain.

Da Lat also stages a Flower Festival in December in some years, with displays round the lake; check whether one is planned before you set your dates, since hotels fill quickly.