Skip to content Where and when is Da Lat night market?
Da Lat night market (chợ đêm Đà Lạt) runs every evening on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street, the slope that drops from the Hoa Binh area down to the roundabout in front of Da Lat market. Stalls set up from about 5 pm as the daytime flower and vegetable sellers pack away, and the market is busiest from 7 to 9 pm. Food keeps going late; clothes stalls thin out after 10 or 11 pm.
It’s in the centre of town, a 5 to 10 minute walk from Xuan Huong Lake. Since the July 2025 reorganisation the address is Xuan Huong–Da Lat ward, but everyone, drivers included, knows it as chợ đêm or by its old nickname, Chợ Âm Phủ, the “underworld market”.
What the night market is like
The night market is two things at once. The upper part, near the Hoa Binh end and the steps, is street food: charcoal grills, low plastic stools and steam from the soy-milk pots. The lower part around the roundabout is clothes and souvenirs on tarpaulins: wool hats, scarves, secondhand jackets, dried fruit, artichoke tea and boxes of strawberries.
Most of the crowd is Vietnamese, many of them up from Saigon for the weekend, so a Saturday night is shoulder to shoulder and a Tuesday is easy. It’s colder than people expect. Evenings at 1,500 metres are often 14–17°C, and in the wet months a shower can arrive with no warning, when the traders pull plastic sheets over everything and carry on.
What to eat at Da Lat night market
Graze rather than sit down to a meal. Most stalls sell one thing, and the fun is a few small plates walking downhill.
Bánh tráng nướng (grilled rice paper)
Da Lat’s own street snack, sometimes sold to visitors as “Vietnamese pizza”. A sheet of rice paper is grilled over charcoal and topped with quail egg, minced pork or dried shrimp, spring onion and chilli sauce, then folded. Look for the grills near the top of the slope.
Sữa đậu nành (hot soy milk)
Sweet hot soy milk in a glass, often with a peanut or mung-bean version alongside. In Saigon it’s a breakfast drink; in Da Lat it’s what you hold to keep your hands warm at 9 pm.
Grills and skewers
Grilled corn, roasted sweet potato, grilled squid and skewers of meat, sausage and tofu are everywhere. Prices are per piece, so point and ask before the stallholder starts grilling.
Ốc nhồi (stuffed snails)
Snail shells filled with minced pork, mushroom and lemongrass, steamed and eaten with a skewer and fish sauce. A good one to share.
Kem bơ (avocado ice cream)
Avocado blended with condensed milk, topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream and peanuts. The highlands around Da Lat grow much of Vietnam’s avocado crop, so it’s a fitting dessert.
What to buy
The clothes are the reason many Vietnamese visitors come: wool hats, gloves and cheap jackets for a town that’s colder than home. For a souvenir, Da Lat’s own produce travels best: dried strawberries and persimmons (hồng treo gió), artichoke tea, candied fruit (mứt), and Cau Dat arabica from the coffee stalls. Fresh strawberries are sold by the box; check the bottom layer before you pay.
Bargaining is normal for clothes and souvenirs, and gentle is best. Food prices are usually fixed.
How to avoid tourist prices
Ask the price before you order, every time. In March 2026 the market’s managers were told to clean up after an inspection found unlisted prices, touting and stalls trading on contracts that had expired at the end of 2024. Ten of the twelve stalls in the food court were among them. The work was due to finish by 30 April 2026 (Thuong Truong, 4 March 2026; Bao Moi, 31 March 2026).
In practice:
- choose stalls that have prices written up, or ask and agree before they cook;
- carry small notes, because few stalls take cards and some don’t like large notes;
- for a proper sit-down dinner, use a restaurant with a printed menu rather than a stall that seats you and brings dishes you didn’t order;
- keep phones and wallets in a front pocket in the crowd on the steps.
Getting there and back
From most central hotels you can walk, but the streets are steep and some lanes are dark at night. Traffic around the market is heavy on weekend evenings, and cars can’t stop in the thick of it. If you’ve booked a car and driver for the day, the driver can drop you near the market and collect you later from an agreed point.
If you’re staying out at Tuyen Lam Lake, the market is 15 to 20 minutes away by car, so it’s worth arranging the ride back before you go.
Da Lat market by day
The night market sits on the doorstep of Da Lat market (chợ Đà Lạt), the central market building. By day it sells flowers, vegetables, the same dried fruit and artichoke tea, and cooked food upstairs. If you’d rather buy souvenirs without the crowd, go in the morning.
For the rest of an evening in town, walk the lake shore at Xuan Huong, or try one of the live-music cafés nearby. The things to do in Da Lat page has the daytime sights.