We arrived an hour early for check in but this was fine, the room was ready and allowed us to head out to make the most of our only afternoon in Da Lat.
As mentioned, we were only here for one night so we had limited dealings with the staff but they were nice and polite whenever we spoke to them. On returning late in the evening, we had a small issue with our key card not working for the room and before I turned to head downstairs, the young man on reception was stood behind me ready to replace the batteries in the door!! He'd spotted us on CCTV and headed up within 30 seconds. That was brilliant.
During our visit we caught the gondola down (The station is dated but the views on the way down are worth the small amount you pay). At the bottom there's a pagoda, small pond and a nice enough lake, where you can have a drink. We walked to the waterfalls by following an unfinished road off to the left of the lake. This took us about 45 minutes and much of the time you think you've gone wrong but keep going until you reach the main road at the top, then turn right. Or pay £2 for a taxi.
The waterfalls were ok but touristy. Cheap to enter but you can't reach the bottom without an additional small fee.
The town is a good size, with a lake and night market.
Da Lat was a base for our Highlands Tour. We decided against a motorbike tour (plenty of places to arrange these) in favour of an air conditioned car. A gentleman named Xuan drove us to Nha Trang via Lake Lak. Ask around for him.