Vietnam Intercity Bus Trip : Nha Trang to Dalat

When I planned my 4 day trip to Nha Trang, I originally wanted to stay in the same hotel for all 3 nights in the beach zone and do a day trip up to Dalat. I didn't want to haul my luggage around since the two cities are only 130km apart, but Google Maps strangely clocked the drive at over 3 hours. That's when I realized a day trip would be too rushed even if joining a bus tour out of Nha Trang. So I needed to change the plan to spend one night in Dalat and enjoy their much cooler weather.

Finding a shared minibus company to book online or via travel aggregators was unfruitful. I wanted to get to Dalat as quick as possible, so a smaller vehicle with about 10 tourists would have been a lot more flexible. Asking my Nha Trang hotel for help, they surprisingly replied quickly, suggesting to use Futa and providing a website to book. Since I was travelling on the independence day long weekend, I wanted to pre-book my roundtrip ticket to avoid disappointment, so even a big bus would have to do.

Futa's website has an English version and it was easy to find availability. They depart hourly with a listed time of 4 hours. I opted for the 8:30am service so not to wake up before sunrise. The bus terminus in Nha Trang is quite a way out of the city centre, so I would factor in at least 20 minutes for that.

After selecting the departure time, the website would direct me to seat selection. This route is run by sleeper buses in a double deck configuration.

Finally, I have to pay. Credit card payment is possible but I couldn't get it to work. It kept on ending up with an error, and I finally gave up booking direct and went for a travel aggregator instead. It was a bit more expensive but at least they got me a ticket eventually.

My Grab car took 26 minutes for the mostly smooth 7km journey from my beach-side hotel to the bus station, costing 104,000 dong. It's an old building but functional. I asked the orange Futa counter whether this is the right place for the bus, and the agent spoke a little English to direct me to the back for departure.

Rounding out back, I saw a bunch of buses parked outside and a bigger orange office. I asked a staff about my departure and surprisingly, he also spoke a bit of English and asked me to wait there. The office pictured here had a little air conditioning but it wasn't too hot so early in the morning yet. By now, I still had almost 20 minutes to go before departure.

I heard an announcement with the word Dalat and knew it's time to go. The staff did signal to me to head out and the experience was quite interesting. For each piece of luggage that goes into the hold, the staff pull out a sheet of 3 coded stickers. Each bag gets one and you get the stub to keep. After they scanned my QR code ticket, I took off my shoes and boarded, putting them in a plastic bag that they had placed at the door.

I got the front row top bunk for the journey and it was fixed in almost lie-flat mode, a true sleeper bus. The seat was comfortable although it wasn't too wide, with curtains on both the aisle and window sides. There was even a USB outlet to charge your phone. The bus looked new and the interior was very clean. In addition to the driver, we also had an attendant on board who handed out a small bottle of water and wetnap to everyone.

We departed on time and the road to Dalat was actually not a highway but more a 2-lane road. The driver was quite good although he was keen to overtake the other cars and motorbikes along the way, but it's not possible to drive too fast on this type of road anyway. Less than an hour later, we pulled into a rest stop. All announcements were in Vietnamese but I assumed as long as I kept sight of the driver and attendant, I wouldn't miss the departure.

The toilets here were clean and there was a restaurant, shop, and a river out back. It was a busy stop as other minibuses and large buses were also here for a break. Seeing my driver order a noodle to eat, I had a little time to kill.

While I fumbled to put my shoes back on, I didn't notice there was a box of flip flops in front of the door. Apparently we could've used these to enter the rest stop.

After the stop, we started climbing uphill to Dalat, which is located at 1500m above sea level. The route was scenic although the road was windy, but the trip was never uncomfortable and I gazed at the beautiful lush scenery.

As we approached closer to Dalat, I saw many greenhouses everywhere. I recall reading the city is famous for its vegetables, so these scenes make sense. I had on my itinerary to try out some of Dalat's leafy products.

We finally pulled into Dalat just 3 hours after departing Nha Trang, an incredible feat given we had a long rest stop early on. The driver didn't speed or drive wrecklessly so I was quite impressed with the ride.

Dalat's bus terminus is also out of town but not that far away, so I took another Grab to my hotel.

My first Futa experience on their nice sleeper bus was superb. I wouldn't have a problem taking this type of service on a longer and even overnight route in the country.