Buon Ma Thuot travel guide

Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam

By the Travel Wiki editorial team

Buon Ma Thuot

Introduction

Buôn Ma Thuột is the capital of Đắk Lắk Province in Vietnam's Central Highlands, and the largest city in the region. You'll find it known above all for its coffee culture, which shapes the character of the place.

Before you go

Buon Ma Thuot is a city that is developing quickly, though most of that growth comes from internal investment rather than tourism. As a result, you will find very few tourist sites here. What you will find is friendly people and great coffee, and a stop is well worth it if you want to get off the beaten track and see Vietnamese city life that does not revolve around tourism. The city also works well as a base of operations. From here you can visit Yok Don National Park, Ban Don Village, and Lak Lake, so plan your time around those excursions rather than around sights in the city itself.

Getting there

Buon Ma Thuot sits on the Central Highlands, reachable by air, road and long-distance bus. The city's airport (BMV) is about 10 km from the centre and served by taxi; it has daily flights to Ho Chi Minh City and connections to Danang and Hanoi (via Danang) three times a week.

By road, Buon Ma Thuot is 194 km from Nha Trang, 197 km from Pleiku, 223 km from Qui Nhon, 213 km from Dalat, 350 km from Ho Chi Minh City and 1427 km from Hanoi. Long-distance buses run from Danang and Ho Chi Minh City (departing from Mien Dong Bus Station), with several daily services to Pleiku and Danang (stopping in Pleiku), Qui Nhon (11 hours), Nha Trang (6 hours) and Ho Chi Minh City (18 hours). Mai Linh Express runs hunter green Mercedes Sprinters that cut travel times considerably, even with short meal breaks — the run to Nha Trang takes about 3½ hours and departs four times daily. The main bus station is 3 km east of the centre; Dak Lak central bus station is on Nguyễn Chí Thanh and the Southern bus station is on Võ Văn Kiệt in Ea Tam. You can also book through online platforms such as vexere.com and redbus.vn, but beware of scams and fake hotlines, which can charge high call fees and waste your time.

Getting around

Buôn Ma Thuột sits on flat highland terrain and is compact enough that walking and cycling cover much of the centre, where cafés, markets and main sights cluster within easy reach. A bike rental service called BEAgo operates in the city, and motorbikes and cars can also be rented — check before renting whether your driver's licence is valid in Vietnam.

Where to stay

Most of Buon Ma Thuot's places to stay cluster in and around the city centre, which puts you within walking distance of the night market and the surrounding restaurant strip. Ngoc Mai Guesthouse sits right in the heart of town, a short stroll from the night market, with air-conditioned rooms, televisions, indoor parking for motorbikes, and staff who speak English and French. Thanh Ngoc, out near km 3, is a small hotel with air-con, TV and notably friendly, helpful owners, and it also offers indoor motorbike parking.

If you'd rather stay close to your onward transport, Huong Khue is right next to the bus station on Ngo Gia Tu, a road with several other hotels to choose from. Rooms here are simple but clean, the staff are helpful and friendly though their English is limited, and you can either take a local bus into the centre or walk there in about twenty minutes.

Food & drink

Buon Ma Thuot has a solid eating scene that the guidebooks tend to undersell. Wander northwest of the main roundabout and you'll find a good cluster of street stalls and small restaurants serving tasty standards such as hủ tiếu, phở, bún, cơm and nem. Nearby Ly Thuong Kiet is the spot for roll-your-own spring roll joints. For a very tasty cơm hến, the Hue speciality, head to the simple-looking place across the street from the Co-op Mart that also advertises bún bò Huế — walk past the shabby front room into a spectacular little back home with a garden, birds and an internal waterfall. If you really need it, there's a KFC in the Co-op Mart building.

Coffee, coffee, coffee. Buon Ma Thuot is the coffee capital of Vietnam, and cafes sit on every street corner, most of them spectacular, with many offering several varieties of bean and roast. Standouts include Emerald's Cafe in Tan Loi and, just east of town, Trung Nguyen's flagship coffee gardens — a pleasure garden with man-made mountains and a waterfall, lined with coffee trees and featuring both traditional Viet and Ede designed buildings. Trung Nguyen's flagship restaurant serves coffee, drinks and food amid gardens, an artificial cave and a pond, and you can buy beans or ground coffee to take away. Mehyco cafe, belonging to a coffee manufacturing company, has another nice garden. It's very difficult to find a bad cup. Also drink the local brew, ruou can.

What to see and do

For a sense of the area's E-de heritage, head to Ako Dhong, an E-de community on the northern edge of town that is reachable on foot, though it's worth asking directions first. Longhouses set among flowery yards give it the feel of what you might call longhouse suburbia rather than a village, since it now sits within the city. Further out, the waterfalls are the main draw: Dray Nur, about 30 km away by taxi, is impressive and especially recommended in the wet season, while Đray Sáp sits roughly 300 m from it and is less dramatic in the dry season but still an interesting area to explore. On the way to Lak Lake, the mother lake of the Central Highlands, you can stop at Lady Jiangshan for sweeping views from the hilltop and from halfway up. To the northwest, Ban Don village makes an easy outing: buses leave from the centre roughly every half hour, and waiting at Coop Mart gives you a better chance of a seat, since the bus otherwise tends to be full. Note that elephant riding there has been discontinued. Back in town, coffee is the other thing to seek out — Eatu Café, a fair-trade coffee cooperative and manufacturer in Ko Tam village, is open for visits.

Three days in Buon Ma Thuot

Day one: Base yourself in Buôn Ma Thuột and get your bearings in the city. Nguyễn Chí Thanh is the main street for food and coffee, while Võ Văn Kiệt and Ea Tam are the other central strips worth wandering. Buon Ma Thuot is the coffee capital of the Central Highlands, so spend your first hours in a café watching the city go about its business. In the evening, eat Vietnamese food along Nguyễn Chí Thanh.

Day two: Head out to Yok Don National Park, the largest protected area in Dak Lak, for a day of forest and wildlife. Ban Don Village sits nearby and is known for its traditional wooden stilt houses and for being a centre of elephant handling in the Central Highlands. Return to Buôn Ma Thuột in the evening.

Day three: Make the trip south to Lak Lake in Lắk Province, a quiet freshwater lake surrounded by villages and hills. Lắk Central Bus Station connects the area, and you can reach the lake from Buôn Ma Thuột by road. If you are continuing onward, Buôn Ma Thuột Airport has flights, and long-distance buses run to Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Hanoi, Nha Trang, Pleiku, Qui Nhon and Dalat. Mien Dong Bus Station in Ho Chi Minh City is the southern hub, with Mai Linh Express and Mercedes Sprinters among the options, and Mai Linh taxis are available in town.

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