Buon Ma Thuot travel guide: coffee, Ede longhouses and Dray Nur falls

Sleep in the city and go out by day

Buon Ma Thuot is where the roads of the Central Highlands meet. The city portal lists National Road 27 to Da Lat by way of Lak, National Road 26 east through Ninh Hoa to Khanh Hoa and the coast, National Road 14 north to Pleiku and Kon Tum and south towards Ho Chi Minh City, and Provincial Road 1 out to Buon Don and Yok Don. That makes the city the natural base: the sights you will want are spread around it, mostly within about 40 km by the portal's reckoning, and none of them is a place you need to sleep beside.

Choose a hotel in the centre, near the Nga Sau intersection with its Victory Monument. The six-way junction has long been treated as the face of the city, and staying near it puts you close to restaurants, cafés and the taxis you will use to reach the museums. A night by Lak Lake is worth adding if you want to see the water early in the morning, or if you are going on to Da Lat anyway. Yok Don National Park runs overnight trekking and camping trips for people who want to stay in the forest.

Coffee capital: the museum, the farms and the cup

Coffee came to Vietnam with the French in 1857, but according to the Dak Lak provincial portal it was in 1914 that they chose Buon Ma Thuot for robusta, for its basalt soil and its altitude of 500 to 600 metres. The plantations around the city have grown ever since, and the province now calls itself the coffee capital of Vietnam.

The World Coffee Museum, built by Trung Nguyen Legend on almost two hectares on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, opened in November 2018. Its collection runs to more than 10,000 coffee objects from around the world, arranged as three coffee "civilisations" (Ottoman, Roman and Zen), with a café and a coffee show. When we checked on 3 October 2026, the museum's FAQ listed opening hours of 7:00 to 18:00 daily, with ticket sales pausing at 17:15, and admission of 150,000 dong for adults and 40,000 dong for children aged 7 to 12, free for under-sixes. Guided tours are offered in English, French, Chinese and Ede as well as Vietnamese, at a charge per group.

Give the museum a morning, then drink coffee the local way in the city's cafés: robusta brewed slowly through a phin filter, black or with condensed milk, hot or over ice. Trung Nguyen Coffee Village, a 20,000-square-metre garden with old coffee trees and an Ede longhouse displaying gongs and farm tools, makes a second coffee stop.

Ede longhouses, gongs and the city's history

The city's name is Ede: Buon Ama Thuot, the village of Father Thuot, the chief who founded the first settlement beside the Ea Tam stream. Ako Dhong, inside the city in what was Tan Loi ward, was the province's first village recognised for community tourism, and the provincial tourism department describes it as a 'village within a city': Ede longhouses raised on stilts, set among gardens on the edge of the city. These are family homes; ask before photographing people or going up into a house, and go with a local guide or arrange a visit if you want to see inside.

The Space of Gong Culture of the Central Highlands was recognised by UNESCO in 2005, and gongs are still at the heart of Ede ceremonies such as the water-wharf offering held after the harvest. Outside festival days you are more likely to hear them at a performance than at a ritual. The Ko Tam community eco-tourism area in the city stages gong exchanges, campfires and folk games, especially around Tet.

For background before or after the villages, the Dak Lak Museum at 2 Y Ngong Street presents the heritage of the Central Highlands peoples; it was founded in 1976 and moved into a new building in 2011. The Buon Ma Thuot Exile House at 18 Tan Thuat Street, a prison built by the French, tells the political history of the province. Either fits into the same day as the coffee museum.

Dray Nur, Buon Don and Lak Lake: one outing per day

Dray Nur is the falls to see on the Serepok River. The city portal puts it about 30 km from Buon Ma Thuot on the road towards Ho Chi Minh City, with a curtain of water about 250 metres wide dropping more than 30 metres. The World Coffee Museum sells a combined museum-and-falls offer, but you make your own way between the two, so book a car or taxi for the half day.

Buon Don, further out on Provincial Road 1, is the old elephant-hunting settlement on the Serepok, home to Lao, Ede, M'nong, J'rai and Kinh families and known for the grave house of the elephant hunter Khunjunob. Beyond it is Yok Don National Park, which protects dry deciduous dipterocarp forest over more than 115,000 hectares. The park's own tours include birdwatching, cycling, trekking and camping, a boat trip on the Serepok, a cooking class and half- or full-day elephant experiences. Buon Tri in Krong Na commune, a community-tourism village of stilt houses, showcases the area's Lao culture.

Lak Lake, at the small town of Lien Son, is one of the largest natural lakes in the Central Highlands, about 500 hectares at around 500 metres, ringed by hills and forest. M'nong families live around its shores, and the villages of Jun and M'lieng are known for longhouses, brocade weaving and gongs; the provincial portal mentions dug-out canoe trips on the water. Because the lake lies on the road to Da Lat, the easiest plan is to stop here on your way out of the province rather than make a round trip from the city.

Elephants: watch, don't ride

Elephants are Buon Don's symbol, but very few domestic animals remain: a 2023 provincial report counted only 37 in Dak Lak, many of them old, with no calf born in captivity for 30 years. The province itself is now steering visitors away from riding. Since 10 February 2023 the Buon Don suspension-bridge tourism centre has stopped elephant rides and offers feeding, bathing alongside and photographs instead, and Yok Don National Park says it was the first organisation in Vietnam to switch to elephant-friendly tourism.

Older descriptions of Lak Lake and Buon Don still mention elephant rides. Choose a no-riding experience, ask the operator how long the elephants work each day, and don't book shows where elephants are made to perform.

Getting there and moving on

Buon Ma Thuot Airport (BMV) is about 11 km south-east of the centre, according to Vietnam Airlines, roughly 20 to 25 minutes by taxi. When we checked on 3 October 2026, Vietnam Airlines listed services to Buon Ma Thuot from Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang among other domestic cities. Schedules change, so check the current timetable before planning around a particular flight.

By road, the city portal says direct coaches from Ho Chi Minh City's Mien Dong bus station take around eight hours. Da Lat is reached on National Road 27 by way of Lak Lake, the coast at Nha Trang on National Road 26 through Ninh Hoa, and Pleiku and Kon Tum on National Road 14. Since the 2025 reorganisation of provinces, Dak Lak also takes in the coast around Tuy Hoa, and a Buon Ma Thuot–Khanh Hoa expressway was under construction when the province reported on it in early 2025.

A workable two- or three-day plan

This is an editorial suggestion, not a timetable. Check opening times for each place before you go.

• Day 1 — Coffee and the city: the World Coffee Museum in the morning, a long lunch, then Ako Dhong village and the Dak Lak Museum or the Exile House in the afternoon. Dinner near Nga Sau.
• Day 2 — Falls and forest: a hired car to Dray Nur early, then on to Buon Don or a half-day tour with Yok Don National Park; back to the city for the evening.
• Day 3 — Lak Lake on the way out: leave on National Road 27, spend the morning at the lake and the M'nong villages, then continue to Da Lat or stay the night at Lien Son.