Cost: $2 USD

Duration: 1-2 hours

Commute: 45 minutes

Elephant Falls (or Thác Voi) is my favorite waterfall in the region around Da Lat. It is huge and majestic to look at, and you are able to descend and climb around the rocky bottom area and get right up next to (and under) the thundering falls. This is my complete guide for the waterfall.

HOW TO GET THERE

The falls are about a 45 minute drive from the Da Lat city center. I recommend renting a motorbike as it is by far the cheapest option (it is around $6 USD a day to rent a bike), but taking a bus or cab are also easy options. To get there, we navigated to the Linh An Pagoda and the gate for the waterfall was directly to the left of the Pagoda entry area. 

ENTRANCE

When we arrived to the Elephant Falls gates, they were closed. However, a local man from across the street offered to open the gates for us for 50 thousand dong ($2 USD) each. He led us around the cameras near the gate to the cliff edge overlooking the falls, and he waited for us at the top to let us out at the end. We met plenty of other people at the bottom of the falls who had entered from another side, and they had paid a similar fee.

GETTING UNDERNEATH THE WATERFALL

The paths led down the cliff next to the falls to the bottom of the river. The narrow path down the cliff was mostly steps that were easy enough to follow, but at the bottom there were areas where the path kind of broke and we had to climb around the rocks a little bit.

The path let out at the river beneath the falls, and we climbed over the rocks towards the falls looking for good photo spots. After exploring for a bit, we decided to turn back because the rocks directly in front of the falls were too slippery to navigate. However we did find a way to get underneath the waterfall, through the boulders off to the right of the path right before it ascended the cliff. We climbed into a cave-like area that opened into the falls. It was so cool walking beneath the falls as it thundered down around us.