Host, meets guests at the gate · at Nhà Sương since 2022
Trương Minh Tuệ, host and author of the local guide
I don't tell people Đà Lạt is beautiful. I tell them how many steps it is from the gate, how cold a December night gets, and what a Saturday night costs.
Grew up in Đà Lạt, guided visitors for 12 years, counts the steps and measures the roads himself.
Tuệ owns Nhà Sương and is usually the first person you meet: he is at the gate when your car pulls up, he points you up the 46 stone steps to the lounge, and Vinh follows with the bags. The timber house on the slope belonged to his family. In 2022 he divided it into eight rooms and opened it to guests.
What he does at the house
Tuệ grew up in Đà Lạt and spent 12 years as a guide before opening the house. The guide’s habits stayed. He counts steps himself, measures roads on his phone, and only writes down a number he has measured or can link to a source. The step counts on each room page are his: 46 from the gate to the lounge, then between 12 (Thông Nhỏ, Little Pine; Bếp Nhỏ, Kitchen Room) and 30 (Phòng Sương, Mist Suite) from the lounge to the room door.
He does not do general praise of the city. Ask him where to go and he will ask you back: what time, by car or motorbike, and how you feel about hills. Then he points.
What guests ask him
- Which room shows the mist best. Phòng Sương: the top-floor corner, glass on two sides over the valley. He also says that mist depends on the morning, and the house does not promise it.
- Which room has the fewest steps. Thông Nhỏ and Bếp Nhỏ, 12 steps from the lounge. There is no step-free route to any room, and he would rather you knew before paying a deposit.
- When to come and for how long. He sends the month-by-month piece and the three-day plan, then asks whether you mind cold or rain more.
What he has written
- Đà Lạt month by month: mist, flowers, rain and room rates
- Choosing a Đà Lạt homestay: six questions before you pay a deposit
- Three days in Đà Lạt from Hoàng Hoa Thám street
- What a real pine view is
- Đà Lạt in the rainy season
- The vintage train to Trại Mát
Why the house became eight rooms, and why every rate is published, is on our story. The other three people are on the team page.
A day at the house
- 07:00Opens the front desk with Ngân and reads the list of who arrives and who leaves today.
- 09:30Counts steps, measures roads with his phone and photographs paths for the guide. Only numbers he measured go in.
- 14:00Waits at the gate for arriving guests and walks the 46 stone steps up to the lounge with them.
- 21:30Walks round the house before quiet hours start at 22:00.