The Crazy House in Dalat is definitely the weirdest house you will see in Vietnam. You can visit this house or even better, stay here overnight. Because besides a tourist attraction, it is also a guesthouse. The actual name is Hang Nga Guesthouse. Mix Gaudi with Alice in Wonderland and you will end up with this weird house. It opens an exploration to surrealism in an crazy artistic private home. Image sculpted rooms connected by bridges, tangling of greenery including jungle vines, lot of colors and spiderweb windows.
About Hang Nga Crazy House
Crazy House is the work of Mrs Dang Viet Nga, the daughter of the late General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh. Hang Nga is a famous Vietnamese architect and artist. She got her architecture PhD in Moscow and has designed several other buildings in and around Dalat. One of her first works was the ‘House with 100 Roofs’. This building was burned down because the People’s Committee thought it looked anti socialist.
She started the Dalat Crazy House project in 1990, to bring people closer to the nature. She found that the nature and the environment have been destroyed too much by humans. For this reason she wanted to bring people closer to nature and to be more friendly with it and to love it; not just to make full use of it. She started from scratch and there were times that Mrs Dang Viet Nga run out of money. Here she got the idea to start selling tickets to visit the house.
The intention was to make it fairy tale like house. The tunnel-shaped stairways, uneven windows and bridges between the buildings resemble the “Crazy House”. You can see in both the interior and the exterior a lot of twisting forms and almost no straight angles.
The hollow tree rises in different directions all the way above the Crazy House complex. You can walk over the bridges, through cave-shaped hallways and get lost in the maze. There are ways to go all the way up, giving you an overview over the complete complex. As Dalat Crazy House is actually a hotel, you can see the rooms while wandering around. They all have different themes and are decorated according to the theme, such as the tiger room, bamboo room and ant room.
The garden of Crazy House is also very impressive, with many trees and plants. There are some places were you can sit down to relax. There is also a small cafe were you can get drinks, such as smoothies, coffee and snacks.
The dad of Mrs Dang Viet Nga was Ho Chi Minh’s successor, serving as Vietnam’s second president from 1981 until his death in 1988. You can find a shrine to him in the lounge on the ground-floor.
Visiting Dalat Crazy House
The Crazy House is easily accessible, just over 1.5 kilometers outside Dalat city center. Every taxi driver knows the house. Certainly with children, the house is great to visit. You need about an half hour to an hour to see everything in Dalat Crazy House and to get lost in the maze of pathways through the different levels and sections of the compound.
Opening hours
time spending
- Opening hours:
Entrance price
- Adult: 50,000 VND
- Children under 1,40m: 20,000 VND
- Children under 1,20m: Free
How to get there
The Dalat Crazy House is around 1.5 km from the city center. You can either get their by bicycle, motorbike or walking. Every taxi driver in Dalat knows the place too.
Location: So 3 Duong Huynh Thuc Khang, Phuong 4, Dalat
Staying overnight in Hang Nga Guesthouse
You can visit the house, but you can stay overnight. Because besides a tourist attraction, it is also just a guesthouse. There are ten themed rooms, such as the tiger room, eagle room and the termite room. All rooms are decorated according to the theme and decorated with handmade furniture. The rooms are connected by narrow bridges, surrounded by a swirling of greenery. Overnight stay prices start from 45 dollar per night per night for a double room.
The rooms
- Termite room: Located at ground leven, with views to the Crazy House building. It has a Queen size bed, a fireplace and a private bathroom.
- Bamboo room: Inspired by Asian bamboo forests, it features a fire place and a private bathroom.
- Kangaroo room:Views to the garden and Crazy House building. It has a Queen size bed, a fireplace and private bathroom.
- Bear room: Views to the garden and has a queen size bed, fireplace and a private bathroom.
- Ant room: The room is halfway sank into the ground, with view and the garden. It has a Queen size bed and a private bathroom.
- Gourd room: Spacious room with balcony on the top floor with nice views. It has a Queen size bed, a fireplace and a private bathroom with bathtub.
- Tiger room: Located in the second floor, with garden view. It has 2 Queen size beds, with fireplace and private bathroom.
- Pheasant room: A big room, divided in 2 floors, for guests the like to enjoy their space, with skylights on the ceiling and a fireplace in the living space.
- Land Eagle room: A large room with balcony and views to the garden of Crazy House, with 2 Queen size beds, a fireplace and a private bathroom with a 2 persons bathtub.
