Buon Me Thuot Coffee Festival is a festival held in Buon Me Thuot City, in Dak Lak. This is a major festival in the Central Highlands. Buon Ma Thuot Coffee Festival is held regularly every two years, usually at the beginning of the year. For any traveler who wants to explore the coffee culture of Vietnam, the coffee festival held right on the cradle of Vietnam coffee will give visitors the most authentic experience about the image of coffee farmers, the diversity of coffee and unique ethnic activities here. Check out these activities at the coffee festival to know why taking a trip to Buon Me Thuot is worthwhile.
How to get to Buon Me Thuot
Buon Ma Thuot is about 350 km away from Ho Chi Minh City, about 1,400 km away from Hanoi. You can choose to travel by road or air:
– From Ho Chi Minh City: If you go by bus, it will take you about 7-8 hours. Tickets can be purchased at Eastern bus station for about 220,000 – 380,000 VND in one way with many trips during the day.
In addition, you can choose direct flights of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar for about 2-3 million VND round-trips. It only takes about an hour to fly in Buon Ma Thuot.
– From Hanoi: you can buy air tickets of Vietnam Airlines, Vietjet Air, Jetstar for about 4-5 million VND round-trips. The flight from Hanoi to Buon Ma Thuot lasts about 1h45 minutes.
The airport is about 15 km from the city center, there are many taxis taking you to the city. You may call your hotel for a pickup taxi so that you don’t need to pay fees.
photo by: Hoang Minh Tuan
What to do in the coffee festival
1. Coffee and Book Walking Street
The Buon Ma Thuot coffee and book walking street, about 100 meters long, is located in the alley No. 2 of Phan Chu Trinh street, to Nguyen Tat Thanh street – behind the Cathedral of Buon Ma Thuot.
2. Coffee World Museum
Located on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Tan Loi Ward, Buon Ma Thuot, the museum is a model with modernity combined with unique indigenous character, with the architecture based on familiar space characterized by long, big and beautiful communal houses of the sacred Highlands. This place is an exhibition space of coffee artifacts in the world.
Source: @db.anh
3. Elephant racing festival in Buon Don
Location: Krong Na Commune, Buon Don District.
Elephant racing festival has outstanding activities such as praying for elephants’ health; recreating the scene of hunting and taming wild elephants; The makeup contest for elephants; Elephant marching; The Elephant racing competition; Buffet for Elephants; Elephant Football; Swimming competition. Backpackers will have a chance to ride on the elephant with the natives there. This will surely be an unforgettable experience for visitors to come here.
4. Food contest in Ko Tam eco-tourism area
Ko Tam resort is 8 km from Buon Ma Thuot City center, located right on highway 26, 789 Pham Van Dong, Tan Hoa, Buon Ma Thuot City. The Central Highlands Food Contest will give visitors a glimpse of the highland cuisine, enjoying the wonderful flavors characteristics here. Besides, visitors can learn about the Central Highlands cultural diversity and many identities. In particular, all the architectural works in the tourist area are built with bamboo and wood, which looks impressive and fancy. Travelers can experience “thung” boat in an artificial fishing lake.
Photo by: Kotam Ecotourism
5. Exhibitions of coffee and other Vietnamese brands
These exhibitions are often open at Biet Dien Museum, in Buon Ma Thuot City. These exhibitions are regarded as opening space in combination with coffee culture and natural space. Visitors can see the photo exhibition “44 years of Victory in Buon Ma Thuot – Historical journeys” and enjoy free coffee. At the same time, there are more than 1,000 objects and images of cultural heritage values of Tay Nguyen ethnic groups, attracting the attention of tourists when coming to Dak Lak.
6. Street Parade
Tourists will enjoy a colorful and vibrant festival atmosphere with the participation of local and foreign artists. The street festival is characterized by parades of floats, dragon-dancing shows, elephants walking with a coffee symbol, Gong performance, and other cultural performances. The street art programs also re-show the journey of more than 100 years of coffee beans sprouting on the red soil, experiencing many ups and downs and exploding, captivating, and spreading out. The festival is the way of connecting coffee lovers all over the world.
You can find more place to visit in Central Vietnam form our Recommendations.
