The rhythm of Ho Chi Minh City is pervasive. Motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks and bicycles buzz in an incessant swarm, horns sounding as they crisscross, zigzag, dart in front of and behind each other like a loom come to manic life. It’s a city where the horn never sleeps. After a few hectic days of shopping, restaurants and sightseeing, respite is called for.

For travellers to old Saigon, the French hill station of Dalat was the original escape, situated on a plateau surrounded by rolling hills in the central highlands. Discovered by Westerners in the late 19th century, its popularity as a travel destination took off with the completion of the Dalat Palace Hotel (then called the Langbian) in 1922.

Today the Dalat Palace, now a Sofitel, is still the epicentre of what was known as Le Petit Paris. Beyond the hotel’s white colonial facade and dark wooden reception area, a grand staircase frames the foyer’s leather lounges and carved fireplace. The whisper-quiet staff members are ever-attentive.

Paintings abound in the hotel, homages to more than 500 European masterworks by Vietnamese copycat artists.

There’s no doubt the hotel is something of a fantasy, but it’s fun to savour the Parisian embellishments and envisage what it would have been like here in the 1920s.

Sofitel Dalat Palace’s underground tavern, Larry’s Bar, features roughly hewn stone walls, dim lights and an assortment of lounges, armchairs and small tables. Peanuts and a game of pool are discretionary but a fine way to start the evening. The hotel’s restaurant, Le Rabelais, is a beautiful sanctuary of fine crystal and china, chandeliers, an enormous open fireplace, grand piano, brocade-covered chairs and heavy silk curtains.

It’s easy to lose oneself in the illusion of vintage Paris, with Dalat’s distant traffic transformed into the twinkling lights of the Seine. Dalat is known for its fine fruit, vegetables and flowers; 80 per cent of the hotel’s produce is sourced in the vicinity.

Dalat’s central market is less than a 10-minute walk from the hotel; it’s a double-storey concrete structure where buckets and buckets of locally grown blooms are sold. Visit in December and you may come across the annual flower festival.

The town is now less a tranquil backwater than a mixed bag of French, Western and Vietnamese influences, but it’s still surrounded by natural scenery and there are plenty of tour options.

A must see is the Bao Dai’s Summer Palace, a 1930s villa from which the last emperor of Vietnam ruled for several years, and Robin Hill, where a 2.5km cable car ride provides overarching views of the area, before reaching a pagoda and lake.

Other sights here include the the Datanla waterfall; from the drop-off point it’s a 15-minute walk through bush to the base of the cascading falls. The Ethnic Museum of Lam Dong province, an uninspiring building that houses a small but interesting exhibition of jewellery, artefacts, weavings and costumes, is also worth a visit.

From healing climes to today’s health spas, Life Resort’s Quy Nhon hideaway, northeast of Dalat, is one of four properties the company operates in Vietnam with three more due by the end of 2009.

The resort is hemmed in by dense foliage and a lovely stretch of beach; the lemongrass and ginger tea offered on arrival is a perfect restorative from the humidity. Life Resort’s cavernous reception features leather lounges and armchairs beneath traditional woven and beamed ceilings. Trays of oils – relaxing, refreshing, detoxifying – reinforce the health message.

There are concertina glass-panelled doors throughout the complex that transform every room into an open-air space, with ocean breezes and views of the blue horizon.

All rooms have ocean views, so the highlight here is the fresh-air option: glass-panelled doors open from the room on to a huge balcony facing the water and offshore islands. There’s also a lovely glass-panelled shower overlooking the beach.

A hillside bungalow houses the resort’s spa where a wide selection of treatments is available, including facials, body wraps and flower baths. Vietnamese, Thai, hot stone, aromatherapy and Swedish massage options can be booked as two, four or six-hand treatments.

The four-hand Vietnamese massage, is an exercise in utter symmetry, with two practitioners simultaneously working either side of the body, from toe tips to temples. There are open-air massage huts here or bungalow rooms; lovely views, soft music and distant waves lull guests to blissful relaxation.