All major streets in Vietnam’s tourist highland city of Da Lat were packed with vehicles on Thursday, the last day of the seven-day Tet break (2023 Lunar New Year) as so many personal cars and passenger vans traveled to the city.

The traffic jams were serious as so many vehicles entered the city center even though the number of visitors during this Tet was not too big compared to last year’s edition, as noted by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters.

Tran Manh Son, a visitor from Ho Chi Minh City, told Tuoi Tre that it took him nearly an hour to drive his family in his car for a distance of about three kilometers from a hotel on Trieu Viet Vuong Street to Tran Hung Dao Street.

“Cars and larger vehicles were overloaded everywhere, so many cars inched a bit, as slow as walking,” Son said.   

The area of Xuan Huong Lake was constantly congested from 8:30 am to 11:00 am, and the same situation was recorded in many other sites, including the city’s flower garden, the Ong Dao Bridge, the Da Lat market roundabout, and the intersection of Dinh Tien Hoang, Tran Quoc Toan, and Bui Thi Xuan Streets.

Police officers were deployed on many streets to regulate traffic and guide vehicles to change their directions to avoid entering the ways leading to traffic jam sites.

Vinh, the driver of a 50-seater long-haul bus, said he picked up passengers on Hoang Van Thu Street but could not drive them to Domaine Church on Ngo Quyen Street because of the serious congestion that had lasted for more than an hour.

He added his passengers wanted to change their destination to avoid the jam but he failed to turn the bus to any other directions to get out of the congested site.

“Now I can do nothing but wait for the congestion to ease,” Vinh said.

Nguyen Hung Minh, a long-haul bus driver, said he drove passengers to Da Lat on Tuesday and has since witnessed such traffic jams at the city’s gateways.

The Da Lat administration blamed the serious congestion on personal cars and long-haul buses that had come to this tourist destination, which is the capital city of Lam Dong Province in the Central Highlands region. 

Such traffic jams have partly affected the quality of tours to Da Lat, local authorities said.

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