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At an altitude of over 1,000m, Tam Dao was once home to over 200 French villas, a collection of hotels and restaurants, a swimming pool and even a dance auditorium all coming together to form northern Vietnam's first hill station and health spa. Today, while the pool may be empty and the 1920's ball gowns off the scene, Tam Dao retains an element of charm and a welcome respite from the oft-well heated plains below, over which Tam Dao offers some splendid views.
The area offers some easy hiking in and around its tree-covered summit, and while some of the trails tend to see more goats than backpack-wielding tourists, the hill station is popular with Vietnamese tourists, so weekends can be busy -- if you want the place to yourself, try for a weekday jaunt.
The national park itself is a cool pine forest with walking trails leading off on numerous hikes around its crown. Hiking trips can be organised from hotels with local guides up to the three peaks. Recent reports suggest that wildlife is returning to the area after long periods of depletion due to slash and burn farming and hunting. Notably, the hawk and white collar crow, previously thought to be extinct, are now literally flocking to the park. Larger wildlife such as deer, boar and weasel have appeared again though the chances of seeing them while hiking are extremely slim.
To satisfy the hordes of domestic tourists, who largely come for the cooler climate and blaring karaoke, there's a reasonable amount of development and construction going on -- when this will settle down remains unclear.
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