A Guide to Luang Prabang

In this post, you will find a report of my holiday in Luang Prabang in Laos, with practical advice and recommendations on where to stay, what to see, where to go and how to get there. Although I am a digital nomad who is working and travelling at the same time, I didn’t do any online work in Laos. One reason is that I felt I needed a holiday, and the other reason is that I was afraid that internet connection would not be very good in the country. This latter turned out to be wrong – I could use the internet in Luang Prabang without any problem. Although there may be power cuts, so I am not sure if digital nomads would be able to do online work in the country without problems.

After Luang Prabang, I went to two beautiful villages in the Nam Ou river north of Luang Prabang. You can read about them in this other post.

1 What/where is Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a town in North-western Laos. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site mainly due to its wonderful architectural heritage.

Although not the largest, Luang Prabang (very often shortened to LP by people who want to show off their insider knowledge of Laos) is certainly the most important city for tourists. A trip to Laos is simply not complete without Luang Prabang, and you must shape your itinerary in a way so that you can include it somehow. It is one of those places in Southeast Asia that most visitors will remember for a very long time.

2. Getting to Laos

2.1 From Hanoi to Luang Prabang

I was travelling to Laos from Hanoi in Vietnam. There is this infamous bus ride on this route, which an awful lot of budget backpackers have already used over the years, and all of them seem to be reporting about it as a “special adventure”. It is incredibly long, it is incredibly uncomfortable, and incredibly cheap – this latter being the only feature of this option that makes so many people try it anyway.

When I looked at prices of flight tickets for this route, I was seriously considering the bus ride. But then I said to myself: you’re on holiday, for God’s sake, you can’t be such a pathetic miser 😀! So I went ahead and booked a flight with Vietnam Airlines for 3.603.000 dong, which is about 140 euros. This is of course a lot of money compared to other prices you would pay in this part of the world, but it was OK. (I was a little worried about this stupid Dr title in my passport, which had caused a lot of trouble for me earlier, but there was no problem this time.)

2.2 Visa to Laos

Buying a visa to Laos is very easy and straightforward. Most of us can buy a visa on arrival at the airport and at land border crossings, too. It will cost you between 30 and 45 US dollars depending on your nationality. You must pay USD in cash only – so be prepared for that, although there is an ATM at the arrival hall, but you can never be sure that it will be functioning and/or your card will be accepted. The visa is valid for 30 days.

2.3 From Luang Prabang airport to the city

The Luang Prabang airport is very near the centre of town. Use the official taxi counter at the airport, where you can also book a shared taxi. Buses are also available, although these are not public buses, but chartered ones, and you can also book at the taxi counter. Expect to pay less than 10 dollars for a ride to any hotel in town.

3. An overview of Luang Prabang

Luang Prapang is actually a collection of small villages. This is quite visible in the centre, where walking down the streets you will have the feeling that you are indeed in a village. The centre of the town (I am a bit reluctant to call it a city) has a wonderful atmosphere, is very quiet and there is very little traffic, so walking can really be enjoyable. And then of course, there is the Mekong river right in the centre of town, with cafés all along the riverside, most of which are actually built over the water. There are buildings only on one of the river banks, the other one is occupied by thick jungle – and plantations of course.

I am glad that I arrived in Luang Prabang during the daytime, and so my first impressions were really very positive. I am only saying this because Laos being a very poor country, there are very few streetlamps in Luang Prabang. The main street is lit up all right, but it is because all the shops and restaurants are open, and they have their own lights turned on. If you go a little further out, you will find streets in complete darkness. Keep this in mind and bring a torch with you. This is recommended not only for Laos but an electric torch should be a basic travel gadget wherever you go.

4. Sights in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang doesn’t offer an awful lot of famous sights, and most of them are right in the centre of town, walking distance from any hotel or guest house that most tourists choose.

4.1 The Royal Palace

The Royal Palace (also known as Haw Kham) was built for King Sisavang Vong in 1904. It is very near the Mekong river, but not directly on the bank. After the king was overthrown, the building was converted to a museum. It is an attractive building even if you don’t like museums, and since it is right at the end of the main street, it is practically impossible to miss it. For a good view of the whole building, climb up the hill opposite the palace – which you will do anyway, if you want to climb Mount Phou Si (see below).

Entry to the museum is 30.000 kip, and no photos or videos are allowed inside.

4.2 Mount Phou Si

Another favourite and must-do, and also in the centre of Luang Prabang, is Mount Phou Si. It is a hill on top of which there is a buddhist temple. The temple is nothing special, but the view from the top is gorgeous. Most people will visit to see the sunset. At this time, there will be so many people there, that it is less than enjoyable, and the sunset – well, I have seen much more beautiful sunsets elsewhere.

After you have climbed up a little on the hill, there will be a ticket office, where you will have to pay an entrance fee of 20.000 kip. Should you be stopped by an individual before the ticket office, just ignore them and walk on. You will clearly recognise the ticket office, it looks official, with a gate and staff.

4.3 Temples in Luang Prabang

There are a few temples in Luang Prabang, but my absolute favourite is Wat Manorom, which is a bit further away from the centre, to the west (look it up on Google Maps).

4.4 Botanical Gardens

There is a botanical garden not far from the centre of town, but you will have to take a boat to get there and back to town. It gets very good reviews online, but I found the 25 USD ticket price too high, and because I have seen innumerable botanical gardens and real jungles all over Southeast Asia, I decided to spend that money on other things instead. However, if you are not so familiar with local plants and flowers, and have not much experience in the jungle, then this could be a very good opportunity.

5. Things to do in Luang Prabang

There are few sights in the town, and a day or two will be enough to see them all. However, I think that staying longer is perfectly worth it. I know there a lot of people for whom travelling is a continuous rush and ticking sights off an (imaginary or actually existing) to-do list. If you are one of them, Luang Prabang will be just a day or two for you. If, however, you are more interested in spending a good time in a new place, you may well spend there much longer than that. But how can you spend your time in Luang Prabang? Here are a few ideas to help.

5.1 Witness Tak Bat, the early morning alms giving

One popular “tourist sight” is the early morning alms walk (Tak bat in Lao), when the monks walk along the streets and collect food for the day. This happens at around 5am, when it is still dark – and very cold! Some of the tourists behave really indecently, and they really take it as a circus stunt, almost pushing the monks so that they could take a good photo of them. Please be respectful, and if you decide to watch it live on the spot, stand somewhere further from the monks and the people who are waiting for them on the roadside. Further advice is given by one of the temples in Luang Prabang, and you can read it in this photo:

5.2 Walking

Walk along the main street. You will notice which is the main street, but the name is Sisavangvong Road. It is the centre of action in Luang Prabang. The street is lined with tourist shops, restaurants, bars, banks and money changers. One part of the street (towards the Royal Palace) becomes the night market every night, but there is a market at the western end of the street during the day, too, which is open during the daytime, too.

Walk along the bank of the Mekong and have coffee or dinner in one of the riverside cafés. All of them have great views over the river, and most of them have good coffee. Lao coffee is famous. If you like it after you have tasted it, you can buy some ground coffee either at the night market, or go to one of the larger shops in King Kitsalath road – or anywhere really, but escape the tourist shops on the main street. This could also be true for dining out: prices are much higher along the Royal Palace road than just a little further away.

I had this wonderful experience in one of the small eateries outside of the “tourist ghetto”, when the waiter (or the owner?) shared his food with me. Read about it in this other post.

5.3 Volunteer to participate in a spoken English class

There is one other interesting programme for those who are interested. There is a language school in Luang Prabang called Big Brother Mouse, which invites any foreigner who volunteers to have a chat with some of their students. I was actually planning to fond this place, because I had read about it on some of the online forums, and when I arrived in Luang Prabang, I completely forgot about it. And then, when I was walking around not far from my guesthouse, I suddenly saw a sign of Big Brother Mouse.

There was an Australian man, a staff member, I suppose, who asked me if I felt like talking to one of their students. Of course I did. The student was so interested in my opinion just about anything from world politics to social problems to linguistics, that when we finished, I was shocked to see that I had spent two whole hours there, talking to this guy. By this time, it was already dark, and I was also shocked to see that there were no street lamps anywhere. So I had to find my way back to my hotel in almost complete darkness. Big Brother Mouse is in Phayameungchan Road, very near the touristic centre of town.

5.4 Shopping and markets

The night market is on Sisavangvong Road, the one where you can find the Royal Palace. It is quite a long street, and is full of tourist stuff, but also other goods that you may be interested in. Prices are OK, and you can always haggle of course (which for me, is always a pain in the neck – read more about it in this post).

There is also a day market, which caters to local people, and sells vegetables, meat and other interesting stuff. But it is also prepared for the occasional tourist with dried fruit, coffee beans and other delicacies. This is also very near the Royal Palace, just walk around and you will find it.

If you want modern shopping experience, you will need to leave the downtown tourist ghetto not too far, really just leave behind the few streets in the downtown, and you will find a completely different city, with modern buildings and shops. Go to Kingkitsarath Rd, where you can find both a supermarket and a mall. If you walk further, you will find every kind of other shops – I for example, had a problem finding a Lao flag (I never leave a foreign country without buying the national flag there). No tourist shops had anything like that – and then I found a household store (King Kitsalat road), where they had it in various sizes and quality.

6. Practical info about Luang Prabang

6.1 Money and banks

Should you need to change money, there are a lot of money changers in the touristic part of the town, especially along the night market street. Some of them are not reliable, though. You can read stories on Tripadvisor about how people were cheated badly. I used one right at the corner of the market street near Café Sinouk, and that was OK. There are also banks, but not all of them change money.

6.2 Accommodation in Luang Prabang

I booked a room at the Kinnaly Place, which for the price I paid, was surprisingly good. Breakfast included, and I had a large comfortable room. As an extra, I also had a balcony! From this balcony, you can actually see the early morning alms procession of the monks. If you are able to wake up for it, that is. But one very positive thing is that you don’t have to go out to the street to see them. Breakfast was served either in the small lobby or on the patio, actually the terrace on the street – a wonderful setting for me.

There are a lot of other guest houses both in this neighbourhood and around central Luang Prabang for every possible budget. Prices start as low as 7 USD a night, up to the really high quality options, so I am almost sure that you can easily find accommodation that fits your needs and your budget. Use this map below to find the one you like on Booking.com:

Are you a digital nomad? Read about my recommendations on choosing accommodation in this post.

6.3 Food and drinks

It all depends of course on your personal taste and preferences, but for me, Lao food is not only excellent, but one of the best in Southeast Asia. Above, I talked about the night market, where you can buy T-shirts and coffee and whatnot.

But the good thing about night markets is that they always have lots of food options too. This is no different in Luang Prabang. There is also a separate side street near the Royal Palace, which only has food stalls. Great prices (no haggling this time), and really delicious food. One dish that I especially loved was khao soi (sometimes spelled kho soy). This is a soup with ground meat (usually pork), rice noodles and lots of other yummy things. Delicious! You an also find khao soi in the north of Thailand. In Chiang Mai, for example, but it will be a different type there, which is also very good, but for me, nothing compares to the Lao khao soi. I had a favourite food stall already, where they prepared the soup in front of your eyes from the ready-made ingredients.

There are quite a few restaurants and beer bars along the night market street, and most of them come to life after dark. But then, they may sometimes become full very early. You can have very reasonably priced food and drinks in these places, and sitting outside watching the people walking by was one of my favourite activities 😀. Don’t expect a lot of local guests though – I suppose they are either too touristic or perhaps too expensive for them – but you can certainly socialize with other travellers and tourists even if you are travelling solo, like I did.

7. Where next?

On my two-week holiday in Laos, I started in Luang Prabang, and then went to two villages on the Nam Ou river in the north. Both of them were some of the nicest and most unforgettable experiences that I have had in Southeast Asia, so I can highly recommend them to anyone. The first is Nong Khiaw, and the second is an even smaller village further north, Muang Ngoi. Have a look at this post to read about how to get there and what to see and do in those villages.