Luang Prabang, and its valley
A square kilometre of monasteries and shophouses between two rivers, with a waterfall and a weaving valley around it. The best three nights in Laos, and the busiest.
At a glance
| Region | Northern Laos, on the Mekong |
| Worth | 3 to 4 nights |
| Airport | Luang Prabang, LPQ, 4 km out, direct from Bangkok, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Singapore |
| Best months | November to February |
| Worst months | March and April, for haze |
| Altitude | around 300 m |
| Known for | Monasteries, the alms round, the Kuang Si falls, the Mekong |
What the place actually is
Luang Prabang is a peninsula about a kilometre long where the Nam Khan runs into the Mekong. On it are around thirty working monasteries, a former royal palace, and two or three hundred timber and brick shophouses from the French period, most of them now guesthouses and restaurants. UNESCO listed the whole town in 1995, and the listing is the reason the buildings are still the right height and the wrong things have not been built on the riverbank.
It is not a museum. The monasteries are full, the novices are actual novices, and the morning market on the side street sells buffalo skin and river weed to people who cook them. But it is a town of about 55,000 people that receives a very large number of visitors in December and January, and if you arrive expecting a forgotten place you will spend two days disappointed before you notice how good it is.
The other thing worth saying plainly: the town is only half of it. The Kuang Si falls, the Pak Ou caves, the weaving villages across the Nam Khan and the Mekong itself are all within 30 km, and a trip that spends two nights and only sees the peninsula has seen the smaller part.
How many nights
Three, and four is better. Here is what each one buys.
| Nights | What fits | What you miss |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The peninsula, one sunset, the night market | The falls, the river, everything outside the town |
| 2 | The above plus Kuang Si | The Mekong and Pak Ou, the weaving villages, any unscheduled time |
| 3 | Town, Kuang Si, the Mekong and Pak Ou, one free afternoon | Very little that matters |
| 4 | All of the above at a walking pace, with time for a cooking class or the arts centre | Nothing |
| 5+ | Worth it only if you use the extra days for Nong Khiaw | - |
One night is a mistake people make when they treat Luang Prabang as a stop between Thailand and Vietnam. Twelve hours of travel for a single afternoon is a poor trade.
When to come
| Months | What it is like |
|---|---|
| November - February | Dry, clear, 15 to 28 degrees, cool at night. The best months and the busiest. Book hotels three months out |
| March - April | Agricultural burning. Haze reduces visibility for weeks, sunsets and viewpoints are lost, air quality is genuinely poor in the worst weeks. Hot, 35 degrees and up. Pi Mai, Lao new year, falls in mid-April and is excellent, but it is the one reason we would send anyone in April |
| May - June | The rains start. Green, much quieter, prices down 30 per cent, and the falls come back to life |
| July - September | Wet. Heavy short downpours rather than all-day rain, and the town copes fine. The Mekong is high and brown |
| October | The best-kept secret. Rain finishing, landscape green, air clean, visitors not yet arrived |
The burning season is the one thing we would want you to plan around. It is not discussed on most operators' websites and it is the difference between the photographs you have seen and the ones you will take.
Getting here
- By air. Direct from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Singapore and Vientiane. The airport is 4 km from the peninsula, about USD 7 by taxi.
- By slow boat. Two days from Huay Xai on the Thai border, overnighting at Pakbeng. The best arrival there is, and it is the first two days of several of our trips.
- By train. The Laos-China Railway from Vientiane takes under two hours. The station is 11 km northeast of town, tickets have to be bought a few days ahead, and high-season seats sell out.
- By road from Vientiane. Around eight hours on Route 13 through Vang Vieng and Kasi, over a genuinely spectacular pass. Slower than the train and better looking.
- By road from Nong Khiaw. Three and a half hours north, which is how our trekking trip connects.
What things cost here
| Item | Typical |
|---|---|
| Guesthouse double, high season | USD 22 - 38 |
| Good small hotel double | USD 55 - 95 |
| The best rooms in town | USD 150 - 320 |
| Bowl of noodles at the morning market | USD 1.50 - 2.50 |
| Dinner at a peninsula restaurant | USD 8 - 20 per person |
| Kuang Si entrance | around USD 3 |
| Return tuk-tuk to Kuang Si, shared | USD 6 - 9 |
| Private long-tail boat to Pak Ou, half day | USD 55 - 75 for the boat |
Pictures
The alms round, honestly
At first light the monks of the town walk in line to receive rice. It is a daily religious observance, not a performance, and mass photography has done real damage to it - flash in faces, people kneeling in the line, tour groups following monks down the street.
If you want to watch: stand on the opposite side of the street, well back, no flash, and stay standing rather than kneeling. Do not buy sticky rice from the vendors who sell it to visitors to offer - the rice is often poor quality and the practice has turned an act of merit into a transaction. Watching quietly from a distance is entirely welcome. Everything else is not.
When to skip Luang Prabang
- If you have fewer than two nights. Better to spend them somewhere that does not deserve more.
- If crowds ruin things for you and you can only come in late December or early January. It is genuinely busy then.
- If you are coming in March specifically for landscape photography. The town is fine; the views are not there.
- If what you want from Laos is walking and villages. Nong Khiaw does that better and costs you three and a half hours to reach.
Tours that go here
Four of our eight trips use Luang Prabang, two of them as their base.
- Luang Prabang, 4 days - one hotel, the town and the whole valley, from USD 390.
- Mekong slow boat, 2 days - arrives here by river from the Thai border, from USD 165.
- Laos highlights, 10 days - three nights here inside the main northern route.
- Northern Laos trek, 6 days - starts and finishes here.
Questions travellers ask most
Is three nights really enough?
For the town and the two main excursions, yes. Four gives you an unscheduled afternoon, which most people end up valuing more than another sight.
Adding a fifth night is usually better spent as two nights at Nong Khiaw, three and a half hours north.
How busy is the night market?
Very, from about 18:00 in high season, and it is more textile stalls than food. The food alley behind it is better and cheaper.
If you want handicrafts rather than souvenirs, the arts centre shop and the weaving villages across the river are where to look.
Do I need a guide in the town?
Not to walk around. You do need one to understand what you are looking at - the difference between a sim and a hor kong, why Xieng Thoung's roof reaches the ground, what happened to the monarchy in 1975.
We use guides who are from the town, several of whom were novices in the monasteries they show you.
Can I swim at the Kuang Si falls?
Yes, in the lower pools, which have changing huts. The water is cold and the colour comes from dissolved limestone.
Go before 09:00 or after 15:30. Between those hours it is a queue for a photograph on a fallen tree.
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