The spectacular ancient and religious town of Luang Prabang in Laos has long been on the tourist trail, and for good reason. With more than 20 years of UNESCO status backing it up, this small and beguiling town, surrounded by mountains and crammed with beautifully preserved French colonial buildings exudes a safe sort of upmarket charm. If that wasn’t already enough, the town also has 33 shimmering golden Buddhist temples, a languid Mekong riverside setting, an important craft scene and a multitude of vibrant cafes and restaurants catering for an international crowd.

Although not really off the beaten track, in our opinion, a visit to Luang Prabang should be on any Laos itinerary. It’s a town for wandering, meandering, browsing, indulging and enjoying, so kick back and relax already!

Where to stay

When people refer to Luang Prabang, they mostly mean the peninsula formed by the Nam Khan River draining into the much larger Mekong. It is here that the most aesthetically pleasing and historic accommodation is situated, but guess what, it’s mostly boutique quality and prices. To fit our budget, we chose stay slightly off the peninsula, but our hostel was really only 10 minutes walk from the centre. Other than economically speaking, the benefit of staying away from the town is that it was less hectic and noisy and also the local restaurants in our area were dirt cheap and of very good quality.

Getting around

Luang Prabang’s peninsula is very walkable and there is minimal traffic. We rented a scooter so that we could zip about, but you could also rent bicycles from your accommodation or hail moto-taxis where several people can clamber onto the enclosure at the back.

What to do

Colonial architecture

Arguably, strolling around the Luang Prabang peninsula is the best of all activities, and you also can’t beat it because it’s free! The largely tranquil streets and waterfront are lined with grand, well-preserved and cared for French colonial buildings, which are now home to boutique hotels, shops and upscale up-scale cafes and restaurants. There are also more traditional wooden Lao houses which are clustered down the back streets.

Buddhist temples

Whilst you are enjoying the colonial architecture, you will also notice that the town houses many Buddhist temples known as Wats, easily visible for their glittering gold roofs. These temples pre-date the colonial period and are still in use. In fact you will almost always see some resident monks dressed in their orange robes, or end up in the midst of a ceremony. You can enter most wats for free or a small fee at the more preeminent ones. Our tip – check out Wat Xieng Thong for its mosaics including a grand tree of life.

Get up high

Quite often on this blog we advise our readers to get up high in order to get a bird’s eye view of proceedings! Happily there is a small hill to climb in Luang Prabang called Phu Si, at the summit of which there is a large stupa. This is a popular spot for sunsets and buying and releasing small birds caged in reeds.  Releasing birds is part of the concept of merit making which is commonly found in Buddhist societies. Merit making is doing something good in order to gain merit in this life and for the next life and is also tangled up with ancestor worship as it can be performed in order to help deceased loved ones in their next incarnation. All well and good, but we struggled to see why it could be considered a merit-worthy thing to trap birds in the first place!

The view from the hill is a panoramic 360 degrees and a great point from which to appreciate the old town, the Mekong and the Nam Khan River connecting to it. We even ran into some young monks who were clearly bunking off to play with their mobile phones.

Out on the river

An alternative way to appreciate Luang Prabang is to get out onto the Mekong River on a boat trip. As we had just been on a two day cruise from northern Laos, we didn’t do this, but you can read about our experience of the Mekong and our visit to the Pak Ou Cave here. This cave crammed with Buddha statues is close to Luang Prabang and it is also possible to take a boat to various other temples on the opposite bank.

Alms procession

Many tourists visit Luang Prabang in order to witness the daily alms giving procession, in which locals rise with the sun to give balls of cooked sticky rice to lines of orange robed monks. This is an age-old Buddhist cultural tradition and must certainly be a sight to behold, but after some serious consideration, we decided not to attend. The first reason was pure laziness as we hate early rises, but the second and more important reason was that we had heard that the ceremony had turned into somewhat of a commercialised spectacle for tourists. This is through no fault of the locals and the monks. Although you can visit on your own, many accommodations and travel agencies are offering packages to visit the procession, and it is said that tourists have been disrespectful to the process and the monks by getting too close, taking unsolicited photographs and generally causing a nuisance. By all means attend, and even take part if you feel a particular affinity with the religion and process, but be aware that it’s not a tourist show!

Royal Palace

Luang Prabang’s Royal Palace and golden Wat Ho Pra Bang are certainly worth a visit. The complex also houses some classic royal cars and a theatre which you can buy tickets to attend performances in the evening.

Interests

The town has many options to join cooking courses, yoga sessions, visit a spa or have a massage. Luang Prabang is also a jumping off point for excursions into other parts of Laos.

Markets

Shopping is a major activity in Luang Prabang. You can hit up the boutique stores in the day time, but make sure that you save some money for the colourful outdoor night market, held each evening in the centre of town on a pedestrianised Th Sisavangvong. This red tented market made our chins hit the ground as it contains such a staggering amount of traditional crafts such as hand dyed or stitched fabrics, rattan woven goods, fairy lights, toys, coffee, snacks…it’s easy to go a bit over the top! Of course, all of this is alongside the usual cheap mass-produced tat, and you can easily pick up souvenirs and keepsakes for bargain prices. It’s a fairly laid back market so there’s no hard sell and haggling is expected, but you shouldn’t be too harsh when an extra $1 off doesn’t mean as much to you as it does to the seller.

Luang Prabang is the place to locate beautiful and skilfully made tribal fabrics. The genuine ones do cost a fair amount of money, but they really are of exceptional quality. Upmarket shop Ock Pop Tok supports Lao artisans, it  has 3 locations, one of which is just outside of town and offers free tours about silk, runs classes on weaving and enjoys a wonderful Mekong setting. There is a free Tuk Tuk to this shop for either of the others in town. We used these shops to get clued up on the types of fabrics before we purchased some in the night market.

The small morning produce market which is down an alleyway in the centre of town is worth a visit to look at the raw ingredients being sold and wonder what on earth they are! You can also sample some coffee or enjoy a soupy breakfast.

For a more off the beaten track market experience, take a Tuk Tuk outside of town to the large undercover Phosi Market. This is where the locals shop for food and household goods. It’s not the best market we’ve ever seen, as it’s slightly dark and maze-like, but if you want a genuine experience showcasing the local foods, then it is worth a wander.

Where & what to eat

Luang Prabang is very well set up for cheap street eats, although there are also a great many boutique restaurants and cafes to choose from. We had a couple of treats, but mainly kept to the cheaper end of the scale.

During the day there is a line of cheap food stalls serving fruit shakes and cooking up noodles, fried rice and the like at the roundabout at the beginning of the peninsula. This area is often referred to as the Hmong market as this is where the tribes people would come to sell their wares. Now it’s mostly cheap manufactured goods.

It is also near here, that there is a night food market street which is very narrow and heaving with tourists at the start of the evening before they head off for some serious shopping at the famous night market. The street food here includes a buffet for the brave and several BBQ stalls serving pork, sausages, fish and meats of all kinds. We even saw pig trotters and frogs! There are also spring rolls, pancakes, massive cakes, and a range of produce for sale like sticky rice, leather water buffalo strips, Mekong weed and herbs like lemongrass.

Lao cuisine is probably most famous for its sticky rice which is served with most meals and eaten with the hands. The other famous dish is Laap which is minced meat or raw fish with spices and herbs a bit like a ceviche but sadly not as interesting. Otherwise the French legacy can be felt with all the cakes, baguettes and pastries.

Very important not to forget is coffee. Laos has some truly excellent Arabica coffee, our favourite in South East Asia!

Around Luang Prabang

There is a traditional bamboo bridge which crosses the Nam Khan River which is made and maintained by a local family each year. For a small fee you can walk across it.

Due to cold and poor weather when we visited, we didn’t get to take a trip to the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls 30km from Luang Prabang. These turquoise tiered waterfall pools are very beautiful and also good for swimming. Nearby here is also a rescue centre with Asiatic Wild Moon bears.

Although only open to tourism for less than 30 years, Luang Prabang has quickly become the poster child for Laos. It is definitely touristy, but still a delight to visit, especially if you have been roughing it elsewhere, and are in need of an easy, pretty and safe place to kick back. In our opinion, this historic and picturesque town nestled by the mighty Mekong River is absolute must for any South East Asia itinerary!