Four days in Luang Prabang

At a glance

Length

4 days, 3 nights

Group size

2 to 8

Starts

Luang Prabang

Ends

Luang Prabang

Effort

Easy - 328 steps if you want the hill

From

USD 390 per person

The route

Luang Prabang is a peninsula of about a square kilometre where the Nam Khan runs into the Mekong, with thirty-odd working monasteries in it and a French colonial street layout on top of a fifteenth-century royal capital. UNESCO listed the whole town in 1995, which is why the buildings are still the right height and the wrong things have not been built.

It is also, in high season, busy in a way that surprises people who read that Laos is quiet. The entire trip below is built around being in the right places at the wrong times: the falls at 08:00 rather than 11:00, the town at dawn rather than at dusk, and the villages on the days the buses go elsewhere.

One hotel for three nights is deliberate. A four-day trip that moves twice spends its fourth day in a vehicle, and this one does not.

Day by day

Day 1

Arrival and the peninsula on foot

We collect you from the airport or the boat pier and check you in. Late afternoon we walk the peninsula - not a temple march, but four of them chosen because they are different from each other, ending at Wat Xieng Thoung, the 1560 monastery with the sweeping roof that reaches almost to the ground.

At sunset you have a choice we let you make on the day: 328 steps up Phou Si for the view with two hundred other people, or a boat on the Mekong for the same light with nobody. We will tell you honestly which one we would pick.

StayYour Luang Prabang hotel, three nightsMealsNothing included on arrival dayTravel20 minutes from the airportOn foot3 km flat, plus 328 steps if you choose

Day 2

Kuang Si early, weaving in the afternoon

The upper pool at Kuang Si before 09:00, which most visitors never reach

We leave at 07:30 for the Kuang Si falls, 29 km south, and arrive before the first minibuses. The falls are a series of turquoise limestone terraces under forest, and the difference between 08:15 and 11:00 there is the difference between a swim and a queue. The bear rescue centre at the entrance is run by a conservation organisation and is worth the twenty minutes.

Back for lunch, then Ban Xang Khong across the river, where the weaving and the saa-paper making are real work rather than a demonstration. You will be able to buy things, and we get nothing if you do - it is not a commission stop, which is the reason your guide will not steer you.

StaySame hotelMealsBreakfast, lunchTravel45 minutes each way to the fallsOn foot2 km at the falls, some steps and mud

Day 3

The Mekong, Pak Ou, and a slow afternoon

A private boat upriver for two hours to the Pak Ou caves, where thousands of Buddha images have been left in two limestone caverns over four centuries. On the way back we stop at Ban Xang Hai, the village that distils rice whisky, and you can look at it without anybody standing over you with a tray.

The afternoon is deliberately empty. Options we can arrange if you want them: the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, which is the best museum in the country for understanding who lives in these mountains; a cooking class; or nothing at all, which is what most people choose by day three.

StaySame hotelMealsBreakfast, lunchTravelNo road transportOn footAround 200 steps at the caves, optional

Day 4

Dawn, and departure

The morning market between 06:00 and 07:00, the least performed thing in Luang Prabang

The alms round happens at first light whether or not you watch it. If you want to, your guide will brief you properly the night before - where to stand, how far back, why you do not buy rice from the street vendors, and why photographing a monk from a metre away is the thing everyone regrets afterwards.

Then the morning market, which is a food market for the town rather than for you and is all the better for it. Transfer to the airport, the pier or your onward vehicle whenever you need.

StayNot includedMealsBreakfastTravel20 minutes to the airportOn foot2 km around the market

Prices

What is included

Pictures

Who this trip does not suit

• Travellers who want to cover ground. This trip goes nowhere. If seeing three provinces matters more than seeing one town properly, take the ten-day route instead.
• Anyone whose main interest is nightlife. Luang Prabang has a curfew around midnight and the town is genuinely quiet by 22:30.
• Visitors in March and early April who will be unhappy about haze. The temples are unaffected but the river views and the hill sunsets often are.
• People who dislike being asked not to do things. There are real rules here about temples, monks and the alms round, and our guides enforce them.
• Anyone hoping for an undiscovered town. It is a World Heritage site with an international airport and it has not been a secret since 1995.