Authentic Luang Prabang

This four-day trip stays in Luang Prabang throughout, with all three nights in the same hotel and no change of base. It suits travellers who would rather see one place properly, its temples, its river and its waterfall, than cross a country in a week, and it works as a short cultural break on its own or as one leg of a longer journey through our Laos holidays.

WHAT TO EXPECT

Arrival And An Unscheduled First Afternoon

You are met at Luang Prabang international airport and transferred to your hotel. Check-in is between 13:30 and 14:00, and the rest of the day is given over to resting at the hotel. No meals are included on this first day, so lunch and dinner are on your own account, and the night is spent in Luang Prabang. Breakfast at the hotel is included on each of the three mornings that follow, and the guided sightseeing begins on the second day.

Alms Giving, Temples And The Royal Palace

An optional early start on day two lets you join the daily morning alms giving to saffron-clad monks, a tradition unique to Laos, the only Buddhist nation still preserving this procession. You stop at the fresh local markets, then return to the hotel for breakfast. The morning continues at Wat Visoun, site of the Thad Makmo stupa, whose rounded dome is stylistically more Sinhalese than Lao, then Wat Aham and Vat Xiengthong, the most photographed temple, at the end of the peninsula close to the confluence of the Mekong and Khan rivers. The afternoon takes in the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum, and Wat Mai, renowned for its golden bas-relief; during Pimai, the Lao New Year, the Prabang normally housed in the Royal Palace Museum is brought here for public display.

Upstream On The Mekong To The Pak Ou Caves

Day three starts with a transfer to the pier, where you board a traditional long-tail boat and cruise upstream on the Mekong past mountain scenery and simple rural life. You reach the Pak Ou caves at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou rivers, where two caves hold hundreds of sacred, centuries-old Buddha images that are the object of pilgrimages during the Lao New Year festivities around mid-April. On the cruise back you stop at Ban Xangkhong, a weaving village, where a local expert sits you at a wooden loom to try the craft yourself.

Kuang Si Waterfall And The Last Morning

The same afternoon you drive out through green rice paddies and farms to Kuang Si. A short walk on the trails of the falls brings you to the bear rescue centre, with orchids in the surrounding park, and to the cascade itself, which drops over many calcified tiers and several hundred feet into a series of cool, turquoise pools. You return to Luang Prabang for the final night. On day four there is free time after breakfast until your driver takes you to the airport for your international flight. If three nights feels short, our five-day Luang Prabang itinerary of temples, river and rice fields runs to four nights.

GOOD TO KNOW

Included are a local English-speaking guide, accommodation as listed, breakfast only where the programme shows it, all entrance fees, every excursion, cruise and activity, service charge and government tax, and air-conditioned transfers. Lunches, dinners, drinks, personal expenses and bank fees are on your own account. Flights, travel insurance and visa fees, including the administration fee, are excluded; entry requirements are on our visa assistance page. Hotel supplements apply over Christmas, New Year and certain February dates, and depending on the hotel a minimum stay or a compulsory gala dinner on 31 December may apply. Like the rest of our holiday packages, this itinerary is quoted on request.