Is Luang Prabang Still Worth Visiting?
It’s common knowledge among regular travellers to Southeast Asia that Luang Prabang in Laos is suffering from over-tourism, just like Ubud in Bali and Hoi An in Vietnam – places that 30 years ago were frequented only by backpackers and a few more intrepid older independent travellers.
When I first visited Luang Prabang in the 1990s, getting there meant either taking your chances on the ancient Lao Airlines crash-prone propjets, or a 10-hour road trip from Vientiane on a narrow pot-holed highway. Although the road trip can be done in under seven hours now, few people take that option because direct Airbus A320 jet flights from Bangkok and other regional capitals were introduced following the extension of the airport runway in 2013.
In addition, there is now a high-speed rail link from Vientiane that takes just two hours which has carried over a million passengers since it opened in December 2021. The rail link runs right up to Boten on the Chinese border bringing in tourists from China in just 90 minutes.
Tourists on the streets of Luang Prabang’s Historic District.
All of these infrastructure improvements have resulted in a massive influx of tourists from Thailand, China, and from around the world. Whereas on my first visit to Luang Prabang I recall strolling down the streets of the old town in the morning to buy a crusty French baguette and seeing more monks than other travellers on the street, on my most recent visit I found myself constantly battling crowds on the sidewalk and having to queue for a table at my favourite coffee shop.
So, does that mean that mass tourism has completely spoiled Luang Prabang? Fortunately, it has not. Amazingly, most of the town (the night market being a notable exception) has managed to retain its relaxed feel, and there are still parts of the old town where you can stroll in the morning and evening and enjoy something close to the ambience that existed three decades ago.
The quietest streets – and the ones that contain the largest number of heritage buildings – are located on the promontory of the Historic District between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers east of the Royal Palace. The road along the Mekong riverbank, Khem Khong, is always fairly busy, but the two streets south of Khem Khong – Kounxoau Road and Sakkaline Road – are much quieter.
Sisavangvong Road is quiet before the Royal Palace opens.
Kingkitsarath Road along the Nam Khan riverbank carries quite a lot of vehicular traffic but not a lot of pedestrian traffic, and that can be a easier area to walk than along the Mekong riverbank. However, most of the good riverside restaurants are on the Mekong rather than the Nam Khan, and although the best ones are often full, they don’t feel crowded because they are outside.
Many of the more upmarket restaurants in Luang Prabang are situated along Sakkaline Road (as well as the French Bakery, which is definitely the best place in Luang Prabang for breakfast). These restaurants offer a mix of international and Laotian cuisine (and sometimes a fusion of the two). The closer you get to the Royal Palace and where Sakkaline Road changes its name to Sisavangvong Road, the busier the restaurants become, and around the junction of Kingkitsalat Road near the night market it can become very congested from mid-morning onwards.
During the evening, the area around the night market is extremely crowded and you’ll be jostling people shoulder-to-shoulder to make any progress along Sisavangvong Road. If you are staying anywhere west of the night market and want to walk to any of the restaurants in the Historic District, then it’s best to walk along by the river.
The night market takes over Sisavangvong Road at sunset.
A better way to avoid the night market crowds is to book accommodation west of the Royal Palace, but the room rates of most of the hotels and guesthouses in that area are much higher than in other parts of the town, and the few places in the Historic District that will appeal to budget travellers tend to get booked out months in advance.
If you’ve not been to Luang Prabang before, you’ll probably want to do what almost every other visitor does and walk up the 328 steps of Phousi Hill (the bottom of the steps are opposite the Royal Palace) to enjoy the 360-degree panoramic views of the town and surrounding mountains, and take in a sunset.
For those who might have difficulty tackling that many steps, there is an alternative path off Phousi Road which, although having a few more steps (355 to be exact), is a much gentler incline, and most older travellers prefer that pathway as there are more places to stop and rest along the way. It’s also a more interesting route with small temples and buddha statues along the pathway.
The steps up Phousi Hill are not busy in the early morning.
However, whichever way you take, you are going to find the top of Phousi Hill very crowded at sunset. To avoid the crowds, it’s better to do the hill hike for the views early in the morning before it gets hot and then see the sunset from an alternative viewpoint on the other side of the Nam Khan River where it joins the Mekong. I actually prefer that viewpoint because often you’ll get beautiful reflections of the sun off the river which you won’t see so much from the top of the hill.
To get to the Nam Khan sunset viewpoint in the dry season, you can walk to Riverview Park at the end of Sakkaline Road and across the bamboo bridge. There is a fee of 10,000 kip (about 60 US cents) to use the bridge. The money is used to rebuild the bridge each dry season as it gets taken down during the rainy season (because it would get washed away when the river levels rise).
There is another bamboo bridge further upstream near where Kingkitsarath Road bends around the back of Phousi Hill, but the walk from that bridge along the southern side of the Nam Khan through Ban Phanluang to the viewpoint is not as interesting as along Kingkitsarath Road. However, during the rainy season, taking a tuk-tuk through Ban Phanluang is the only way to access the viewpoint.
One of the two bamboo bridges across the Nam Khan River.
The over-tourism situation outside of Luang Prabang is no better than it is inside the town. The two ‘must-do’ sights to see outside of the town – the Kuang Si waterfall and the Pak Ou caves – are always crowded. The Tat Sae waterfalls attract fewer visitors, but they are seasonal and only worth visiting from September to December.
If you really want to see the Kuang Si waterfall (they are not as spectacular as some of the waterfalls over the border in northern Thailand, but nevertheless very pretty), then go as early as you can in the morning. They open at 8am. After entering the main gate, take the nature walk on the right through the bear sanctuary and past the rock pools – it’s a pleasant, shaded walk.
After visiting the main waterfall, if the crowds are building up by the time you want to leave, you can take the vehicular road back to the main gate as that’s wider and you won’t be jostled by the arriving tour groups. If you feel like a drink or snack after your visit, give the places near the main gate a detour. They are always crowded. Instead, ask your van or tuk-tuk driver to stop off at the Nakhoun Café at Naxao, about halfway back to town. It’s a relaxing spot overlooking the rice fields and doesn’t get frequented by tour groups.
The Kuang Si waterfall is pretty, but the viewpoints are crowded.
Unless you’ve never been to Indochina and done a boat ride on the Mekong, and you’ve never visited a cave with Buddha artifacts, then I would strongly recommend that you give the Pak Ou caves a miss. They are nothing special and quite small and get very crowded. Most people who visit say that the best part of the visit was not the caves but the boat trip to get there.
If you’ve not done a boat ride up the Mekong, then this is as good a place as any to do it. The scenery and local life along the way is interesting to observe. Private boats can be hired from many spots along the riverfront on Khem Khong. Prices range from US$40-50 per boat depending on the size of the boat and your bargaining powers. The trip takes a little under two hours upstream, and about an hour and a half back.
There is, however, another place in northern Laos which offers the opportunity for an even more impressive river trip – and that’s the journey from Nong Khiaw to the village of Mueang Ngoi on the Nam Ou River. This trip will take you well away from the crowds and into a part of northern Laos that is still very much backpacker country.
The boat pier at Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou River.
Nong Khiaw is a four-hour drive from Luang Prabang, so you’ll need to plan to be away from Luang Prabang for at least one night. You can’t do the trip there and back, and the river trip, in one day. You can either choose to stay in Nong Khiaw which has a reasonably good range of accommodation options, or you can stay overnight in Mueang Ngoi where the accommodation is more basic.
Most travel agencies in Luang Prabang offer one- or two-night trips to Nong Khiaw in a shared van. I hired a car and drove there myself, but I wouldn’t recommend that unless you’ve had a lot of driving experience in Southeast Asia (I’ve driven for more than 10 years in both the Philippines and Thailand). Lao roads are not good. They are pot-holed and some of the rural drivers are unpredictable.
If you go on a van tour from Luang Prabang you’ll likely share a six-passenger boat, and that will work out a lot cheaper than hiring a boat yourself. But if you do travel there on your own, or as a couple, then you can hire a private boat from the pier near the bridge (it’s clearly marked on Google maps) for a fixed price of 700,000 kip (about US$40). Even for a traveller on their own, $20 each way for such a spectacular river trip is well worth the money.
The trip takes about an hour each way, so if you plan to stay in Nong Khiaw you’ll need to hire a boat by 3pm to give you time to get to Mueang Ngoi by 4pm, have at least 30 minutes to stroll around the village (you won’t need much more than that), and then return to Nong Khiaw by sunset.
I enjoyed the boat trip to and from Mueang Ngoi more than I have any trips on the Mekong because I felt so far away from civilisation. The trip felt like a cross between a boat ride I did on the Lijang River in China between Guilin and Yangshuo some years back (although the limestone karst scenery was not quite as spectacular) and a river trip in Botswana (but instead of big game, I saw only buffalo and wild pigs along the Nam Ou). It did have a definite ‘Africa feel’ to it though.
If you are not short of time and are on a ‘slow travel’ itinerary, then I would recommend staying at least two nights in Mueang Ngoi and doing an easy trek to one of the nearby hill tribe villages. There are also several caves within easy walking distance of Mueang Ngoi, and there’s a place in the village that offers a traditional Lao herbal sauna.
The village of Mueang Ngoi is a quiet respite from the tourist crowds.
The town of Nong Khiaw and the village of Mueang Ngoi are a world away from mass tourism, and both offer the opportunity for a relaxing getaway from the crowds of Luang Prabang. Both offer a smattering of western food options if you feel you can’t survive solely on Laotian food, and Nong Khiaw even has two coffee shops and a Malaysian Indian halal restaurant catering for backpackers.
Whilst I did enjoy my week in Luang Prabang strolling the streets of the Historic District and soaking up the colonial atmosphere (and eating in the many excellent restaurants of course), it was the trip to Nong Khiaw and Mueang Ngoi that was the highlight of the week for me. It helped me to forget that Luang Prabang is being overtaken by mass tourism, and perhaps one day will no longer be such a unique place to visit.
One of the many outdoor restaurants along the Mekong River.
Thankfully Luang Prabang has not yet been earmarked for the construction of a casino as have so many other towns in Laos. Its UNESCO World Heritage listing may help to prevent that. But Lao tourism authorities are hoping for a million tourists from mainland China in 2023 (the same number as 2019) and a significant proportion of those will be heading for Luang Prabang.
The Chinese low-cost carrier, Lucky Air, has already announced the resumption of flights from Kunming to Luang Prabang in March, and China Express and Qingdao Airlines are expected to announce direct flights from Chongqing and Nanning soon. Land border restrictions have been eased too, and now private motorists from China can drive to Luang Prabang.
As I walked back to my hotel after dinner on my last night in Luang Prabang, every third car parked along both sides of the road had a mainland China registration plate. When I walked along the same street on my first visit to Luang Prabang nearly three decades ago, there were only bicycles and tuk-tuks. The influx of tourists from China, Thailand and elsewhere may have improved living conditions for some in the town, but it comes at a cost to the environment and local culture – which are what draw travellers to Luang Prabang in the first place.
All images: © David Astley
