7 days in Luang Prabang

7 days in Luang Prabang

I will be in Luang Prabang for a week.....what are your suggestions? What specific tour companies would you use for day trips etc? Thanks for your help!!!!!

=>> I wouldn't use tour companies. Absolutely no need.

Suggestions: In addition to visiting the wats in the main part of town, also visit those off the tourist track. Pause and talk with the monks.

Visit the old Palace, which is now a museum. Quite an odd collection...

Walk up Mt. Phousi

Hire a tuk tuk or car and driver to take you to the water falls - there are two different sets of falls.

Hire a boat to take you to the Pak Ou caves, a Buddhist pilgrimage site for hundreds of years. The river journey is a treat in and of itself.

Visit the weaving co-op outside of town.

Have a long, lingering lunch on the balcony of the Villa Santi.

Wander the markets.

=>> Reading Stalking the Elephant Kings by Christopher Kremmer will significantly enhance you experience of Luang Prabang. It is long out of print, but you'll be able to find it online somewhere.

The Pak Ou caves are one of those places where it pays to understand what you are looking at. It is a 500 year old Buddhist pilgrimage site, with offerings of Buddha images. It has been looted by tourists and locals to sell to tourists, so some images are broken, and the most beautiful of the images are gone. But it is still imbued with the spiritual power of a centuries old religious pilgrimage site. If this appeals to you, go, if not, don't. I'd avoid he usual stop at a Lao-Lao village on the way.