Living the Life at The Grand Luang Prabang in Laos
- Brooke
- May 26, 2022
- 9 min read
Situated on a cliffside a short distance from the center of town is The Grand Luang Prabang, an elegant hotel perfect for long, comfortable stays in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang. Overlooking the Mekong River, I was enchanted not only by the hotel's history, but also its well appointed rooms, delicious food, and friendly staff.
One thing I was hesitant about this hotel before booking was its supposed distance from the heart of the city. Yet, with the free hotel drop offs and pick ups, as well as reasonably priced tuk tuk rides, the distance and hassle really isn't that bad. To be honest, it's maybe a 5 minute (by vehicle) detour out of the way, but the tranquility and peacefulness that the resort exudes makes up for any theoretical or implied inconvenience.
Because we were celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary while there, Ben had emailed and asked them before we arrived if we could have a nice room for the category that we booked (Executive Suite), and the hotel really delivered with a second floor corner suite overlooking the hotel grounds as well as the stunning Mekong.
And we had no better display of the amazingness of this room's location than about 20 minutes after our arrival, when we finally entered our room, stepped out onto the lanai, and saw one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen - anywhere.
Below, I'll share more details of the hotel, its environs, its food, and all the reasons why we would readily stay here again during a future trip to Luang Prabang.
First Impressions
First things first - I apologize for the blurriness of some of these sunset pictures - I was so hyped to be in Laos, to be in this hotel, and to time our arrival in such a way that we would first set foot on our lanai while the sun was doing this to the night sky. I clicked away, hoping to be able to capture as much as I could that my steadiness wasn't always the best.
Still, I'm thinking you might be able to appreciate what a great setting of the stage this felt like. I had spent the day pretty dehydrated and completely worn out from a serious case of food poisoning I had picked up in Vietnam two days earlier. The fact that my long day of travel with a multiple hour layover in Vientiane ended in such a way felt like things could start looking up. We were planning on spending the next five nights here, and the view and this sunset gave us the impression that we really had made the right decision to come to this city, and this hotel in particular.
After a long day of travel, and after seeing this sunset, we could go to bed knowing that even if it would take me a day or two to fully recover, this was the perfect place to do so.
Public Grounds
Indulge me for a minute, if you will. There's going to be what some might consider "too many" pictures of water buffalo coming up, but hear me out - it's not everyday that I (or, I suspect, many of you) get to see water buffalo just chilling in the front yard of your hotel, right outside your bedroom window. While my first impressions of the hotel the evening before were super enchanting due to the light show put on by Mother Nature (as well as the comfortable appointments of the room), but to wake up to water buffalo casually mowing the lawn? ::sigh::
They weren't here everyday, or any other day that I can recall. Whatever it was that timed our arrival for the magnificent sunset followed by a morning of surprise water buffalo lawn mowers, well, mahalo for that.
Here's some information that's posted by the hotel to let you know why there are water buffalo gracing the grounds of the property:
"The Story of My Water Buffaloes
One morning in 2004, while I was driving my car on the road to the Kouang Si Waterfalls, I was passing the local abattoir and saw two skinny water buffalos tied to the post in front of the abattoir. They looked very sad. So, I stopped my car to talk with the old man who worked there.
The old man told me that his family owned four water buffaloes but the parents of these two baby water buffaloes were slaughtered the day before. Their meat was sold at the market. The two babies will be slaughtered in the afternoon. Their meat will be sent to the French restaurant in town. I drove the car back to the hotel immediately, and talked with my friends about the pitiful baby water buffaloes. They donated some money and with some of my own money, I went to save the baby water buffaloes.
I brought the two baby water buffaloes back to the hotel and named them E-Pom and E-Pan ('e' is a familiar term for an animal; 'pom' means nearly round in shape, and 'pan' means skinny).
From that day E-Pom and E-Pan have come to be part of the staff of the Grand Hotel. We love them like our friends...not as animals; the staff always refers to them as the General Manager's daughters."
To read more, click on the picture below:
At the time, we didn't know anything from the story posted above, so seeing them was such a wonderful surprise our first morning. But don't worry, we took a few minutes to visit them a little later.
In the meantime, our first goal was to find our way to breakfast, and our room was more or less located as far away from the breakfast restaurant as possible. This is not a complaint, as it allowed us an opportunity to take stock of most of the entire property during our walk.
The various courtyards and hallways, places that don't need to be given much thought, had such delicate and beautiful touches with reflecting pools and lovely tropical foliage, many of which we see often at our home in Hawaii.
You could tell just from these simple spaces that a lot of thought and detail went into the planning of just about every inch of the hotel/property.
But once you pass through the lobby and start making your way back towards the river, you really get a sense of just how special this place is.
Various structures pop up, whose purpose I don't know, but add to the charm of the space. This used to be the home of Prince Phetsarath, a nationalist hero who helped with the removal of the French from their colonial rule of the country in the mid 1940s after Japanese occupation. However, the architecture uses French Colonial style, with various Laotian influences throughout. To learn more abut the Prince, read more here.
To the left in both the beginning of the video above, as well as the picture below, is the Xiengkeo Restaurant, where we'd have breakfast everyday. I have included pictures from that experience below at the bottom of this posting.
Above, Xiengkeo Restaurant is straight ahead.
Views along the Mekong of the various boats.
The property has many water features throughout, adding an elegance to the grounds.
After breakfast, we made our way back to our room, but this way took a route that allowed us to investigate the water buffalo a little closer.
In a couple of days, Ben would get a chance to partake in a rice paddy experience and work with his very own water buffalo (I opted out to recover from the food poisoning that still made me feel weak) but in the meantime, he got a chance to get up close and friendly with the General Manager's "daughters" or their offspring.
Above, the beautiful buildings that hold the hotel rooms. Below, glances of the Mekong River and the mountains beyond.
Above and below, we followed the path back to the building that housed our room.
As I mentioned above, the property featured lots of flora that we can find back home in Hawaii, but is none the less enchanting to see in other destinations. One of those is plumeria, sometimes known as frangipani, which has one of my most favorite fragrances of any flower on this earth. Of course, there are myriad varieties of plumeria, each with its own unique scent, but there is nothing more mesmerizing than strolling by a plumeria tree and catching yourself off guard by its fragrant aroma. Ahh, heaven. Below, to round out this section, I captured a pink plumeria tree 3 different ways.
Truly, the grounds of this hotel are one of the loveliest we've ever stayed in, and I think of them quite fondly on a regular basis.
Room
As noted above, Ben and I opted for an Executive Suite for our stay at the resort. We've traveled with each other enough times to know that after long trips, we need a little extra space to keep things on an even keel - travel can bring out lots of stress as you navigate new and unfamiliar customs and situations. Having some alone time can help one (or, me in particular) feel ready to take on all the new things we throw ourselves into.
The hotel provided a lovely fruit basket amenity upon our arrival, with some familiar and some less familiar fruits, which was a very nice gesture and was much appreciated. I hadn't really eaten in two days at this juncture, so it was a nice treat.
The living room was quite spacious and featured a flat screen TV for us to catch up on various Thai game shows (there's nothing more entertaining to me than watching international game shows - in this case a show about a person guessing who someone is just from seeing that person's eyes - or so we think!).
The bedroom is also very spacious and comfortable, featuring a king sized bed and a desk from where I actually got some work accomplished.
There is a large closet and storage area next to the bedroom and adjacent to the bathroom.
The bathroom is also quite large and has everything you could need for a relaxing stay, from a big claw foot tub, stand-alone walk in shower, and separate toilet room (behind glass doors anyway).
It was a nice touch that the bathtub had been filled before our arrival, along with the addition of some plumeria flowers to enhance the olfactory experience.
The bed even had some nice touches added on to it, including a small stitched elephant, a little bag with toiletries, and some flowers curled together from leaves.
Our room also featured a lanai with a wonderful view of the Mekong River - as you've already seen above of the many sunset pictures captured from this very lanai.
While not the biggest lanai we've ever had, it served its purpose - providing us with stellar views of the gorgeous scenery and hotel grounds.
All in all, we would spring for this room category again, as it offered a great value for all the space and nice touches it provided. Because I was still recovering from my illness, and had quite a bit of work to get done while here, I actually spent a good amount of time in the room. The air conditioning worked really well too, which is a definite plus in such humid environs. Overall, we loved it.
Xiengkeo Restaurant (Breakfast)
One of our highlights every morning was waking up and making our way down to the Xiengkeo Restaurant for the breakfast buffet. When we booked, we had the option to include the buffet in our price, or not, but I'm glad we did. It only added a few dollars a night per person, and it allowed us to be set for a good portion of the day.
Besides, look at the setting below. I'm hard pressed to name a better way to start each day of vacation.
The buffet had tons of options, including lots of western favorites (eggs, meats, etc.) as well as Thai and Lao favorites, like noodle soups.
Have I mentioned the incredible setting? Our first morning there, when I took most of these pictures, was not the sunniest day of our trip, but the surroundings only improved as the weather did so as well.
Below, Ben's favorite way to start the day - a nice warm bowl of spicy noodle soup. He had discovered this affinity for noodle soup as a breakfast item from the little pho stand across the street from our rental house in Hanoi. It was now his mission to have it as often as possible before we came back to the US.
Some mornings we were lucky to have the place to ourselves, and some mornings less lucky. Regardless, we never had to wait for a table, but if you had to, there are worse places to do so.
Overall, the food was tasty and filling, and it provided an opportunity to start our day off on the right foot. Between the comfortable room, the delicious breakfast each morning, and the overall loveliness of the entire property, The Grand Luang Prabang remains high on our list of overall wonderful stays, and remains a place we aspire to return to someday in the (hopefully) not too distant future.
The Grand Luang Prabang Details
The Grand Luang Prabang is located along the banks of the Mekong River, and is a former Laotian palace that is a charming, peaceful retreat. We both recommend this hotel highly to anyone traveling through this lovely city in northern Laos.
As mentioned above, it is slightly out of the way from the main parts of town, but only marginally. When we stayed there, the hotel offered regular shuttles into and out of town, and also helped call for tuk tuks when we needed transportation to specific places. The staff were charming, friendly, and very helpful, and the grounds are immaculate. I would go back and stay here in a heartbeat.
Days of travel: June 23rd - 28th, 2019
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