Tips on Avoiding Luang Prabang Tourist Traps

Luang Prabang Tourist Traps

An interesting culture and outstanding natural beauty make Luang Prabang a popular tourist stop in Laos. Of course as with any great destination, Luang Prabang has a number of traps tourists will want to avoid.

Dirty, noisy, drafty, and uncomfortable rooms make the Red Cross Sauna one trap to avoid.

Skip the Rice Wine Village. It’s little more than vendors selling rice wine and liquor with snakes in the bottle.

A couple of hours by boat from Luang Prabang on the Mekong River, are the Pak Ou caves. They’re filled with hundreds of large and small Buddha statues. As one traveler put it “In my opinion, this half-day trip is not worth it. There is no adventure and nothing to explore.”

The Royal Palace is impressive in size, but it lacks character. Other than the throne room, most rooms sit empty with only a few historical items on display.

The Royal Theater charges too much for what amounts to an amateurish children’s play.

Whiskey Village, located a short distance up the Mekong River from Luang Prabang, consists of a group of huts selling liquor in bottles with lizards or snakes inside.

The bus from Kwang Sy Waterfalls to Luang Prabang stops at Hmong Village. Little girls selling handicrafts sing and chant until somebody buys something. Stay in the bus if possible.

The owner of White Elephant Tours appears a bit sketchy, and the tour is not certified.

Editor’s Note: The information contained on this page was compiled using real traveler reviews about tourist traps in Luang Prabang.