Luang Prabang With Kids
A small town on a peninsula where the Mekong meets the Nam Khan, with gold roofed temples, French shophouses, monks in orange walking the streets at dawn and a curfew that keeps it quiet. Luang Prabang is the place in Southeast Asia where the pace drops and the kids ride bikes to breakfast.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Luang Prabang good for kids?
Yes, for any age. It is flat, quiet, safe and small enough to cross by bicycle, with a swimmable waterfall, a bear rescue center, boats on the Mekong, a night market for pocket money and a rice farm where the kids plant with a buffalo. It is the gentlest stop on a Southeast Asia trip.
How many days do you need in Luang Prabang?
Three nights for the alms round and temples, Kuang Si and the Mekong boat. Four if you add the rice farm, the elephant sanctuary or a weaving class.
Can kids swim at Kuang Si waterfall?
Yes. The lower turquoise pools are open for swimming with wooden platforms, a rope swing and a shallow pool for small kids. Bring water shoes and a towel, go at 8 am when it opens, and visit the moon bear rescue center at the entrance.
How do you get to Luang Prabang?
Fly direct from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Siem Reap, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, about 1 to 2 hours, or take the high speed train from Vientiane in under 2 hours. The two day slow boat from the Thai border is the classic route for families with older kids.
When is the best time to visit Luang Prabang?
November to February for cool, dry, 75 degree days. October is green, clearing and quiet. March and April are hot and hazy, and May to September is the rainy season with the waterfall at full flow.
The Slow Town Between Two Rivers
Luang Prabang was the royal capital of Laos for centuries, and the old town, a UNESCO site, sits on a narrow peninsula with the Mekong on one side and the Nam Khan on the other. Thirty three temples, the old royal palace, a main street of French colonial shophouses and cafes, a hill in the middle with a stupa on top, and a bamboo bridge across the Nam Khan that is rebuilt each dry season. The town is a mile long and most of it is on foot or by bicycle. Outside are the Kuang Si falls, the Pak Ou caves up the Mekong, the elephant sanctuaries and the rice farms, each a half day. It is quiet, safe, cheap and gentle, and it is where I send families to recover from Bangkok.
Three nights covers the alms round, the temples and the palace, Mount Phousi at sunset, the night market, a Kuang Si day and a Mekong boat. Four adds the rice farm or the elephants.
Getting Around
Bicycles and feet, with tuk tuks for the waterfall and the airport. The old town is flat, small and slow, and most guesthouses lend bikes, with kids’ sizes at the rental shops on the main street. Tuk tuks are shared and cheap, and a private one for the day to Kuang Si is easy to arrange. Boats go from the Mekong jetties for the Pak Ou caves and the sunset cruise. There is no Grab or Uber, but there is the Loca app for cars.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
The old town peninsula
The UNESCO core between the rivers, with the temples, the palace, the night market street and the cafes. Guesthouses in French shophouses and a few boutique hotels in old villas. Walkable to everything, bikes at the door, and the alms round passes outside at 5.30 am. The base for most families, near the Nam Khan side for quiet.
Across the Nam Khan
The villages on the far side of the bamboo bridge and the main bridge, with small resorts in gardens, a few with pools, 10 minutes from the old town by bike. Quieter, greener and cheaper, with the view back at the temples. Good for a family who wants a pool and the town a short pedal away.
Along the Mekong, south of town
The river road south toward the airport, with the bigger resorts and their pools on the Mekong bank, sunset from the terrace, and a free shuttle into town. For a family who wants a resort week with the old town as the outing rather than the base.
Amantaka
The old French hospital turned into a palace of suites with private pools, a huge central lawn and pool, bikes for the family and the temples a two minute walk away. The splurge in Laos, and the one for a family who wants the quiet town and the quiet hotel at the same time.
Avani+ Luang Prabang
On the edge of the old town by the palace, in the old French garrison, with a courtyard pool, family rooms, bikes and the night market at the gate. The one I book most, because the location is right for walking with kids and the pool handles the hot afternoons.
Maison Dalabua
A garden hotel by the lotus ponds a 10 minute walk from the center, with a pool, family rooms, a good breakfast and the quiet that the old town does not have at the market end. Good value and the one for a family who wants green space around the kids.
The Three I Build Every Luang Prabang Trip Around
The alms round and the temples
At 5.30 each morning the monks from the 33 temples walk the streets in silence collecting sticky rice from kneeling locals, and watching it respectfully from across the road is the Luang Prabang memory the kids keep. Ask your hotel for the quiet streets away from the tour buses, sit low, no flash, no touching, and let the kids see rather than join. Then the temples, with Wat Xieng Thong at the river tip, 1560, the golden tree of life mosaic on the back wall, the royal palace museum with the Prabang Buddha that named the town, and the Haw Pha Bang chapel in gold on the palace lawn.
Mount Phousi and the night market
In the middle of the old town a hill rises 300 feet with 328 steps to a gold stupa and the view of both rivers and the temple roofs, and the thing to do is climb it at 5 pm, watch the sun go into the Mekong with half the town, and come down into the night market, which fills the main street from the palace to the hill each evening. Lao textiles, paper lanterns, carved wooden elephants and a food alley at the end with grilled fish, sticky rice and coconut pancakes for a dollar. The kids shop with pocket money and nobody pressures them.
Kuang Si falls
Fifty minutes south by tuk tuk, Kuang Si is a series of turquoise limestone pools stepping down through the forest below a 200 foot main fall, and the lower pools are open for swimming, with wooden platforms, rope swings and a shallow pool for the littlest. The bear rescue center at the entrance, where moon bears rescued from bile farms lounge in hammocks, is the first stop and the kids will not want to leave. Go at opening, 8 am, before the groups, and bring water shoes for the stones. The butterfly park on the road back is a small gentle extra.
Family Time, Built In: Luang Prabang With Kids
Luang Prabang with kids is a bike to breakfast, monks at dawn, a swim in a blue waterfall, a lantern from the night market and a sunset on a slow boat on the Mekong.
The monks at 5.30 am
Swimming at Kuang Si
Moon bears in hammocks
A Mekong sunset boat
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The town is the park, flat, quiet and safe for bikes, and the kids ride the peninsula loop while the parents walk behind. The Mekong sunset cruise, two hours on a wooden boat with drinks and fruit, is the slow evening. The community rice farm at Ban Phong Van, 15 minutes out, puts the kids in the paddy with a buffalo to plant, thresh and cook rice, and it is the day they talk about. Ock Pop Tok on the Mekong runs weaving and dyeing classes for kids where they make a scarf, with lunch on the deck over the river. The elephant sanctuaries at MandaLao are walk with, not ride, and work for kids who can walk a few miles.
Five Things To Eat In Luang Prabang
Khao soi, the Lao noodle soup
Grilled meat skewers from the night market
Pastries from the French bakeries
Fruit shakes on the main street
Lao coffee, strong and sweetNicole’s Perspective
The town that fixes a Southeast Asia trip
Southeast Asia with kids is a lot of big cities, Bangkok, Hanoi, Saigon, and about day eight the family needs somewhere nobody honks. Luang Prabang is that place. I put it in the middle of a Thailand or Vietnam trip, a short flight in, three nights, and the whole trip breathes again. Bikes, a waterfall, a slow boat, and dinner at a table on the river for less than a pizza at home.
The alms round is the part I prepare families for, because it is a religious act, not a show, and the kids who understand that before they go come away with something. The Buddhist Southeast Asia unit was one I loved teaching, the spread along the rivers, the temples, the monks, and this is the town where it is still daily life. Avilene would be at Kuang Si all day, Jake would be on the rope swing, and Gavin would be at Ock Pop Tok asking the weavers how the loom works.
The Day Trip: Up The Mekong To The Pak Ou Caves
Two hours up the Mekong by wooden boat, past fishermen, water buffalo and limestone cliffs, the Pak Ou caves sit in a rock face where the Nam Ou river joins, two caves stacked with thousands of Buddha statues left by pilgrims over the centuries, the lower one open to the river and the upper one up a flight of steps with a flashlight. It is the river that makes the day, with a stop at a village along the way where the kids see rice whisky stills and silk looms. Go in the morning, picnic on the boat, back by 2 for the pool. For older kids, the two day slow boat all the way to the Thai border is the same river for 180 miles.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Three nights covers the town, the falls and the boat. Four adds the rice farm or the elephants.
The alms round and the temples on the first morning, Mount Phousi at sunset and the night market, Kuang Si and the bears on day two, the Mekong boat to Pak Ou or the sunset cruise on day three.
Add the rice farm morning at Ban Phong Van or the MandaLao elephant walk, a weaving class at Ock Pop Tok, and an afternoon doing nothing by the pool, which in this town counts as an activity.
Four nights in Bangkok, three in Chiang Mai, the flight to Luang Prabang for three, then Siem Reap for three and Angkor. Two weeks, three countries, and the slow town in the middle where the family catches its breath.
Luang Prabang With Kids, Answered
Is Luang Prabang good for kids?
Yes, for any age. It is flat, quiet, safe and small enough to cross by bicycle, with a swimmable waterfall, a bear rescue center, boats on the Mekong, a night market for pocket money and a rice farm where the kids plant with a buffalo. It is the gentlest stop on a Southeast Asia trip.
How many days do you need in Luang Prabang?
Three nights for the alms round and temples, Kuang Si and the Mekong boat. Four if you add the rice farm, the elephant sanctuary or a weaving class.
Can kids swim at Kuang Si waterfall?
Yes. The lower turquoise pools are open for swimming with wooden platforms, a rope swing and a shallow pool for small kids. Bring water shoes and a towel, go at 8 am when it opens, and visit the moon bear rescue center at the entrance.
How do you get to Luang Prabang?
Fly direct from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hanoi, Siem Reap, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, about 1 to 2 hours, or take the high speed train from Vientiane in under 2 hours. The two day slow boat from the Thai border is the classic route for families with older kids.
When is the best time to visit Luang Prabang?
November to February for cool, dry, 75 degree days. October is green, clearing and quiet. March and April are hot and hazy, and May to September is the rainy season with the waterfall at full flow.
Ready To Put Luang Prabang On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will put Luang Prabang into your Southeast Asia trip, with the hotel by the temples, the Kuang Si morning and the boat on the Mekong.
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