Hotels in Laos

Laos is the quietest country in mainland Southeast Asia, landlocked and mountainous, and it rewards travellers who slow down. Luang Prabang is the centrepiece, a UNESCO-listed peninsula of gilded wats and French colonial shophouses where saffron-robed monks collect alms at dawn and the turquoise pools of Kuang Si tumble through the forest nearby. Elsewhere the Mekong carries slow boats south, the Bolaven Plateau grows coffee at altitude, and the Plain of Jars scatters iron-age stone vessels across the northeast.

The Laos-China Railway, opened in 2021, has transformed movement through the country. What used to be a punishing all-day bus ride from Vientiane to Luang Prabang is now a two-hour train journey, putting most of the north within easy reach.