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Luang PrabangMeet the locals

Our most recommended Luang Prabang Meet the locals

Luang Prabang: Foodie Walking Tour & Monk Blessing

1. Luang Prabang: Foodie Walking Tour & Monk Blessing

Join this foodie walking tour around Luang Prabang with your guide and discover all the tasty food spots that the locals love. Sample traditional snacks, learn about monks' Buddhist traditions and visit a food market and a temple. Start your walking tour at downtown cafe (Joma Bakery), your guide will meet you on foot. Walk through Luang Prabang morning food market to learn about the ingredients of Lao food. Smell the sweet aroma of spices and freshly cooked food as you walk around. Learn all about the rich, spicy flavor of Lao food from your guide. Taste one of Lao's special specialty dishes; the Luang Prabang. Need a morning coffee Don't worry, kick start your day with a Lao hot coffee. Visit a temple in the UNESCO town to learn about Buddhism from a Monk and get the blessing.

Luang Prabang: Bamboo Weaving Workshop & Cooking Class

2. Luang Prabang: Bamboo Weaving Workshop & Cooking Class

Enjoy a half-day relaxing experience combining a bamboo weaving workshop and a traditional Lao cooking class. Begin with pick-up from your hotel by tuk-tuk at 8.30 AM for the morning session or 4.00 PM for the evening session. Head to a rustic pavilion modeled on a traditional Lao house, located in a picturesque setting on the outskirts of Luang Prabang.  After a warm welcome, your guide will explain how bamboo is a key part of Lao culture. Discover how numerous items found in traditional Lao households are actually made from the versatile bamboo plant, such as fishing tools and musical instruments. Then, try your hand at weaving a souvenir mat made from strips of the bamboo plant. Your patient teacher will guide you through the techniques that have been used for hundreds of years. Learn how to sharpen knives and cut bamboo into strips, then make a small mat using an overlapping weaving process. After admiring your finished creation, learn how the bamboo plant also plays a vital role in everyday Lao cuisine. In a hands-on demonstration, assist a chef in cooking local dishes such as bamboo shoot soup, bamboo shoot steamed in banana leaf, and bamboo shoot dip. Once the activity is completed, you will be transferred back to your hotel in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang: Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci Ceremony

3. Luang Prabang: Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci Ceremony

On this activity, you will learn how to make a traditional home-cooked Lao dinner, as well as attend a Baci ceremony to celebrate a special event, a marriage, a homecoming, a birth, or one of the annual festivals.  Begin by meeting your driver at the lobby of your hotel in Luang Prabang at 4:00 PM. Stop at the local food market to learn more about the fresh ingredients and herbs that local people use in their daily cooking. You will then learn how to cook 5 typical dishes using the local ingredients, before eating together with the locals in the traditional Lao style. After your dinner enjoy a show of traditional music performs by local musician in the Hmong traditional costume. As you listen to the music, admire the breathtaking views of the rice fields surrounding the building.  Then, you will witness a "Baci" ceremony, which is a local custom performed when a mother has recovered from childbirth, when a sick person has been cured, or when monks are entering the temple. The ceremony can take place any day of the week and all through the year, but preferably before noon or before sunset. After this final experience is finished, you will be transferred back to your hotel.

Luang Prabang: Bamboo Craft Workshop & Tea Party with Snacks

4. Luang Prabang: Bamboo Craft Workshop & Tea Party with Snacks

Two sessions per day, either 08:30-11:30 and / or 14:00-16:00 Today, during a ‘bamboo workshop’ exercise, you will learn about the importance of the bamboo plant to Lao culture. Begin with a pick-up from your hotel and head to ‘The Bamboo Experience’, a rustic pavillion (modelled on a traditional Lao house) in a picturesque setting on the outskirts of Luang Prabang (ten minutes from the town centre). After a warm welcome your guide will explain how bamboo is a key part of Lao culture and how numerous items found in traditional Lao households are actually made from the versatile bamboo plant – these include fishing tools and musical instruments. Then, try your hand at making a souvenir made from bamboo plant! Your local and very patient teacher will guide you through techniques which have been used for hundreds of years. Learn how to sharpen knives and cut bamboo. After admiring your finished creation, savour the local specialty snacks and tea on the pavillion terrace with views of the countryside. After a tea party return back to your hotel.

Luang Prabang: Pottery Workshop & Wat Chomphet cycling Tour

5. Luang Prabang: Pottery Workshop & Wat Chomphet cycling Tour

Be met by your guide at the hotel lobby at 8:30 am, for the short transfer to the bike shop. Begin your short cycling to the Mekong River where you will board the local car ferry to cross the river to the quiet district of Chomphet. Over there you will not see many, if any, other tourists and very little traffic. Enjoy a day discovering local village life and visiting the pottery village that used to make pottery for the Royal Family. Disembark the ferry, stop en route to visit the old temple Wat Chomphet to see the view of Luang Prabang in the opposite side the Mekong. Then cycle the south-west direction of Luang Prabang towards Ban Chan, the pottery village where you will participate in the hands-on pottery-making class. Upon arrival you will be shown around the village to learn more about village life and the technique of pottery making that passed by for many generations, lunch will be served at the local house(Optional). Take your bike and cycle back to Luang Prabang, you will be transferred back to your hotel at the end of the tour.

Luang Prabang Trekking LongLao to Kuang si falls full day

6. Luang Prabang Trekking LongLao to Kuang si falls full day

Depart your hotel (8:30am) by private vehicle for a 50 minute drive in a westerly direction to the village of Long Lao, the starting point for today’s trek. This rustic village is little-visited by tourists, is nestled inside a picturesque valley and consists of ethnic Hmong and Kamu enclaves. The Hmong people are known as ‘Lao Seung’ highlanders, who traditionally inhabit the higher peaks of the mountainous Lao countryside – however the village in the Long Lao valley has re-settled to this lower altitude. A Hmong trekking guide will join you and your Lao guide, to lead your trek of three hours of walking time. Begin first with an ascent to a skyline ridge, offering views over Long Lao village and its enclosing valley. On the way, you might see crops of rice, coriander, chilli, and local herbs planted by local villagers who live in the valley. Follow a marked trail, which will be steep in parts, and slippery in the wet season (from April to September) – make sure you wear sturdy boots or shoes. Arrive at Kuang Si Falls, Swim in the turquoise waters, or simply explore the beautiful surrounds. Enjoy free time before visiting a nearby sanctuary which cares for and rehabilitates bears rescued from animal traders, or from deforested habitat. Return to Luang Prabang, stopping as you like for photos of countryside and villages. Arrive back at your hotel in the late afternoon.

Pony riding Luang Prabang

7. Pony riding Luang Prabang

Bond with your horse; groom, walk and ride into the lao countryside. Explore the real Laos countryside from the awesome viewpoint on horse back. Village trail, forest trail or river trails are available for all levels. Get to know your horse by a grooming session & learn how to tackle your horse - 15 min Make your first steps in the riding arena with your pony & learn how to control your horse - 15 min Go on for a ride outside in our marked trails (forest, rice field, local village, river depending on the season) - 40 min Come back to the stables, un-tackle and reward your pony by feeding him horse candies Nature's perspective is different on a horse, so take the experience with us!

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What people are saying about Luang Prabang

Overall rating

4.5 / 5

based on 13 reviews

Wonderful time spent with Mister Somsay learning about Laung Prabang thru food, culture and tradition. Started our day with a coffee (or whatever your morning drink might be), and delicious breakfast at one of the town's most renowned local noodle shops --> then off to our adventures. Markets, shops, pathways and grass-ways: we sampled so many new and interesting foods that are best known from Luang Prabang, that kept our energy high. Mister Somsay is cheerful as he greets the vendors with smiles and chats...his English is near perfect, and translates anything you wish. Highly recommend this experience: time well enjoyed.

Great tour with real local people and life. You can learn a lot of culture, tradition, etc.