Nam Khan Riverside (Ban Wat Sene)

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/3

Where it sits

The circle is Nam Khan Riverside and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• The dawn alms-giving (Tak Bat)5 min walk385 m
• The Ethnology Centre (TAEC)6 min walk504 m
• Sunset from Mount Phousi7 min walk595 m
• Wat Xieng Thong8 min walk688 m
• The handicraft night market9 min walk732 m
• The Royal Palace Museum10 min walk802 m
• A Mekong sunset cruise12 min walk1.0 km
• Kuang Si Falls68 min taxi22.7 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 8.A Lao BBQ (sindad) dinner — A proper Lao night out at the table — sindad, the beloved Lao-Isaan barbecue-hotpot, where a domed metal grill sits over coals at your table: you grill strips of meat on top while a moat of broth around the edge simmers vegetables, noodles and egg into a soup. It's sociable, hands-on, delicious and cheap, best washed down with Beerlao at a riverside spot or a local grill house. Add the essentials — sticky rice, laap (the minced-meat national dish) and jeow (chilli dips) — and you've eaten Laos. A fun, tasty, quintessentially Lao meal. Come hungry.
• 10.Riverside bars & gentle nightlife — Luang Prabang's nightlife is famously mellow — think riverside cushions, not clubs — and its heart is Utopia, a legendary lantern-lit garden bar tucked above the Nam Khan, with low tables, river views and a barefoot, sundowner vibe. Nurse a Beerlao or a fruit shake as the light fades, and when the town's midnight curfew shuts everything else, the diehards head to the (in)famous bowling alley on the edge of town, the only late spot going. Low-key, friendly and charming rather than raucous. A lovely, easy evening. Gentle by design.
• 15.A Lao cooking class — The best souvenir you can take home — a half-day Lao cooking class, where you'll typically start at the morning market to learn the ingredients, then cook the classics: laap (the minced-meat, herb and lime national dish), mok pa (fish steamed in banana leaf), jeow chilli dips, and of course sticky rice. Lao food is fresh, herby and underrated, and a class is a fun, hands-on, delicious way to understand it — often in a lovely garden or riverside setting. You eat everything you make. A brilliant, tasty half-day and a genuine skill to keep. Great fun.