Sofitel Luang Prabang, originally built as a French Governor’s residence in 1900s.Located in the quiet residential quarter of Ban Mano. With 5 minutes to city center and 10 minutes from Luang Prabang international airport. Nearby attractions include Wat Mano Temple, Royal Museum, Mount Phousi, Wat Xiengtong and UXO bomb museum.
Embrace local culture as you explore a city that seems untouched by the passage of time. Once referred to as ‘the Refuge of the Last Dreamers’, Luang Prabang is a colourful patchwork of villages, temples and cultures. Sofitel Luang Prabang features 25 suites with colonial design. The UNESCO protected hotel features heritage design with luxury amenities and complimentary wifi. All suites feature private garden with gazebo and outdoor bathtub or a private pool.
Style and Character
World class style with boutique touches. Recently revamped by the Accor group, this UNESCO listed building feels happier under new ownership and the space has come into its own with better service and a new restaurant in a cool-fanned pavilion in the centre of the courtyard.
Service and Facilities
Gym, outdoor pool, spa (the traditional stilted Lao house where you find the spa, is authentic, it just happened to be in a different place in Laos before being taken apart and reassembled here), library, restaurant, reflexology in your room, free bicycles, free shuttle into town. The stylishly low-lit Sabai Library Lounge is cosy with bookshelves stacked floor to ceiling with thumbed Dick Francis novels, and the perfect place to savour a cocktail. You can even learn to cook here at the KaToke Cooking School.
Rooms
Sumptuous and almost large enough to get lost in, 23 slate-grey suites sport high ceilings, walk-in showers, his and hers sinks; huge flatscreens, four posters, contemporary dark wood furniture and evocative black and white photography. They also have bijou back gardens and some have their own plunge pools.
Food and Drink
The Governor’s Grill restaurant sits in a romantic safari pavilion in the courtyard by the stylish bar. While the sister restaurant at Les 3 Nagas focuses on purely Lao food, the Governor serves up a western leaning menu here with well-executed dishes like buffalo steak.
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang is an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its unique, remarkably well-preserved townscape illustrates a key stage in the blending of these two distinct cultural traditions.
Sitting at the sacred confluence of the Mekong River and the Nam Khan (Khan River), nowhere else can lay claim to this Unesco-protected gem’s romance of 33 gilded wats, saffron-clad monks, faded Indochinese villas and exquisite fusion cuisine.
Over the last 25 years Luang Prabang has seen a flood of investment, with once-leprous French villas being revived as fabulous boutique hotels, and some of the best chefs in Southeast Asia moving in. The population has swollen, and yet still the peninsula remains as sleepy and friendly as a village, as if time has stood still here.
Beyond the evident history and heritage of the old French town are aquamarine waterfalls, top trekking opportunities, meandering mountain-bike trails, kayaking trips, river cruises and outstanding natural beauty, the whole ensemble encircled by hazy green mountains.
“Behind its high walls, this renovated 100-year-old former governor’s residence hides a paradise of mature palms and exotic flowers bordering a stunning cherry-tiled swimming pool and ornamental garden.”
