Luang Prabang

The old royal capital of Laos, a UNESCO World Heritage town since 1995 set on a sacred peninsula where the Nam Khan river meets the Mekong. Founded as the seat of the kingdom of Lan Xang in 1353 and later capital of the kingdom of Luang Prabang, it keeps more than thirty gilded Buddhist monasteries threaded among French colonial shophouses, and it is exactly this fusion of traditional Lao and European architecture that UNESCO honours. Wander from Wat Xieng Thong, the royal temple raised around 1560 by King Setthathirath, to the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum, which holds the Prabang, the small gold-alloy Buddha that gave the city its name. Climb Mount Phousi, the sacred hill in the center crowned by the gilded stupa of That Chomsi from 1804, and rise before dawn for the alms-giving that still orders daily life here. Read the peninsula at your own pace, lingering by the water for as long as you like.