RTW Trip Day #41: Country Number Six: Arriving in Luang Prabang in Laos

8 November 2025

Steps: 7,604

Today we left Siem Reap and Cambodia and flew to Luang Prabang in Laos where we are spending 7 nights.

Luang Prabang is one of the cities that we are most excited to visit as we have a homestay at a rice farm as well as a bit of a splurge at a luxury hotel.

Eating Seared Beef and Red Ant Salad

We spent the morning packing and relaxing by the pool for one last time, as we don’t have a pool for the next two nights.

For lunch, I decided to try one of the local specialties from the hotel restaurant - a seared beef salad with stir-fried red ants! It sounds weird, but it was absolutely delicious.

The beef was really tender, with a tasty Asian-style dressing, and the ants added a citrusy crunch that was actually great.

I’d definitely order it again, although I can't imagine I'll find red ants on too many menus in Canada!

The Luang Prabang Visa on Arrival Process

Our flight to Luang Prabang was smooth and stress-free. The Vietnam Airlines experience was miles better than AirAsia. There was barely any line at check-in, unlike the never-ending queue that stretched out the door for AirAsia! I even lucked out with a whole row to myself on the plane, which felt like pure luxury.

At customs, we went through the visa on arrival process. We could have applied online, but for some reason it cost 10 USD more than doing it in person. With four of us traveling, it seemed worth saving the extra 40 USD and spending a bit more time at the airport instead.

The visa on arrival cost 40 USD per person in cash, plus 1 USD each for scanning our passport photo since we didn’t have printed ones, and another 1 USD per person as a processing fee.

Altogether, it came to 168 USD for our family, which is about 200 CAD, making Laos one of the most expensive countries to enter on our trip so far.

As we went through immigration, the officer checking our passports casually gave us his phone number, mentioning that he and his brother also worked as taxi drivers.

After collecting our bags, we stepped outside and booked a ride through the LOCA app (since Grab doesn’t operate here). And who should pull up to pick us up? The very same guy who had just stamped our passports! Only in Laos, I guess.

Villa Khoum Xieng Thong Boutique

Our first night in Luang Prabang was just a short stay since we had our Living Land rice farming experience and homestay planned for the next day. The villa we stayed in was very central and close to town, which made it easy to explore a bit before moving on.

The room was lovely, with beautiful old wooden floors, four-poster beds, and gorgeous bay windows that gave it so much character. It has a very European feel.

For dinner, we walked down the street to a small restaurant in the Old Town and ordered a few small plates to share. Evelyn had yet another banana shake, the girls enjoyed satay chicken, and I had a chicken and coconut soup that was absolutely delicious.

I love the walkability of Luang Prabang - I can tell we are going to love it here already and am excited to explore here more once we have had our homestay.

Previous Day #40 Hero Rats in Siem Reap

Next Day #42: The Living Land Farm Rice Experience and Homestay

Read About Our Itinerary here