Rosewood Luang Prabang

At the bottom of a forested valley outside Luang Prabang, a waterfall drops into a stream, and Bill Bensley built Rosewood Luang Prabang around it. The resort opened in 2018 with a small number of rooms, pool villas and hillside tents, arranged along the water and up the slope so that the sound of the falls reaches almost every room. It is Rosewood's first hotel in Laos, and it sits a few minutes by car from the old royal capital.

History

Luang Prabang was the royal capital of the Lao kingdom, and its old town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1995. For years its better hotels were mostly restored colonial villas and guesthouses inside the protected centre. Rosewood Luang Prabang, opened in 2018, chose a different kind of site: a stretch of valley outside the historic core, where a new resort could be built among trees and water. Bensley, the Bangkok-based designer whose studio has shaped resorts across Asia, was responsible for the architecture, the interiors and the landscape.

Architecture and design

Bensley drew on Lao vernacular buildings and on the French colonial period, and filled the rooms with objects collected for the project: maps, photographs, textiles, lacquer and old furniture. Rooms set on a bridge span the stream. Pool villas sit lower down near the water. Tents raised on wooden platforms stand higher on the hillside among the trees. The main building holds the restaurant and bar, with terraces overlooking the falls. Each room is furnished a little differently, which gives the resort the feel of a private collection rather than a hotel fitted out from a catalogue.

Rooms and suites

Accommodation is divided between the bridge rooms, the pool villas and the tents, each with views of the forest and the stream. The pool villas suit families and couples who want water of their own. The tents, with canvas walls and wide decks, bring guests closest to the forest, with birdsong at dawn and the falls below.

Dining

Great River Road, the main restaurant, serves Lao and Western dishes built on produce from the region: river fish, herbs, greens and rice from nearby farms. The bar beside it looks over the waterfall. Cooking classes and meals in the countryside can be arranged, and the restaurants of the old town are close by car.

Wellness

The spa occupies tented pavilions on the hillside, with treatments that draw on Lao herbal traditions. A swimming pool sits near the falls, and yoga sessions and walks into the surrounding hills are offered.

Location

Luang Prabang occupies a peninsula where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong. Its temples, among them Wat Xieng Thong, and the dawn procession of monks collecting alms along the main street are the reasons most visitors come, and Mount Phousi gives the classic view over the town. The Kuang Si Falls lie about 30 kilometres south, and the Pak Ou caves, filled with Buddha images, are upriver by boat. The French explorer Henri Mouhot, who made Angkor known in Europe, died near the town in 1861, and his tomb stands by the Nam Khan. Luang Prabang International Airport is about 20 minutes away by car. Since 2021 the Laos-China Railway has linked the town with Vientiane in about two hours. Among luxury hotels in Luang Prabang, this is the one that puts the forest first and the town second, and it works best for guests who want both within the same day.