Sa Sa Lao Guesthouse — Hotel in Luang Prabang

I'm not a backpacker by any stretch of the imagination; but had booked the most wonderful private room with a canopied bed, mosquito nets, virtually open air shower and airy open lodge room. I had the BEST sleep I've had in months. In fact I slept so well that I added on an extra night to make up for the night I'd missed due to sickness at the start. ||There is a river ride into town provided by the resort so you can meander into town down the Mekong River with an excellent skipper watching the world go by. Bliss! I managed to time it so that I also was able to get a lift back to the lodge on the boat for my return journey. Whilst it is a free "boat shuttle" it is only right & proper to give the skipper a few bank notes to show your appreciation. ||There is a restaurant on site which is amazing. I had wholesome home cooked, traditional food here which you can watch being made and there is a lovely communal feel about the restaurant area. |There is a beautiful spot with big relaxing chairs which you can plonk yourself down on overlooking the river and watch the river activity. Two mornings i had coffee there before i started my exploring. ||As a solo traveller, life never is as exciting as it is when you have a partner with you (NB he left me for a tart!!) but Alisha & team were always kind enough to make me feel welcome and provide some conversation or information as required. ||A glorious stay so disappointing to read that someone else has not enjoyed their time here. I would thoroughly recommend. A friendly &...

Spent just one night there but have really mixed feelings. Firstly - it has a great atmosphere and style, there is a big common area combined with their cafe where you can eat quite tasty food (although it's definitely too expensive for Laos standards), easy to meet people, just comfortable and nice. They have spacious lockers, which seems to be a rare thing in hostels here.

But sleeping experience and location are not that cool... Beds are quite bad for hostels - all are covered with mosquito nets so you have to dive underneath them, no blinds at all to cover the sides. There is no sockets near the bed and not even a small shelf to put even your phone on. Then noise.. I had just one night but I was woken up REPEATEDLY by a rooster crowing again and again nearby starting from like 6 am... Like cmon, for real?.. And yeah, it's quite far from center, around 30 min walk, and there is not much of anything nearby - no big shops, no cafes, so keep in mind. Ah, and yeah, wifi is quite bad and slow, I think less than 1 MB/s.

So I'd say I really liked the vibe and atmosphere, but I don't want to actually stay and sleep there heh... And as sleeping is rly important in hostels - just because of that I put 3 stars, although everything else is rly good (apart...

I was confused about how this gets such good reviews, but quite a few “guests” review only here, Sa Sa cruise, and “Fan Dee” (a different name for the same resort) giving five stars to all, so I assume the owners are simply padding the reviews.

This place has the potential to be great, but falls short in a number of ways. The location is far from ideal, a good half hour walk into the center of town rather than the 10-15 minutes advertised, the first part along unlit roads with no pavement. As other reviews have noted, the staff are unfriendly which gives the place an unwelcome atmosphere. Finally, the prices advertised for tuktuks are far inflated compared to the going rates - they advertise 50k into town when you can easily get one for 30k, and 250k to the waterfalls when the standard rate (no bargaining) is 200k. Given breakfast isn’t cheap and you’ll probably take a tuktuk at least once per day to/from town, you can get a much better deal staying in or near the old...