Xiangkhoang hotels & places to stay

In the far distant past, the bronze-age crafted stone jars were constructed in the thousands, possibly for funeral purposes.. In a much more recent past, WE( USA/CIC/Congress) carried out secret bombings of Laos 40-50-60 years ago, ostensibly to stop/interrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trails , used to support the freedom fighters in the War with Vietnam. The best place to stay/overnight which you can fully learn about both significant events is the Maly Hotel. The restaurant has an excellent menu and can easily sustain life for all customers. The building itself is large, rising some four stories from it foundation; the room (#5) was huge—three rooms (one bathroom which actualyhad a bona fide tub) a smaller room with a single bed and a larger bedroom containing a queen sized bed, remote controlled TV, & closet. You can also view an an hour long video “The Most Secret Place On Earth”, created partly at the behest of Mr. Sousath Phetrasy, now deceased co-owner of this historic site. GREAT!

Rooms were big and clean. It even had an ageing leather three seater sofa and coffee table! We were given room at the top floor (5th) and it had nice views of the Phonsavan and the surrounding areas (hills etc). The hotel has the only lift in the province - they told us it had its own backup generator but dont depend on it. When Phonsavan experiences its blackout (which was intermittent) everything was affected. If you're fussy about about interior design then you might want to avoid this place. The room had a somewhat 'odd' layout, with weird angles spaces. This extended to the bathroom - you'd expect the mirror to be above the sink but no, it isn't! But the sink had dismal/non-existent water pressure anyway so it didn't really matter. Shower pressure was not fantastic either but passable. Don't depend on the free toothbrushes and soaps. Our fridge had a strange odour so we didn't use it - other than that, room and bath were clean. Breakfast consisted of baguettes, toast with spreads, fruits, Lao type porridge with deepfried breads/doughs. Coffee and tea. More than adequate to fill up before your Plain of Jars tour.

Very good hotel if you’re visiting the Plain of Jars. Less than 10 minutes walk into town. Booked my tour at a tour office in the town which is connected to Nice Guest House which is on the right hand side of the road as you are walking away from the hotel. The guide/drivers name was Van Koh his English was very good and easy to understand. We used him for a driver only but he was quite happy to answer any questions and the thing I liked most is that we never felt under pressure. I would certainly recommend him. We did have someone at the hotel who wasn’t connected to the hotel who tried to sell us a tour when we arrived which was very expensive. Glad we didn’t have him. The hotel also arranged a complementary pick up and drop off at the airport.

This was a lovely hotel with enormous rooms (separate sitting room and bedroom, plus large bathroom, immaculately maintained. The food was generally excellent. The hotel provides a free bus service to drop you wherever you want whenever you want and will also collect you, either at a prearranged time or if you call them. Free airport pickup and dropoff. The hotel will arrange tours of the Plain of Jars and other attractions - not the cheapest but probably the best quality of all such tours. Ask for Tey as your guide, if possible. Only a few reservations: service can be a little haphazard at times and WiFi is only available in the reception area - the only hotel we stayed in in Laos where WiFi was not available throughout.

We loved our 3 nights here, this hotel is on a hill overlooking phonsavan so suggest a Tuk Tuk to get you here from the town if you have bags, otherwise it's only a 25 min walk into town ,so unlike other reviewers we walked in and out with no problem. They are little wooden chalets, with a sitting area which has the fireplace and the staff will give you as much wood as you want for no charge, and even light the fire for you. We loved this, every night when we got back from town after dinner, to sit next to a real fire reading a book in what is best described as a Swiss chalet on a hill overlooking the town.the dogs are super friendly ( and numerous) and will walk around with you if you walk in the Forrest, they know the best paths. The breakfast is one of the best in Laos. Can't recommend this place enough, you will love it if your not to fat and unfit. Don't mind walking. Or have your own transport. The two young lads who seemed to be running the place where fantastic and couldn't do enough for you..great place to stay.

We had a lovely stay at Kong's. Good, clean room with everything you need. Very hot shower as mentioned in previous reviews. What I liked a lot are the complimentary bananas, so if you have no time for breakfast, you have something that keeps you going. Now to Khong himself: such a friendly, incredibly funny and well educated person! We did the plain of Jars tour (hills of jars ;-)) with him and it was one of the best guided tours ever. Don't even think about doing it somewhere else. He knows all the details, but the best part is that he has a way of telling you things, that you simply enjoy listening and do not feel tired of being lectured. He also answers all the questions and really offered some insight knowledge in terms of Lao culture and behavior. Thanks a lot for the great fun and hospitality! Also recommend to buy the onward bus tickets from him.

Best customer service I've had yet in Laos! They picked us up from the mini van/bus stop (had my name on a piece of paper!) - all 100meters away from the hotel - and drove us to the front door. Check us in and walked us to the room. The room was simple but clean with waters and the basics. A/C isn't necessary, the weather was so much cooler than anywhere else we've been. Would stay here again if I ever came back! After we relaxed, someone from the hotel explained the pricing for a tour of the plain of jars. A bit out of our price range but they came down a lot on the price, I guess because it's the slow season. Make friends with people on your bus ride and try to organize a "group" tour together. It was hard to find random people on the street and restaurants to form our "group" but we did and it was way cheaper! The town is small, not much to do. Ate at craters for almost every meal. The free movies at the MAG office are good-very educational and if no one shows up at the playing time, they'll turn on the movie for you if you ask.

For the price that we paid on Agoda, this was by far one of the best values I have stayed at. It is not a 5 star hotel but the service was above and beyond. The room was clean and the breakfast was homemade and they accommodated my special request without as much as a flinch. For the price of $26 USD per night I could not have had a better value. Clean, comfortable, and truly accommodating. Wonderful place to stay and would highly recommend.

Truly comfortable! Receptionist are always available and friendly. Good location - for muslims, halal food/restaurant (Nisha Halal Indian Restaurant) is very close by; for travelers, convenient stores very near and a lot of tour agencies that sells cheap tour are lined up around the area for you too! Lao War Memorial and the Morning Market is also not far from the place if you ever wanted to visit and drop by at the place. Good for light travelers and value for money! Thank you for your hospitality Jennida! I really love the warm welcome! Noraimah Said Brunei Darussalam

Resort is located in pine forest 2 km from city. There is no easy access to transport. The walk to the city was easy and relaxing. However, the city of Phonsavan goes to bed by 10pm, we couldn't find transport of any kind to take us back to the resort. Walking back to the resort, through a pine forest in the dark was not so fun. There is no dinning facilities at the resort so don't expect breakfast even if it is part of the hotel package. The hotel itself is very pretty, Swiss influenced wooden style chalets. Each chalet housed 4 rooms. We had rodents visitors in the night though, we could hear them scuttling among our luggage - they ate an apple and left poo in the bathroom. I guessed that can be expected since the hotel is located in a forest. However, we took our rubbish with us when we left the hotel as we discovered that rubbish was being dumped on the hillside just outside one of the chalets. There is no wifi or internet connection but that was OK with us. The hotel staff depends on their mobile phones for communication and this includes hotel bookings. They were not expecting us since we did our reservations online. The resort is rather nice and have lots of potential. If there were no rodent visitors and easy access to transport, we would have stay for a few more days.

The staff were so lovely and helpful and they tried really hard to communicate and be nice to us. The room was lovely and big and clean. The windows were massive and looked out over farmland. There is local food stalls very close by. For western food it's a short walk to town. We hired bicycles from town and cycled to the Plain of Jars from the hotel. It was pretty close and a lovely ride. The MAG centre is brilliant and a must see.

Our stay at the Chittavanh was an adventure. The shower in the room next to ours flooded which resulted in a flood in our room. When we asked to be moved to a dry room they said they had no available rooms although when we said they would need to find us a room in another hotel a room became available. Some of the communication was complicated by language barriers, we don't speak Laotian and not all members of the staff could speak English. We were surprised to learn that Agoda had give our name to a local tour agency. This resulted in them picking us up at the airport and then "selling" us a package tour. While the tour arrangements worked out fine, the sharing of our information was not appropriate. On our final day the hotel staff went above and beyond to assist us in getting to the mini-van station. Our scheduled driver had forgotten to pick us up, but the staff saved the day. We also enjoyed the provided hot breakfast every morning.

the worst ever! i demand my oney back for at least 1 nite, i cut my stay short it was so bad i was the only guest and the laotian army was there, no air con, no food, no wifi, dirty, unfriendly, i'm in the airline industry and have travelled extensively for close to 50 years, and never had such an awful experience!!i've stayed at 1 to 5 star hotels, this doesn't even rate a star.

excellent whole view and nice staff!! the transportation between hotel and city is hard cause the hotel is on the top of hill(so you can see the whole view for the phonsavanh.) all of staff did not know english,so difficult to communciate with them in loas speaking. however,the manager is polite and passion to take us to the city and had our dinner by his own car. rooms and the prices is reasonable include breakfast. as we are the first visitors to stay in the hotel,i think these hotel is good in the phonsavanh.add oil!!

This is a pretty nice guesthouse, considering the price you pay for a room. It's an easy walk from downtown Chiang Kuang and has hot showers, and the staff are really, really helpful. I got good advice on where to eat and how to get to the Plain of Jars from the guy at the front desk, and when I asked about taking a bus to go on farther South, he called the bus station for me to figure out when I should get there (really early, it turned out) and offered to wake up and call me a tuk-tuk at 5:45, and then when he couldn't get ahold of a tuk-tuk driver the next morning he drove me to the bus station on his moped at 6:00. I would highly recommend this place. Of course, you'll need to learn some key phrases in Laotian. The staff don't speak anything else.

We were very fortunate that our taxi driver helped us check in as not one person on the staff speaks a word of English. There is a sign on the lobby door that says "Free Wifi" but apparently there isn't yet. I asked the kid working the desk about it but he just stared at me. It was a chore to ask for more toilet paper or any other basic request. The hot water in the bathroom was very finicky so you may or may not get a hot shower. The water at times was actually scalding. The women staff who work here sure like to yell and scream a lot at odd hours of the day. So even though this hotel is 2 blocks from the main center, it is definitely NOT quiet. The only pro is that the rooms were clean and well kep

This place is a good hike from the main strip, so think twice if you don't have your own transport. The reception staff are disinterested and casual, even by local standards. The rooms are big with good showers but badly maintained overall. Views are fantastic. Breakfast is served in a restaurant half way down the hill, which the reception staff will not tell you. Better off eating in town anyway.

Room was very clean and received fresh towels daily. Owner, Xouyang, picked us up from the bus station since we had pre booked and provided recommendations on tours and motorbike rentals without being pushy. He booked flights for us from XiengKhoung to Vientiane which was helpful since Laos Airlines didn't show any flights available. Rooms are very loud since everything echoes in the hall, and roosters/dogs start early but you hear that from every hotel. Beds are very hard, but to be expected in Laos. Overall great value, clean rooms, and helpful staff.