Luang Say Mekong Cruises
 

Can anyone give me some input as to whether to cruise from Chiang Rai to Luang Prang or fly? If anyone has taken this boat trip, I'd LOVE to hear your experience!

Have you done a search here? Type Luang Say into the search box at the top of the page. There have been a number of reviews of this cruise.

I must be doing something wrong. When I type in "Luang Say" I just get to threads dealing with Laos or SE Asia. Can't find anything specific about the cruise....

sanshe, this is very odd. I just checked the search and also came up with nothing helpful. Previously, I had been able to find reports about the cruise, so perhaps the search function is not working properly.

The cruise is rather expensive and it does involve an over night stay in a village, which would cut your time in LP. I have researched this cruise before and it looks interesting. It depends on how you want to spend your time.

You can't fly from CR to LP. You'd have to connect through Bangkok or some days there is a flight from CM to LP on Lao Air.

I found a few reports by searching for Luangsay (without the space)

I almost took this cruise but ran out of time and opted to fly. My friend who DID go by boat absolutely LOVED it.

Sanshe, I've a good friend who did the cruise last year and again just last month. He loved it (he is dining manager at the Peninsula) and commented that its very well run - he did say this time to make sure to take a book and a long sleeve shirt- its quite a long slow cruise and gets cool on the river. I've only traveled the part of the river from LP to the caves but that was one of the best bits of being up in LP

We've just booked the same company's 3 day cruise around the southern part of the mekong in Lao for July this year. They have been really good to deal with and I've heard very positive things for that cruise as well.

Great info....I think I'm going to do it! Thanks, Mary.

I took this cruise recently and loved it. The river is fascinating, the on-board food and drink are good, the crew terrific. The lodge where you overnight is lovely. The stops at villages were interesting. The cruise was a real highlight of our trip.

When you are in Luang Prabang, be sure to have lunch at Tamarind (see the post on cooking class in LP). We ordered both of their variety platters. Have no idea now of what we ate, but boy was it good.

Thanks for the info, Vedette. I'm definitely convinced that the Luang Say is the way to go! Now I need to decide whether I should just do 2 nights in Luang Prang (instead of 3). The flight from LP to SGN has a long lay-over in Hanoi: So now I'm wondering whether I should take a night out of Laos and Saigon and spend two nights in Hanoi and just overnight in Saigon on my way home.

Cruise - one night
LP- 2 nights
Hanoi- 2 nights
Sgn - 1 night

OR:
Cruise - one night
LP - 3 nights
SGN- 3 nights

Any thoughts?

You'll enjoy your trip more if you slow down. LP in particular is slow-paced, and if you race through it you'll wonder what others loved about it. If it were me (and it isn't) I'd choose
cruise 1 night
LP 4 nights
HCMC 2 nights

I love Hanoi, but 2 nights in each LP and Hanoi would make neither of them especially enjoyable.

I certainly agree that you are rushing around too much...

Ok,thanks. I'll cut out Hanoi. Now another problem. Just tried to get a reservation at La Residence in LP and they're totally closed out (whatever that means). Does anybody know a travel agent who has clout with them? I'm wondering whether they're just holding rooms aside for a tour operator.

I seriously doubt they are holding rooms for a tour operator. Hotel rooms are often in short supply in LP, and La Residence is the nicest place in town. When are you traveling?

for a friend i tried to get rooms there for last year with over 9 months advance notice, and i had an inn there, but no rooms were available...i would go to plan 2

when are you going?

sanshe, would love to hear about the Luang Say cruise and which elephant trek you did.