Champasak Palace Hotel

Pakse

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Palace indeed. This vast, wedding-cake-style building was originally built for Chao Boun Oum, the last prince of Champasak and Lao prime minister between 1960 and 1962. The standard rooms are a tad twee, but well kept with comfortable beds, while the graceful restaurant and common areas turn heads with wood columns, louvred windows and touches of flair.

It is worth investing in a huge VIP suite (550,000K), with parquet floors and panoramic views. The cheapest rooms are in the newer Sedone building out back and are far less inspiring.

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Nearby Pakse attractions

1. Sacred Heart Cathedral

0.49 MILES

This modest, tin-roofed building isn't much to look at from the outside, but the one-of-a-kind paintings inside are the reason to visit. They show Jesus…

2. Wat Luang

0.56 MILES

The riverside Wat Luang is one of Pakse's largest temples and is notable for its old monastic school built in 1935, which has recently had a roof…

3. Talat Dao Heuang

0.77 MILES

This vast market near the Lao–Japanese Bridge is one of the biggest in the country. It's at its most chaotic in the food zones, but just about anything a…

4. Wat Phou Salao

1.91 MILES

The centrepiece of this hilltop temple across the Mekong from Pakse is the giant golden Buddha statue looking out over the city. The views from his perch…

5. Champasak Historical Heritage Museum

3.39 MILES

Highlights here include ancient bronze drums, stone carvings unearthed up on the Bolaven Plateau, stelae with Tham script dating from the 15th to 18th…

6. Wat Chomphet

5.01 MILES

This temple just past the stone carvers in Ban Don Khoh is well worth a visit, not only for its 30m-tall gold-painted Buddha but also some of the…

7. Ban Saphai Handicraft Centre

7.83 MILES

Next to the boat pier, several weavers have their looms here and locally woven textiles and other crafts are on sale. Some people here can speak a little…

8. Tat Phasuam

13.1 MILES

This modest but interesting U-shaped waterfall is 2km from the highway, within the Uthayan Bajiang Nature Resort about 35km from Pakse. Hawkers sell…