Sengtawan Riverside Hotel in Vientiane, Laos

Sengtawan Riverside Hotel was a nice place to stay and I highly recommend it. It was very clean and there was a TV, minibar, wifi, and AC in the room. The room and bathroom were large and toiletries were provided. The lobby was also very spacious and the staff was attentive. I was picked up from the airport (complimentary) and they also offered to drop me off at the bus station after my stay (but I had already booked pick up through a travel agent). They have a spa in the basement where I received a lovely massage. They also have a restaurant on the top floor with great views of the Mekong and free breakfast. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk to town.

Cons: The room was dark and there was a slight mildew smell. Breakfast was not very good and it was supposed to end at 10:30am but they shut it down at 10am the morning I went. They had computers in the lobby but they never connected to the internet (I tried three times). The laundry service was very expensive (40,000 kip per kilo).

Overall I thought Vientiane was a rather boring town! Hard to believe it’s a capital city as it was very “sleepy”. I didn’t do much there except eat at a very good Indian restaurant (Aashifa) and visit Buddha Park (separate review coming up next). There were some cows grazing by the Mekong that were fun to take photos of though!