Pakse
Where to lay your head
Where to lay your head
Despite being Laos’ second most populous city, Pakse has surprisingly few good value accommodation for budget travellers. Most use the city as a transit hub and jumping off point for explorations further afield and travellers rarely linger. Accommodation is also scattered throughout the Bolaven Plateau—between Pakse and Paksong, in Paksong itself and between Paksong and Thateng. All can be enjoyable bases to see the waterfalls, coffee plantations and scenery. See our dedicated Tad Lo section for guesthouse options there.
Pakse has utilitarian hotels and guesthouses, and very few tempt travellers to stay any longer than necessary. They are mostly clustered in the old French quarter and along Route 13 in the section of land where the Xe Don wraps around to join the Mekong. Basic homestay is available on Don Kho island, in the Mekong north of the Pakse.
Le Jardin Hotel is a charming oasis in a charmless city—enjoying a boutique property with gardens and a swimming pool means a location 2.5 km from the city centre, worth it for those looking for a peaceful stay. The staff and owner warmly greeted us and anyone who arrives is instantly made to feel at home. This feeling is reflected in the intimate, tidy and immaculate grounds and the bold,... Read our full review of Le Jardin Hotel.
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Residence Sisouk is a fabulously stylish boutique hotel located in a renovated colonial building along Pakse‘s riverside. Pakse has an abundance of new gaudy large hotels and crumbling dinosaur guesthouses with sullen service—few accommodation options here take care to look to Pakse’s past. Residence Sisouk is one of the exceptions. Occupying a corner in the old French Quarter, just... Read our full review of Residence Sisouk Boutique Hotel.
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Our previous review called Alisa Guesthouse the best value accommodation in town and after many years, the position still stands. We visited Alisa five times over the course of two weeks just for a chance to see a room, and every one of those times it was full, a testament to its popularity (tip: booking in advance is a must). Luckily a traveller let us inspect their room. Rooms come with... Read our full review of Alisa Guesthouse.
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Set in a four storey building in the tourist centre near Pakse Hotel and the central market, FoRest Hotel is an unusual combination of backpacker and flashpacker accommodation and Japanese restaurant. Backpackers can look forward to a dorm room with solid wood bunks. Four bunks/eight beds fill up most of the room making it a bit of a tight squeeze. Nang Noi Guesthouse dorms are cheaper but... Read our full review of FoRest Hotel.
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This is one of Pakse’s best options for backpackers (though to be fair, there isn’t much competition in town). Backpackers can choose from fan-cooled dorms or private rooms with fan or air-con. The dorm rooms are simply an oversized room with four single beds. There’s no privacy between beds but it’s not crowded and it’s a respectable ratio for the shared ensuite bathroom sporting... Read our full review of Nang Noi Guesthouse.
This multi-storey complex housing the Seng Aroun Hotel has a convenient location in the city centre and looks flashy on the outside. Look inside the rooms and things are just ok. We inspected the standard rooms (the hotel calls them “junior”) and they were clean and inoffensive, bright white and peach boxes with window, fridge, box TV, air-con and purpose-built furniture for the space... Read our full review of Seng Aroun Hotel.
Pakse Hotel is the unofficial centre of the city’s tourism scene and has remained the steadfast favourite accommodation throughout the years, a gathering place for businessmen, the NGO set, tour groups and independent travellers with less restrictive budgets. The six storey mid-market hotel is big enough to accommodate some numbers so it remains a popular choice for foreign tour groups.... Read our full review of Pakse Hotel.
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Khaemsee Guesthouse is rickety and a bit shabby though it offers more interesting accommodation than many of the grotty, grim places in town. The better rooms are the basic fan rooms in the wooden upper floor of the building. There’s wooden floors, wooden walls and wooden ceiling with windows and a rotating fan mounted on the ceiling. Skip the air-con rooms on the ground floor—they are... Read our full review of Khaemse Guesthouse.
The road rising up into the Bolaven Plateau between Pakse and Paksong is peppered with waterfalls, some of which have accommodation.
There are several magnificent waterfalls along Road 16 and Falls View Resort puts travellers close to the lot. Located at Tad E-Tu (Itou) waterfall, the resort formerly known as Ban E-Tu Resort has little cottages that cantilever along a slope. There’s no view of the falls from the 37 bungalows but guests can certainly hear the water from the balcony. ###9634 We inspected the property late... Read our full review of Falls View Resort.
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Known as the “coffee capital of Laos”, Paksong is a function-over-fashion kind of town but it’s a good base to explore the Bolaven Plateau’s waterfalls and coffee plantations. It’s consistently cool/cold here at night, therefore accommodation usually does not have air-con or even fan. It’s 50 km east of Pakse, 60 km drive from Tad Lo.
Located 800 metres from the main road, Savanna Guesthouse is comfortable, clean and well-maintained—always a good sign. The cheaper rooms are cosy, have a small window, electric heated shower and hardwood floor which will feel good underfoot on a chilly Paksong night. Splash out 20,000 kip more and get a hugely spacious room with tile floor and many conveniences such as large glazed... Read our full review of Savanna Guesthouse .
Simmaly looks nondescript from the outside and even we had our doubts about whether checking it out would be worth our time, but inside are surprisingly modern rooms that will please most budget travellers. Rooms are plain, with beige walls, a bed, a floor fan and an ensuite wetroom bathroom with hot shower, Western toilet and a mirror. Everything looked clean and in decent shape and the... Read our full review of Simmaly Guesthouse.
Sinouk Coffee Resort is located in Ban Lak Khao, 32 km north of Paksong on the sealed road between Paksong and Thateng.
Located on the road between Paksong and Thateng, Sinouk Coffee Resort is a lodge that allows travellers to experience the verdant, fertile landscape of the Bolaven Plateau. If the name sounds familiar, Sinouk is one of the prominent family coffee empires in Laos. The lodge is composed of three chalets with varying room types, situated at the edge of a coffee plantation. ###9635 The best... Read our full review of Sinouk Coffee Resort.
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