Things to do in Savannakhet
And where to stay, the best time to visit, what a day costs, and the traps to skip.
Best time to visit Savannakhet
• a note or something on ✦ an occasion worth the trip
Cool, dry season, the best months for cycling, trekking and day trips.
Hot season building to about 40 degrees in April, with possible smoky haze in March and April.
Rainy season, lush and very quiet, with poor roads to the rural sights and treks paused.
That Ing Hang Festival at the full moon fills the town with pilgrims, book rooms well ahead.
Pi Mai Lao New Year in mid April centres on Wat Xayaphoum, joyful and wet with patchy closures.
Boat Racing Festival at the end of Buddhist Lent brings longboat racing to the riverfront.
What's on
- That Ing Hang Festival Full moon in December, 30 November to 5 December in the 2025 edition
The province's largest festival, days of prayer and pilgrimage at That Ing Hang.
- That Phone Festival Full moon in February
The annual pilgrimage festival at That Phonh stupa, 45 km northeast of town.
- Pi Mai Lao New Year Around 14 to 16 April
Water festival centred on Wat Xayaphoum, with temples at their most alive.
- Boun Bang Fai Rocket Festival May, dates vary by village
Homemade rockets launched to call the rain, ask the tourist office which village is firing.
- Boat Racing Festival October, at the end of Buddhist Lent
Longboat racing on the Mekong hosted at Wat Xayaphoum, the riverfront's biggest sporting party.
Best things to do in Savannakhet
Talat Yen Plaza
The plaza anchoring the old town colonial walk, past nearly 200 preserved French buildings toward the church.
St. Teresa's Catholic Church
A simple 1920s colonial church on the old town plaza, the landmark and pivot point of the heritage walk.
Wat Xayaphoum
The town's oldest temple on the Mekong, a working monastery where Buddha images are still cast by hand.
That Ing Hang
One of the most revered stupas in Laos, a calm pilgrimage site reached by a rural road past Bung Va Lake.
Savannakhet Dinosaur Museum
Two rooms of real dinosaur bones including a 12 metre Tangvayosaurus, charmingly dusty and unpolished.
Savannakhet Museum
A small, eclectic provincial museum frozen in time, best paired with the dinosaur museum on a hot afternoon.
Naga Statue
The big white naga on the Mekong promenade, the town's favourite sunset stop with Thailand across the river.
LaoChaLeun
The nightly market inside the old colonial cinema, the liveliest evening scene in town for food and people.
Where to stay in Savannakhet
Old Town and the Mekong riverfront
first trip, walkable base
Walk to the temples, museums, night market and the best cafes, with the river as the evening entertainment.
Riverside south of the centre
quiet resort stay with transport
Large garden grounds facing the Mekong at the Daosavanh, but a long unlit walk from town without a vehicle.
Casino and Friendship Bridge fringe
casino visits and the Thai border
Convenient for Savan Resorts and the bridge, inconvenient for every old town sight.
Khanthabouli Road and bus station strip
one cheap transit night
Functional budget guesthouses for through travellers, in the least atmospheric part of town.
Think twice about
- Bus station perimeter as a base
Cheap rooms but the least atmospheric area, a long walk from the riverfront, with stray dogs reported at night.
- Casino fringe as a sightseeing base
Out of the way for the old town, with costly and hard to find transport into the centre at fair prices.
Best restaurants in Savannakhet
Cafe Chez Boune Restaurant
The town's splurge dinner, French and Italian dishes with wine and desserts in an air conditioned dining room.
Daosavanh Restaurant
A colonial French dining room in the old centre, known for its three course lunch menu and grilled entrecote.
Lin's Café
The traveller cafe by the plaza, praised for Thai dishes, English breakfast, banana cake and a mango crepe.
Pilgrim's Kitchen & Inn
Lao, Indian, Mexican and Western dishes on a wooden terrace over the Mekong, with the best coffee in town.
Dolly's Cafe
Pizza and a full English breakfast at cafe prices, and the town's most recommended motorbike rental desk.
LaoChaLeun
Graze the market stalls the town itself chooses for dinner, grilled fish, Lao salads, sweets and Beerlao.
LONG PIZZA
The Talat Yen pizza spot with one of the largest and happiest food review bases in town.
Xokxay Restaurant
A small family run Lao lunch spot for laap, sticky rice and grilled meats at local prices.
Best coffee in Savannakhet
Phasouk Cafe 1966
A long established retro cafe serving strong Lao coffee, the findable heart of the old town coffee scene.
Outdoor things to do in Savannakhet
Dong Natad
A village protected old growth forest trekked with local guides, ending at a lakeside picnic by the turtle lake.
Bung Va Lake
A calm lake ringed by rice fields, with gazebo restaurants and pedalos on the quiet road to That Ing Hang.
That Ing Hang Cycle Route
A flat rural ride from the riverfront past Bung Va Lake to That Ing Hang, the best half day on a bicycle here.
That Phonh Stupa
An ancient stupa built between about AD 557 and 700, a revered pilgrimage site with almost no foreign visitors.
Heuan Hinh
A weathered 1000 year old Khmer shrine in a field south of town, unrestored and almost unvisited.
Monkey Forest
A sacred forest of hundreds of stump tailed macaques, paired with the sacred giant turtles of Ban Done Daeng.
Dong Phou Vieng National Protected Area
A multi day eco trek with village homestays and excellent local guides, the one genuine splurge excursion here.
Second Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge
The bridge to Mukdahan in Thailand, a half day contrast of markets, a view tower and Vietnamese restaurants.
Best hotels in Savannakhet
Savan Resorts
The town's only full service casino resort, with a big pool and praised staff but ageing rooms and a remote site.
Daosavanh Resort & Spa Hotel
A spacious, quiet Mekong garden resort with a big pool, faded and in need of the maintenance reviews describe.
Pilgrim's Kitchen & Inn
A small riverfront inn with large clean rooms, bike hire and the town's best loved kitchen on a Mekong terrace.
Hoong Thip Hotel
A reliable mid tier fallback with genuinely large rooms in the newer block when the riverfront inns are full.
Joly Guest House
The best reviewed budget guesthouse in town, simple and owner run at about twelve dollars a night.
Leena Guesthouse
A basic old town guesthouse where travellers recorded a private double with bathroom for under three pounds.
Is Savannakhet expensive? What a day costs
| Budget | LAK 450,000 a person |
|---|---|
| Classic | LAK 900,000 a person |
| Splurge | LAK 2,000,000 a person |
A day of food, drink, sights and getting around, before the room
What to book ahead
- Dong Natad: a few days ahead
- Heuan Hinh: a few days ahead
- Monkey Forest: a few days ahead
- Dong Phou Vieng National Protected Area: a few days ahead
- Pilgrim's Kitchen & Inn: a few days ahead
- Pilgrim's Kitchen and Inn books out, so reserve the room a few days ahead.
- Arrange the Dong Natad trek and Eco Guide Unit treks a day or more ahead in town.
- Book rooms weeks ahead for the December That Ing Hang Festival and the February That Phone Festival.
Is Savannakhet safe?
- The southern resort strip road into town is unlit, so take a tuk tuk after dark.
- Do not swim in the Mekong here, use hotel pools instead.
- Medical care is basic, with real hospitals across the river in Thailand, so carry evacuation insurance.
- Wear a helmet and ride only in daylight on the poor roads to Heuan Hinh and That Phone.
Savannakhet travel tips: tourist traps to skip
- The Dinosaur Museum is a charming 25 minutes, not a half day headline sight.
- Resort prices at Daosavanh and Savan Resorts do not buy resort standards, per recent reviews of closed facilities.
- The casino floor is smoky and aimed at gaming traffic, not a traveller evening plan.
- Sooksavan Cafe and Bistro is listed as permanently closed, so do not navigate across town for it.
- Hotel laundry at Savan Resorts has produced a verified 57 US dollar bill for a small load.
Getting around Savannakhet: public transport and more
- Walk the old town, which is about 1.7 km end to end.
- Rent a bicycle from a guesthouse or a motorbike from Dolly's Cafe for That Ing Hang and Bung Va Lake.
- Agree every tuk tuk price before stepping in, about 70,000 LAK return to That Ing Hang is the benchmark.
- Use the Xanh SM app for cheap electric taxis without fare haggling.
- You cannot walk the Friendship Bridge, so use the shuttle buses for Mukdahan.
Who Savannakhet suits
| Solo travellers | Great |
|---|---|
| Groups of friends | OK |
| Couples | Good |
| Bachelor parties | Not ideal |
| Families | Good |
| Bachelorette parties | Not ideal |
Make Savannakhet your trip
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