Photo: Basile Morin (CC BY-SA 4.0)
A self-guided audio walk north through the old royal town of Luang Prabang, the capital Fa Ngum made for Lan Xang in 1353. It begins at Wat Visounnarath, built for the Phra Bang image and rebuilt after the sack of 1887, with the Watermelon Stupa of That Makmo and Wat Aham with its guardian-spirit banyans. Along the main street come Wat Mai, temporary home of the Phra Bang, the Royal Palace built between 1904 and 1909, and the Haw Pha Bang shrine finished in 2006. Through the lanes it passes Wat Choumkhong, Wat Xieng Mouane, where temple crafts are taught, and the Heuan Chan house, then climbs Mount Phousi to That Chomsi of 1804 and descends past the Buddha's footprint. Up the peninsula it visits Wat Sensoukaram, Wat Sop and Wat Khili, then Wat Xieng Thong of 1560, where Lao kings were crowned, with its Tree of Life mosaic, Red Chapel and funeral carriage hall, ending at Wat Pak Khan where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong.
20 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 54 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 6 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Wat Visounnarath, That Makmo, Wat Aham, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, The Royal Palace (Haw Kham), Haw Pha Bang, Wat Choumkhong.
Wat Xieng Mouane, Heuan Chan heritage house, Mount Phousi and That Chomsi, The Buddha's footprint on Phousi, Wat Siphoutthabath, Wat Nong Sikhunmuang, Wat Sensoukaram, Wat Sop Sickharam.
Wat Khili (Wat Souvannakhiri), The sim of Wat Xieng Thong, Red Chapel, Funeral carriage hall, Wat Pak Khan and the confluence.
The Watermelon Stupa begun in 1514, its rounded dome a reliquary from which objects were recovered when it collapsed in 1914.
The palace of King Sisavang Vong built between 1904 and 1909, mixing Lao and French styles, now the National Museum.
The shrine for the Phra Bang, the image that gave the town its name, begun in 1963 and completed in 2006.
The gilded stupa of 1804 on the hill between the two rivers, reached by 328 steps and seen across much of the town.
The ordination hall of 1560, where Lao kings were crowned, with a coloured-glass Tree of Life mosaic on its rear wall.
A small chapel of the 1950s with glass mosaics of village life, housing a bronze reclining Buddha inscribed with the year 1569.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 20 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 20 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Luang Prabang — the Royal Town on the Mekong, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
20 narration points, including That Makmo, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham, The Royal Palace (Haw Kham), Haw Pha Bang and Mount Phousi and That Chomsi. That is about 24 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 20 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.