Amantaka

Every morning at sunrise the monks and novices of Luang Prabang leave their temples and walk the streets for alms. Amantaka, at the foot of Mount Phousi in the middle of the Old Town, arranges for its guests to make an offering of their own. The hotel is a French colonial governor's compound, opened by Aman in 2009: long, low white buildings under steep red-tiled roofs, with grey-green shutters, set among old trees. Its 24 suites stand round one long, dark pool, loungers and white umbrellas down both sides. Inside, the ceilings are high and wooden, and the four-poster beds are hung with white netting between tall glazed doors. Some suites have a pool of their own behind a white wall and a screen of bamboo, which leaves the long one to the neighbours.

Recommended for anyone who wants Luang Prabang on foot and the rest of it arranged, and for families happy to trade a kids' club for babysitting, the first three hours of it free. Wat Xieng Thong and the night market on Sisavangvong Road are a short walk. Anywhere further round the peninsula is a bicycle or tuk-tuk ride, and both come with the room, as do breakfast and a lunch or dinner every day. The Restaurant's menu is Lao with a French accent, fish steamed in banana leaf among it, and afternoon tea is laid out in the library. Under-sixes stay free, and families can take a cooking class on the hotel's organic farm. In the evening the hotel's own boat goes out on the Mekong for the sunset, with a lesson in mixing cocktails, so a day in which everything else has been laid on ends with the guests making their own drinks.