Beau Rivage Mekong Hotel

Beautiful, quite and comfortable hotel right on the bank of Mekong river. The hotel is highly recommended for all type of travellers.

Unique Quality: Free wireless internet in every room (the speed was really fast!)

Directions: Fa Ngum Road, Ban Seetarn Neua, P.O.Box 9015
Vientiane Laos

Hotel Beau Rivage Mekong is quite centrally located on Fa Ngum Road. This is the road that lies alongside the Mekong River and has lots of little restaurants and eateries etc.

The hotel is run by a true Australian originally from the Kimberleys in Western Australia. The hotel has a fair number of rooms, all decorated differently. The owners have done a great effort to make this art hotel look very special.

The hotel is unbelievably clean. All rooms have air conditioning, ceiling fan and a bathroom with shower. Some rooms have views over the Mekong River while others overlook a beautiful garden and part of Vientiane city.

There are tea and coffee making facilities in the rooms, as well as a full table setting so you can have dinner in your room. Cooking is not allowed in the rooms (fair enough) but you can pick up some food from somewhere and then eat it in the hotel.

The rooms also have satellite tv, mostly broadcasting channels from South-East Asia and China, but there are some western channels available: BBC world, CNBC, Australia Network, a French Channel (I think TV Cinq), Cartoon Network (in Lao), Discovery Channel (sometimes dubbed in Lao), HBO, Star Movies, etc. Definately something for everyone.

Another good thing to know is that they spray the rooms with bug spray to stop mosquitoes from coming in (the air conditioning and ceiling fan help here as well).

Unique Quality: The hotel is very well located on the unsealed part of Fa Ngum road - it's a 5 minute walk into town. Quiet at night, and not to far from the center of town.

The hotel is close enough to the airport (5 minutes in a taxi, 10 minutes in a tuktuk, and 20 minutes in a taxi when the streets are flooded) so that's great.

The restaurant nextdoors provides you with great breakfast (continental breakfast is included in the room price): fresh fruit, croissant or toast with jam, butter, etc. Fresh orange or pineapple juice and great Lao coffee or tea. A great, tasty breakfast. You can eat indoors in the restaurant, or outdoors, overlooking the Mekong river.

The owner, Gordon, always welcomes and farewells you upon arrival/departure. Nice touch.

The staff speak English quite well, we had no problems being understood or understanding them. They are very helpfull (eg carry your luggage upstairs even without asking) and go through great lengths to make your stay an enjoyable one.

We didn't have a room with views over the Mekong, but looking at where they were the views must be amazing!

The rooms are probably a bit more expensive than guesthouses in Vientiane etc. but if you are willing to pay a bit extra for a decent shower, bed, tv, air conditioning, ceiling fan, etc. this is well worth it and actually a nicer, more personal place to stay than for instance the Novotel. Also, a quieter location than other hotels. The Novotel for instance is on the main road of Vientiane and can get quite loud. In the Beau Rivage Hotel, you wake up with the sound of roosters rather than traffic...

Directions: On the western half of Fa Ngum Road. Walk along Fa Ngum Road, keeping the Mekong River on your right (becomes unsealed after a while). Eventually, a pink hotel about 5 minutes down the unsealed road.

Expect an unexpected, one thing I would describe about the hotel. Its amazing boutique hotel and probably the best in Vientiane.

What do you get?
- creative colour and contemporary interior
- comfortable and inviting bedroom.
- huge showers
- lush garden or amazing sunset view of mekong river
- 15 minutes walk to vientiane main centre
- restaurant 7 bar next door is great for al fresco dining with sunset view
- Affordable price

Booked online at cost USD35.00 with continental breakfast (great deal)
via asiatravel.com

Although my stay in Vientiane was brief, I really enjoyed the hotel. It had everything I needed and was very reasonably priced. I'm frightened to say 'cheap' because the owner might put up his prices! In fact I liked all of what I saw and experienced in Laos.
As other reviewers have said, the hotel is on the bank of the Mekong River, and although the access road is a bit rough, this probably adds to the charm. Access is very easy from the airport, - straight in to town, turn right at the Mekong Hotel, go down the road as far as the river, turn right, and it's on the right after about 250m. The hotel building is probably quite old, and probably was not originally a hotel. The room was really well fitted out with all sorts of extras. The bed was large and comfortable, the TV was able to get all sorts of channels including BBC World and the WiFi internet is very fast.
The Spirit House restaurant next door is also very reasonably priced, with superb food and service. I ordered a simple plate of fried rice with prawns for my supper and it was probably the best fried rice I've ever tasted and cost 33000Kip ($4). The included hotel breakfast is also served in this restaurant.
All in all I would recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Vientiane.

Unique Quality: Quiet, off the beaten track, and very cosy and hospitable.

Directions: From the airport, head straight in to town, turn right at the Mekong Hotel, go down the road as far as the river, turn right, and it's on the right after about 250m along a fairly rough road.