Luxury dog-friendly hotels in Luang Prabang, Laos

Years of war and some cranky communist ideas may have taken this historic town off the travel map for nearly two decades, but for those beating a path back to its Unesco-protected temples and colonial villas, the northern Laotian outpost is still one of the most charming destinations in south-east Asia. Serene to the point of somnolent, the old quarter is bursting with grand mansions and traditional wooden houses. The pleasures to be enjoyed here are simple and lingering: Lao coffee sipped in a street café; the hypnotic drum beat of the monks’ call to prayer; or a walk beneath fragrant boughs of frangipanis.