Mekong Sunset Cruise from Luang Prabang

100% do not recommend this tour. Only redeeming aspect of the tour was the tuk tuk driver they sent to pick us up. We were picked up at 4pm (30mins past the suggested time on the voucher) and got to the ‘dock’ at 4:10pm, only to be told to sit around / order drinks & food until departure at 5:30pm. There was literally no reason to be picked up so early other than to patron their bar - this was obnoxious beyond words, especially for travelers who want to maximize their limited time in Laos. We saw multiple tables of tourists who also arrived early sitting around in the heat and eventually ordering overpriced food from them after 1hr+ of waiting (approx. 60,000kip / 7usd for a burger from a place with questionable cleanliness - only $1 less than the cost of a burger at our five-star hotel). The operators, who do not appear to be locals, ignore you the rest of the time on the boat unless you are ordering food from them. They didn’t greet a single person; they only went around taking food orders and asking if anyone wanted to buy fries (20,000kip). Boarding the boat consisted of descending steep & poorly built steps; someone almost slipped crossing from land to the boat. Once on the boat, we had to take our shoes off, which is fine, but mention this in the tour description so people know to wear socks as the boat had an abundance of ants, spiders, gnats, and flies. I spent the better part of the hour waiting for departure watching passengers shoo bugs from their face, and reaching for the small bowls of peanuts that the operator walked around with thinking the peanuts were a complimentary offering of the tour, only to be told that they cost 5,000kip. The female operator would wait until someone reached out to take one before telling them they weren’t free; in order to save face since they already touched the peanuts, the passengers would cough up the money. The tour dragged way longer than necessary - by the last hour, passengers were sitting around on their phone as it became pitch black, yet we stayed on the water long after other boats had already docked. Lastly, the boat itself had much more obstructed views than other boats that went by. It had signs advertising a “cooking class cruise” along with curtains everywhere, so that the only unobstructed open views were at the very front or back and you had to get up each time if you didn’t want a sign in your line of sight. I saw another boat pass without curtains/signs that I wish I would have booked instead!