Laos moves at the speed of the river. Book accordingly.
Which boat to Pak Ou also stops at Kuang Si. What a day in the Vang Vieng lagoons costs. Reviews of the tours you can book in Laos.
01The one day everyone booksLuang Prabang: Cruise to Pak Ou Caves & Kuang Si Waterfallsfrom $48
02The Vang Vieng water dayVang Vieng: Kayaking & Cave Tubing with Zip Line/Blue Lagoonfrom $30
03The morning in townLuang Prabang: UNESCO World Heritage City Highlights Tourfrom $35
04The capital, half a dayVientiane: Half-Day City Tour with Patuxai and Buddha Parkfrom $52
05Arriving the slow wayChiang Rai: 2-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow Boatfrom $75
A town of thirty-odd temples wedged between two rivers.
The old capital sits on a tongue of land where the Nam Khan runs into the Mekong, and almost everything worth doing starts from a jetty, a tuk-tuk stand or the foot of Mount Phousi. Give it three days before you decide it is too small.
Four towns and two sights carry almost every Lao itinerary.
The country is long, the roads are slow and the good things cluster. Pick the towns you will sleep in, then let the day trips hang off them.
In Laos the road is often the river, and the river is the Mekong.
Three ways to spend a day afloat, what boarding each one costs, and which stretch of water it puts you on.
The Lao days out that more travellers take than any other.
Every tour we have reviewed in Laos →The bookings that dominate this country, and what each one earns its place with.
1
Luang Prabang: Cruise to Pak Ou Caves & Kuang Si Waterfalls
Cruise the Mekong to Pak Ou Caves, taste Lao whiskey, swim at Kuang Si Falls, and visit a Hmong village on a full-day Luang Prabang tour.
From · $48
Read our review →
2
Vang Vieng: Kayaking & Cave Tubing with Zip Line/Blue Lagoon
from $30
3
Half Day Mekong Cruise to Pak Ou Caves (Morning / Afternoon)
from $40
4
Luang Prabang: UNESCO World Heritage City Highlights Tour
from $35
5
Vang Vieng: Namxay Viewpoint, Blue Lagoon 1 & Phoukham Cave
from $29
6
Luang Prabang: Afternoon Kuang Si Waterfalls & Sunset Cruise
from $35
7
Luang Prabang: Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci Ceremony
from $51
8
Chiang Rai: 2-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow Boat
from $75
Limestone does two things here: it holds water back, and it hides things.
Kuang Si drops through travertine terraces the colour of milk and jade, and the same rock is drilled through with caves, some full of Buddha statues, some full of nothing but a river you float out on. Both are day trips, both go early.
Vientiane rewards a slow afternoon and one long ride out of town.
Everything in Vientiane →
The gilded stupa, the arch built from runway concrete and a riverside that turns into a night market are all within a short ride of each other. The sculpture park is twenty-five kilometres out and worth the detour.
Buddha Park, and the road to it
A concrete garden of Hindu and Buddhist figures poured in the 1950s by a monk who took both traditions personally. You climb into a giant pumpkin to reach the top of it. Nothing about the place is old, and it is still the strangest hour in Laos.
Pha That Luang, Patuxai and the riverfront
The gold stupa is the national symbol and the arch beside it is a Lao answer to the Arc de Triomphe. Both are quick stops, which is why they are almost always sold together with the wat circuit and a run along the Mekong bank.
Tuk-tuk, night market, sticky rice
Lao food is not Thai food with fewer chillies. Grilled river fish, laap made with herbs you cannot name, sticky rice eaten with your hands, and beer served over ice at a plastic table by the water.
Vang Vieng grew up, and the karsts were always the point.
The bar-crawl river days are long gone. What is left is a valley of limestone towers with a cold green lagoon at the foot of a cave, a river you can kayak in an afternoon, and balloons that go up while the mist is still in the fields.
Every Vang Vieng day out →
What a day out in Laos actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Laos stays one of the cheapest countries in the region to book a proper day in, and the gap between the tiers is smaller than you would expect.
Falls transfers, town walks, cave runs, cooking classes and most half-day boats.
Full days that pair the falls with the caves, the slow boat legs, and the balloon at dawn.
Private guides for a whole day, multi-day treks with a village homestay, and chartered boats.
Three things you cannot do anywhere but Laos.
Waterfalls and street food are everywhere in this region. A line of monks collecting rice at dawn, two days on a wooden boat with no road alongside it, and a field of Iron Age stone jars are not.
Tak Bat, the morning alms round
Before six the monks of Luang Prabang walk the same streets in single file and townspeople kneel to put sticky rice in their bowls. It is a daily religious act, not a performance. The rule visitors keep breaking is distance: stay on the far pavement, keep the flash off, and if you are giving rice, buy it from a temple rather than a hawker.
- 1Pakse: Mystic Falls & Timeless Temples of Southern Laos Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 21 reviews
- 2Luang Prabang: Almsgiving Ceremony Offering★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 13 reviews
- 3Luang Prabang: Pottery Workshop & Wat Chomphet cycling Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 5 reviews
The slow boat down the Mekong
From the Thai border at Huay Xai a wooden boat takes two days to reach Luang Prabang, with a night in Pakbeng in between. There is no road running beside it for most of the way. Bring a cushion, food and a book. The fast boats do it in six hours and are genuinely dangerous.
- 1Half Day Mekong Cruise to Pak Ou Caves (Morning / Afternoon)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 290 reviews
- 2Luang Prabang: Afternoon Kuang Si Waterfalls & Sunset Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 158 reviews
- 3Chiang Rai: 2-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 · 149 reviews
The Plain of Jars
Thousands of carved stone jars, some of them two metres tall, stand in clusters across the Xieng Khouang plateau, and nobody is certain who cut them or why. The plateau was also the most heavily bombed place on earth, so the cleared paths between the jars are marked. Walk between the markers.
- 1Plain of jars tour with local guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8 reviews
- 2Plain of jars share group tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4 reviews
- 3Plain of jars private tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3 reviews
Four Lao bookings that do not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast for the same morning. These four run on river schedules, dawn weather windows and small groups that fill.
- 01Chiang Rai: 2-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow BoatThe Huay Xai boat leaves once a day and the overnight stop in Pakbeng has a finite number of beds.
- 02Vang Vieng: Hot Air Balloon Ride with City Hotel PickupBalloons only fly in the calm hour after dawn, and a windy morning cancels the whole basket.
- 03Luang Prabang: Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci CeremonyClasses shop for you at the morning market, so the numbers are fixed the night before.
- 04Luang Prabang: 3-Day Cultural Remote Trek With HomestayVillage homestays need a bed arranged in a house before you arrive, which is not a same-day request.
When the Mekong runs red and the falls turn brown.
Rain runs May to October. The countryside is at its greenest, the rivers are high and fast, and Kuang Si loses its famous blue to silt for weeks at a time. Roads out to the villages get slow. The answer is to move indoors and into town: a kitchen, a loom, a market at first light, a temple circuit that does not care about the weather.
By town, north to south
Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang, and north to the Nam Ou.
The newest Lao tour reviews.
More new Lao reviews →
Luang Prabang Early Morning Alms Giving and Wet Market
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3 Days The Plain of Jars and Xieng Khouan (Depart from Luang Prabang)
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Luang Prabang: Pottery Workshop & Wat Chomphet cycling Tour
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Vientiane Private Transfer: Wattay Airport -Hotel-Railway Station
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Luang Prabang Mekong Sunset Cruise and Hot Pot Dinner
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Laos Railway: Train Tickets Easily – Skip the Lines – No worries
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Day Trek to Kuangsi Waterfall and Bear Sanctuary – Luang Prabang full day tour
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Luang Prabang: Weaving Workshop Half-Day Experience
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Luang Prabang: Nong Khiaw 3-Day Trekking & camping, Homstay
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