Laos runs at the speed of the river. Book accordingly.
Which Mekong boat actually stops at Pak Ou. What a morning at Kuang Si costs once the falls are included. Whether Vang Vieng is a kayak day or a cave day. Reviews of every tour you can book in Laos.
A slow boat, a turquoise waterfall, a cave river and a kitchen.
The four bookings most first trips through Laos are built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The Mekong dayCruise to Pak Ou Caves & Kuang Si WaterfallsUpriver to the Buddha caves at Pak Ou, then the falls at Kuang Si. One boat, one van, the two sights everybody comes for.
02The Vang Vieng dayKayaking & Cave Tubing with Zip Line/Blue LagoonKayaks on the Nam Song, an inner tube through a cave, a zip line if the water is low. Wet feet guaranteed.
03The first morningUNESCO World Heritage City Highlights TourThe old town on foot before the heat: the palace, the wats, the alms road at first light.
04The eveningEvening Cooking Class & Local Baci CeremonyA market walk, a Lao kitchen and a baci ceremony afterwards. The class that sends you home cooking laap.
Longboat, kayak or inner tube. The river decides your day.
Everything in Laos happens along a river. Three ways onto the water, what it costs to get aboard each one, and which town it runs from.
Three towns on one river road, and the days out between them.
A UNESCO old town where the monks still walk at dawn, a karst valley with a river through it, a capital of boulevards and noodle stalls. Then the waterfall, the lagoons and the jar fields that pull people out of all three.
The falls are turquoise because of the rock they fall over.
Kuang Si drops through travertine pools the colour of bottle glass an hour south of Luang Prabang. North of Vang Vieng the same limestone is hollow: lagoons cold enough to hurt, and river caves you float into on a tube. Two hours from either town gets you to both.
Luang Prabang: the old town early, the river after four.
Everything in Luang Prabang →
The peninsula is small enough to walk in a morning and worth three. Wats, the palace museum, the night market along Sisavangvong, and a boat at dusk when the light goes copper. These three carry more travellers than anything else in Laos.
Kuang Si, morning or afternoon
Mornings are quiet and the light is flat. Afternoons are busy and the pools photograph properly. Half-day trips give you two hours at the falls, full days add the bear sanctuary and a village stop.
Upriver to the Buddha caves
Thousands of abandoned Buddha figures in two caves above the confluence, reached by longboat. The journey is the point. Most boats stop at the whisky village on the way back.
Villages, ridges and a waterfall finish
Hmong and Khmu villages on the ridges behind the town, with a swim at the end of most routes. Guides carry lunch. After heavy rain the tracks turn to grease and the shorter loop is the honest choice.
The days out most travellers in Laos actually book.
Every Laos tour we have reviewed →More people take these than anything else in the country. What each one costs, and what earns it the slot.
1
Cruise to Pak Ou Caves & Kuang Si Waterfalls
Spend about nine hours seeing Luang Prabang’s best sights beyond town. Cruise the Mekong to Pak Ou Caves, taste rice whiskey in Ban Xang Hai, enjoy a buffet lunch, swim at Kuang Si Falls, and visit a Hmong cultural center. Guides such as Pong, PingPong, Tony, and Vone are praised for clear, friendly care.
From · $48
Read our review →
2
Kayaking & Cave Tubing with Zip Line/Blue Lagoon
from $30
3
Half Day Mekong Cruise to Pak Ou Caves (Morning / Afternoon)
from $40
4
UNESCO World Heritage City Highlights Tour
from $35
5
Namxay Viewpoint, Blue Lagoon 1 & Phoukham Cave
from $29
6
Afternoon Kuang Si Waterfalls & Sunset Cruise
from $35
7
Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci Ceremony
from $51
8
2-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow Boat
from $75
Vang Vieng is a karst valley that happens to have a town in it.
The bars that made its name are long gone. What is left is better: a green river you can paddle in a morning, caves you enter on an inner tube by headlamp, lagoons under the limestone, and a balloon basket at sunrise looking down on all of it.
Every Vang Vieng day out →What a day out in Laos actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Most of the best days here cost less than a night in the hotel you booked.
Waterfall runs, cave mornings, city walks, cooking classes and the shared kayak trips.
Full days with a van and a guide: jar fields, trekking with lunch, the two-sight Mekong day.
Balloon flights, private drivers for a whole day, and the multi-day boat transfers.
Vientiane is the quietest capital on the Mekong, and knows it.
A French grid, a golden stupa, an arch built from runway concrete, and a sculpture park of concrete deities half an hour downriver. Half a day covers the sights. The other half belongs to a noodle stall and the riverfront at sunset.
- 1Cultural Tour with Buddha Park and Patuxayfrom $58
- 2Half-Day City Tour with Patuxai and Buddha Parkfrom $52
- 3Vientiane Cuisine & Culture: The Hungry Tuk Tukfrom $58
Sticky rice, laap, and a market walk that ends in a kitchen.
Lao food is grilled, pounded and wrapped in banana leaf, and almost none of it travels. Walk the morning market for the herbs, take the class that ends as lunch, finish at a Mekong-side grill after dark.
When the afternoon rain arrives, go inside and learn something.
From June to September the mornings are clear and the rain lands mid-afternoon, hard and short. The rivers run brown and fast, the falls run full, and the answer to a wet three o'clock is a kitchen, a loom or a market hall. Book the river for the morning and leave the afternoon indoors.
Four Lao bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this country can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on sunrise weather, river schedules and a plateau three hundred kilometres from anywhere.
- 01Hot Air Balloon Ride with City Hotel PickupBaskets are small and only two slots a day work: sunrise and sunset. Wind cancels flights outright, so the earlier date is the one that flies.
- 022-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow BoatTwo days upriver with an overnight at Pakbeng. Departures are once a day and the good seats are gone the evening before.
- 03Plain of jars tour with local guidePhonsavan is a flight or a long mountain drive from Luang Prabang. The jar fields are a day out once you are there, not from anywhere else.
- 04Evening Cooking Class & Local Baci CeremonyClasses start at the morning market and the good ones cap the group at ten. In high season they fill two or three days ahead.
Three Lao days that exist nowhere else.
Waterfalls and river trips are everywhere in Southeast Asia. Two thousand stone jars, a two-day boat with no road alternative, and a rice field that teaches you to plough are not.
The Plain of Jars
Thousands of carved stone jars stand in fields around Phonsavan, cut two thousand years ago and still unexplained. The plateau took more bombing than any other place on earth, so the cleared paths are marked and you stay on them. Three sites are open; most day tours take all three and a spoon-making village where the metal comes from the war.
- 1Plain of jars tour with local guide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 8 reviews
- 2Plain of jars share group tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 4 reviews
- 33 Days The Plain of Jars and Xieng Khouan (Depart from Luang Prabang)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3 reviews
The slow boat to Luang Prabang
From the Thai border at Huay Xai the river takes two days, with a night at Pakbeng halfway. There is no road that does it faster in any way that matters. Bring a cushion, a book and food. The banks are buffalo, bamboo and nothing, and by the second afternoon that is exactly why people do it.
- 1Half Day Mekong Cruise to Pak Ou Caves (Morning / Afternoon)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 290 reviews
- 22-Day Transfer to Luang Prabang by Slow Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 3.7 · 149 reviews
- 3FULL DAY – Kuang Si Waterfall, Kayak on the Nam Ou / Mekong River, Pak Ou Caves★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 81 reviews
The looms of Ban Xang Khong
The weaving villages downriver from Luang Prabang still dye with indigo grown in the garden and work on backstrap looms, one weaver to one cloth. A half day gets you a dye vat with blue hands to prove it, a bamboo basket you made badly, and a much better idea of what the night-market stalls are actually selling.
- 1Bamboo Weaving Workshop & Cooking Class★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 96 reviews
- 2Craft Your Own Aroma Candle in Heritage Home★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 43 reviews
- 3Day-time Bamboo weaving & Cooking Classes join-in★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 38 reviews
By place - the river road, north to south
Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane: the run down Route 13.
The newest Lao tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Luang Prabang Local Market and Morning Food Tour with Drinks
Read our review →
Luang Prabang Early Morning Alms Giving and Wet Market
Read our review →
3 Days The Plain of Jars and Xieng Khouan (Depart from Luang Prabang)
Read our review →
Vientiane Private Transfer: Wattay Airport -Hotel-Railway Station
Read our review →
Luang Prabang Mekong Sunset Cruise and Hot Pot Dinner
Read our review →
Laos Railway: Train Tickets Easily – Skip the Lines – No worries
Read our review →
Day Trek to Kuangsi Waterfall and Bear Sanctuary – Luang Prabang full day tour
Read our review →
