Laos: Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane

Arrive in Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang International Airport to the old town

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Luang Prabang

Après-midi

Rest after the flight, then meet your guide and the group in the late afternoon for a short walk along the Mekong riverfront as the sun drops behind the hills on the far bank.

Soir

Over a welcome dinner of Lao dishes, sticky rice, laap and river fish, your guide explains the week ahead and how the dawn alms procession works, so everyone knows where to stand and what not to do tomorrow. If you land too late for the walk, we meet at dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at Luang Prabang International Airport (LPQ)
• Sunset walk along the Mekong riverfront with your guide
• Welcome dinner and a briefing on alms-giving etiquette

The alms at dawn and the old town

The alms procession, Mount Phousi, the Royal Palace Museum and Wat Mai

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Luang Prabang

Matin

For anyone who wants to see it, we walk out at about 5:30 am, before first light, to watch the Tak Bat alms procession. Lines of monks and novices in saffron robes walk barefoot down the street in silence, and local people kneel to place sticky rice in their bowls. We watch from the far side of the street, quietly and without flash, as the monasteries ask.

Soir

From there it is a few minutes to the steps of Mount Phousi, about 330 of them, which we climb as the ticket booth opens to see mist lifting off the two rivers, hours before the sunset crowd fills the summit. Breakfast is back at the hotel. At 8 am we are at the Royal Palace Museum as it opens, the residence of the last Lao kings, with the Haw Pha Bang chapel in its grounds, then next door to Wat Mai and its gilded relief panels. A sit-down lunch follows, and the afternoon is yours. The night market fills Sisavangvong Road from about dusk.

Compris

• The Tak Bat alms procession, observed from across the street with your guide (optional, early)
• Mount Phousi at the start of the day
• The Royal Palace Museum and the Haw Pha Bang chapel
• Wat Mai
• Sit-down lunch in the old town

Activités en option

• Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (small museum of Lao ethnic groups; opening days confirmed at booking)
• An evening performance at the Royal Ballet Theatre, on the nights it runs

Up the Mekong to Pak Ou

Luang Prabang by river boat to Ban Xang Hai and the Pak Ou Caves, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Luang Prabang
• En bateau

Matin

A relaxed start, then we board a long wooden river boat at the landing below the old town in the cool of the morning. Going upstream against the current takes about two hours, past sandbanks, riverside vegetable gardens, fishermen casting nets and buffalo in the shallows. We stop at Ban Xang Hai, a village known for lao-lao rice spirit and weaving, then cross to the Pak Ou Caves, two caverns in a limestone cliff where the Nam Ou meets the Mekong. For centuries people have brought Buddha images here, and thousands of them, wooden and gilded, large and small, fill the lower cave, Tham Ting. A steep stair climbs to the deeper upper cave, Tham Theung, where you need the torch your guide brings.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a simple restaurant on the river bank facing the cliff. The boat runs downstream faster, and we are back in town by mid-afternoon with the rest of the day free.

Compris

• River boat on the Mekong to Pak Ou and back
• Ban Xang Hai village
• The Pak Ou Caves, Tham Ting and Tham Theung
• Riverside lunch

Activités en option

• A Lao cooking class in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon (price shown at booking)

Kuang Si at opening

Luang Prabang to Kuang Si Falls and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Luang Prabang
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We leave after an early breakfast and drive about 30 km south-west through villages and low hills, so we are at the gate of Kuang Si as it opens, around 8 am, ahead of the minibuses that arrive from mid-morning. Inside the entrance is the bear rescue centre run by Free the Bears, home to Asian black bears and sun bears taken from poachers and the bile trade. The path then follows a chain of turquoise pools, coloured by the limestone the water carries, up to the main fall, which drops in several streams over pale terraces about 50 m high. Swim in the lower pools where it is allowed, or sit by the water while it is still quiet.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a restaurant near the falls, and we are back in Luang Prabang by early afternoon.

Soir

The rest of the day is free, your last in the town, for a massage, a weaving workshop or a final walk through the night market.

Compris

• Kuang Si Falls at opening, with time to swim in the lower pools
• The Free the Bears rescue centre at Kuang Si
• Lunch near the falls

Activités en option

• A natural-dye weaving workshop at Ock Pop Tok in the afternoon (price shown at booking)

Wat Xieng Thong, then the train to Vang Vieng

Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng on the Laos-China Railway

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Vang Vieng
• Environ 45 min de route

Matin

Your last morning in Luang Prabang starts at Wat Xieng Thong, at the tip of the peninsula, as it opens around 8 am, when there are more monks than visitors in the courtyard. Built around 1560, it was the royal monastery where Lao kings were crowned. Walk round the back of the main hall to see the tree of life worked in coloured glass mosaic, then the funeral carriage hall with the gilded hearse of King Sisavang Vong. Mid-morning we drive about 20 minutes to the station for the Laos-China Railway, opened in 2021, which runs south through the mountains in a long chain of tunnels and reaches Vang Vieng in about an hour to an hour and a half; the same journey by road used to take most of a day.

Après-midi

Lunch is in Vang Vieng, on the Nam Song with the limestone karsts rising behind the far bank.

Soir

After check-in, a short walk across the river into the rice fields, then sunset by the water.

Compris

• Wat Xieng Thong at opening with your guide
• Train from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, tickets bought for you
• Lunch by the Nam Song
• Evening walk across the river to the rice fields

Caves, a lagoon and the Nam Song

Vang Vieng to Tham Phu Kham, then by kayak down the Nam Song

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Vang Vieng
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

After breakfast we cross the river and drive about 7 km west on a rough country road to Tham Phu Kham. A steep path climbs to a huge cave with a reclining Buddha inside, and below it a clear blue-green pool fed by the stream, where you can swim.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a riverside restaurant upstream of town. In the afternoon, with river guides and life jackets, we paddle about 2 hours down the Nam Song back into Vang Vieng, past fishermen, riverside gardens and the karsts, with the current doing most of the work. We take two-person kayaks, so less confident paddlers share with a guide.

Soir

The evening is free: sunset from the riverbank is the best show in town.

Compris

• Tham Phu Kham cave and lagoon
• Riverside lunch
• Kayaking down the Nam Song with river guides, about 2 hours

Train to Vientiane and the capital in a day

Vang Vieng to Vientiane by train, then That Luang, COPE, Patuxai and Wat Si Saket

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Vientiane
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

A morning train takes about an hour from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, and our vehicle meets us at the station north-east of the city. On the way in we stop at Pha That Luang, the gold-covered stupa that is the national symbol of Laos, rebuilt in the 16th century when King Setthathirath moved the capital here.

Après-midi

After lunch, the COPE Visitor Centre tells the story of the unexploded bombs that still lie in Lao fields: the US dropped more than two million tonnes of ordnance on Laos between 1964 and 1973, and COPE makes artificial limbs for people hurt by what remains. It is a sobering hour, and an important one. Then Patuxai, the victory monument, where you can climb the stairs for the view down Lane Xang Avenue, and Wat Si Saket, from the early 19th century, its cloister walls lined with thousands of small Buddha images.

Soir

At sunset we walk the Mekong riverfront, with Thailand across the water, before a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Train from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, tickets bought for you
• Pha That Luang
• Lunch in Vientiane
• COPE Visitor Centre
• Patuxai, with the climb to the top
• Wat Si Saket
• Sunset walk on the Mekong riverfront
• Farewell dinner

Depart from Vientiane

Vientiane to Wattay International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

The trip ends after breakfast in Vientiane.

Soir

If your flight is in the afternoon or evening, the morning is yours: a coffee and a baguette in one of the cafes left from the French era, the Lao Textile Museum, or the Talat Sao morning market, which despite its name is busy all day. Xieng Khuan, the Buddha Park, is about 25 km south-east of the city near the Friendship Bridge to Thailand, a riverside garden of more than 200 concrete Buddhist and Hindu sculptures made from 1958; your guide can arrange a driver for it if you have a late flight. Wattay International Airport (VTE) is about fifteen minutes from the centre, and we drive you there at the right time for your flight. Book a flight leaving after about 1 pm if you want a relaxed morning, or any time if you are happy to go straight from breakfast. If you are carrying on to Vietnam and Cambodia, there are direct flights to Hanoi.

Compris

• Drop-off at Wattay International Airport (VTE)

Activités en option

• Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park) by private driver, if your flight leaves late (price shown at booking)