9 Days Classic: Vientiane - Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang

Saibaidee! Welcome to Vientiane, Laos.

Upon arrival at Wattay International Airport, your private guide and driver are waiting to meet you, holding up a welcome signboard with your names on it and take you directly to your hotel in the city centre.

After checking-in, you will have time to relax and adjust to the pace of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There will be a short tour briefing this evening with your guide followed by a welcome dinner at Friends Restaurant, Mini Makphet. It’s a social enterprise based restaurant that empowers disadvantaged youth with vocational training amongst other support.

Please note: You must have both a passport and a visa to enter Laos. And your passport must also have at least six months’ validity remaining beyond the date that you enter Laos. You can get a visa on arrival in Laos. Make sure you have two passport-sizes photographs.

Overnight in Vientiane: Settha Palace/Landmark Mekong River/La Seine Hotel

• Meals: Dinner,

La Seine Hotel

The capital city of Laos, Vientiane, still feels like a sleepy city with relaxed charm, tree-lined boulevards, fascinating temples, and colorful markets. This city conjures up exotic images, with the curious mix of Lao, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese, French influences.

After breakfast, your guide and driver will pick you up for the further exploration of this charming city. Start with Vat Sisaket, the only temple left intact after the Siamese invasion in 1828. It shelters hundreds of statues of Buddha within its walls.

Continue with Wat Prakeo, now used as a religious museum where you can see Lao and Khmer works of art. It used to host the “Emerald Buddha” that is now on display at Bangkok’s Royal Palace.

Continue to visit the iconic Pha That Luang, a gleaming golden stupa which is perhaps the most important national monument in Laos.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you will uncover other important sites including Buddhist monasteries of Wat Ong Tue and Wat Haysoke. Next, visit Lao National Museum, the charming French Colonial Architecture building, and Wat Si Muang, a Khmer temple with a fascinating legend that still holds great significance among the Laotian community.

Proceed to the Vientiane Central Market of Talat Sao and Talat Kouadin, where major goods are traded, including fresh food, household, textiles, gold, and silver. You may even see ancient souvenirs on display.

End your day at the Patuxai Monument, also called Anousavari, and enjoy a panoramic view over the city from the top. It is Vientiane’s own Arc de Triomphe that is located at the top of Lan Xang Avenue, the Champs Elysees of the Lao capital.

The rest of the day will be at your leisure. You may take a stroll along the Mekong Riverside, have a cold beer Lao while you enjoy the cooling weather at sunset.

Overnight in Vientiane

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Vat Sisaket

Pha That Luang

Patuxai Monument

After breakfast and check out of the hotel your private guide and driver will pick you up and take you on a four-hour drive to Vang Vieng, known for its low-lying valley studded with limestone karst formations, on Route 10.

On the way, you will make a stop at a fish market in Ban Tha Heua where you can view the abundance of fish indigenous to Laos. You also pay a visit to an organic farm just outside Vang Vieng town centre.

Arrive and check into your riverside resort in Vang Vieng. This small town of 25,000 people sits alongside the Nam Song River. Limestone cliffs create a beautiful backdrop for the adventure-tourism oriented town.

After a short rest, you will head out to visit Ban Phouhin Lekphay to see the life of Khmu hill-tribe. There will be a chance for you to take a short hike of 30 minutes to the summit of the Phatang Mountain viewpoint to admire the beautiful scenery of the rice-paddy laden valley and Vang Vieng town.

After the tour, transfer back to your hotel where the balance of the day is at your leisure.

Overnight in Vang Vieng

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Phatang Mountain Sunset

Farm

After breakfast, you are driven to Pha Tang around 18 km north of Vang Vieng. After an introduction to the basics of kayaking, you will set off down the beautiful Nam Song River which offers various small but fun rapids along the way to your first stop at Tham Xang Cave. Here you will walk up to the massive theater like cave while hearing about the local history about the area!

After emerging from the cave, continue to paddle to a picnic spot on the riverside where you enjoy your box lunch.

After lunch, continue to paddle down the river until you reach the next stop at the Organic Farm where mulberry tea and a variety of different fruit wines are produced.

Keep going further you will arrive at Tham None Cave, one of the largest caves in Vang Vieng! It served as a bomb shelter for local villagers during the Second Indochina War. However, today it is home to a bat family and the ‘Magic Stone of Vang Vieng’. The final leg of the journey will be a gentle paddle downstream to Vang Vieng where you will arrive just in time to catch the sunset.

Approximately: 4 hour-kayaking and 1.5-hour caving/walking.

Overnight in Vang Vieng: Riverside Boutique Resort/Vieng Tara Villa

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Kayaking

Farming

After breakfast, take a short drive (around 1.5 hours) to the outside of Vang Vieng through rural landscapes, agricultural areas, and forested hills to Vang Vieng Elephant Sanctuary.

Upon arrival, meet your guide and walk for 10-15 minutes to the Centre of the Sanctuary. Change into traditional Lao clothing and followed by an introductory lesson about elephant anatomy, history, and behavior. Soon after that, meet the elephants, feed, interact and play with the elephants in their natural home as you learn about their behavior and history. Take your time and have many photos with the elephants as you want.

Enjoy fresh fruit and traditional Lao food for lunch at the Sanctuary.

You will learn how to make herbal medicine balls, feed the Elephants, and then walk with the elephants to the lake. Bathe and brush the elephants. Take your chance to join the elephants for a therapeutic mud spa. Swim in the lake and take photos with them.

Walk the Elephant back to the Sanctuary. Change clothes and say goodbye to those friendly giants. The amazing time to enjoy the sunset before leaving the Sanctuary for your return drive to your hotel in Vang Vieng.

Overnight in Vang Vieng

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Play with Elephant

After breakfast and check out of the hotel you will depart Vang Vieng for 4 hours for Luang Prabang. Today you will drive along the most beautiful route in Laos, winding up and down offering spectacular views, from jungle to low-lying valleys studded with the limestone Karst formations. Have your camera ready out for a photo-op at Pathang you won’t want to miss.

Around midday, you will arrive at Phoukhoune, a small town with its lively market and fresh air. Here you will enjoy lunch at the local restaurant Kiewkacham.

After lunch, continue toward Luang Prabang. You will pass several traditional and picturesque Hmong and Kamu villages

Mid-afternoon you will arrive and check into your hotel in Luang Prabang. This beautiful city was the royal capital and seat of government for the Kingdom of Laos until the communist took over in 1975. The main part of the city consists of four main roads located on a peninsula between the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers.

Overnight in Luang Prabang: Amantaka/Avani/Pullman/Sofitel

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Sofitel

Start your day with a visit to the Morning Market, a lively street where locals shop for everything from colorful vegetables and exotic fruits to live frogs.

From the energy of the market, you’ll step into the serene calm of one of the city’s most elaborate monasteries, Wat Mai, and then to the former King’s Palace, where you’ll discover the history and present life of Luang Prabang. From there, you will head to the ancient Wat Xieng Thong temple, which features a spectacular low sweeping roof. It’s Luang Prabang’s most distinctive and recognized monastery.

After lunch at a local restaurant, you will visit either the UXO Visitor’s Centre to get an incredible insight into the horrific bombings endured by the Lao people and the effect it still has today. The UXO centre is an amazing NGO that does fantastic work, yet just scratches the surface of this little known issue.

Next, you will explore the 16th century Wat Visoun temple, known for its enormous stupa and its collection of old gilded Buddhas.

Finish the day visiting the Traditional Art and Ethnology Centre (TAEC)**, the only independent resource center in Laos dedicated to the country’s many and diverse ethnic groups. If time permits, you can visit the Ock Pop Tock Living Craft Center, set serenely close to the Mekong, this beautiful, traditionally styled workshop, where weavers, spinners and batik makers produce top-quality fabrics, offers free tours every half-hour.

Feeling suitably enlightened, end your day with a climb to the top of Mount Phousi, the city’s highest point where you’ll enjoy sweeping views of the city and the Mekong River below.

Overnight in Luang Prabang

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Wat Mai

Wat Xieng Thong

Rising early to join the most sacred tradition of Laos, the daily morning almsgiving, which dates back to the 14th century. Every morning, hundreds of monks from the various monasteries walk through the streets collecting alms.

After breakfast, meet your guide for a forty-minute drive to the Pak Ou Village where you will explore the many crafts that the locals make before crossing the mighty Mekong River by small boat to the base of a limestone cliff, the site of the Pak Ou Cave. The lower cave is impressive and filled with Buddhist statues and relics. Take your time to explore the reverent scene scented with burning incense and overlooking the impressive Mekong landscape. Up a winding series of stairs, grab a flashlight and you’ll find another fascinating and easily navigated cave to explore with its ancient Buddhist relics.

After having lunch at a local restaurant, you will cross the Mekong River again by boat and continue with a drive downriver for 1.5 hours to the famous Kuang Si Waterfall, one of the most spectacular swimming holes on the continent. The jungle around the waterfall remains lush and beautiful year-round. The waterfall cycles between placid, turquoise waters during the dry season to the impressive, roaring falls during the rainy season.

Before taking a dip in the beautiful Kuangsi Falls, you will get a behind the scenes experience with the team from Free the Bears. This sanctuary rescues and rehabilitates sun, moon, and sloth bears from bile farms.

Transfer to an organic farm where you experience the new Lao Buffalo dairy that produces cheese and a range of delicious dairy products. The diary provides income and a sustainable future for the Lao people involved. Learn how to milk a Buffalo, cuddle a Buffalo for the perfect selfie and try some incredible ice cream.

You will end this full day with a return drive to Luang Prabang late afternoon. Stop en route to see the popular Whiskey Village and sample the locally made Lao Lao.

Overnight in Luang Prabang

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch,

Collecting Alms

Kuangsi Falls

Your private transfer greets you at the hotel after breakfast and escorts you to Luang Prabang International Airport where you board your flight home or travel on to more adventures, we will help you with the planning.

• Meals: Breakfast,

LUANG PRABANG