Trip overview
Cut a standard Laos trip down to its usual three stops and you get Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, in that order, done in under a week. Stretch it to eight days instead and there is room for something most visitors skip entirely: two nights at Xieng Khuang, a highland province scattered with thousands of massive carved stone jars whose original purpose nobody has fully explained. Recognised by UNESCO for exactly that mystery, it adds a genuinely different flavour to an itinerary that would otherwise look much like everyone else’s.
Getting there matters as much as being there. The stretch from Vientiane through Vang Vieng to Xieng Khuang is covered entirely by road, on routes that twist a good deal more than a map suggests, while a short flight then carries you on to Luang Prabang rather than repeating that drive backward. Note that Vang Vieng’s river activities, the tubing and the Blue Lagoon swim, happen on the Nam Song, a tributary rather than the Mekong’s own channel; the main river does not properly reappear until Luang Prabang. Plan around November to February if you can, when mountain roads dry out and Vang Vieng’s water sits at its most manageable.
Trip highlights
- Vientiane’s temples, Buddha Park and an evening boat ride on the Mekong
- Cave exploring and a swim at the Blue Lagoon around Vang Vieng, on the Nam Song river
- The scattered stone jars of Xieng Khuang’s Plain of Jars, a UNESCO World Heritage site
- A look at wartime bomb history in Xieng Khuang, and the ruined old capital of Muang Khun
- A short flight over the mountains from Xieng Khuang into Luang Prabang
- Pak Ou’s cave shrines and a forest waterfall to close the trip in Luang Prabang
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Arrive Vientiane, city tour
Dating from 1818, Wat Sisaket survived while most of the capital’s older temples did not, and its cloistered courtyard is stacked with thousands of small Buddha figures set into wall niches. That stop opens an afternoon that also passes the Patuxay monument, a war memorial built in part from cement meant for an airport runway that never got finished. As the light drops, a boat trip on the Mekong gives you the sunset from the water instead of the bank.
Day 2: Buddha Park, then overland to Vang Vieng
On open ground east of the city, row after row of aging concrete statues, Buddhist figures beside Hindu ones brought over originally from India, make up Buddha Park, and the morning is spent wandering among them before the road turns north. Along the way to Vang Vieng, the drive pauses at Ban Tha Heu, a village known for drying fish along its riverbank, and again at the KM52 Hmong market.
Day 3: Vang Vieng sightseeing, then overland to Xieng Khuang
Before checkout there is time for Tham Phukham Cave and a look through the local market, then a swim at the Blue Lagoon, fed by the Nam Song, a Mekong tributary rather than the main river, ahead of the long drive on to Xieng Khuang. The Phou Khoun Phieng Fa viewpoint, known for its layered green ridgelines, makes a good photo break partway through the drive before you settle into your Xieng Khuang hotel for the night.
Day 4: Xieng Khuang and the Plain of Jars
A small exhibition room lays out the province’s history with unexploded wartime ordnance, still a live concern here, and it makes a sobering companion stop to the Central Market before the day moves on to the Plain of Jars itself, taking in the second and third of its numbered sites. Every step at every jar site stays on the paths marked between white and red stakes placed by mine-clearance teams; nowhere in this province is worth the risk of wandering off them. Muang Khun, the province’s old capital, comes next, its bombed-out pagodas and one surviving giant seated Buddha left largely as the war left them. The day finishes at Jar Site 1, the biggest of the three, set on a rise with views running out across the surrounding hills.
Day 5: Fly from Xieng Khuang to Luang Prabang
A short flight covers the ground that would otherwise mean another full day of mountain driving, putting you into Luang Prabang with the afternoon still free to explore this UNESCO-listed old town, set where a smaller river meets the Mekong.
Day 6: Old Royal Palace and temples, then upriver to Pak Ou
The former Royal Palace, now the National Museum, and a walk past a run of temples toward Wat Xieng Thong fill the morning, before an afternoon boat trip on the Mekong to the Pak Ou caves, stopping at a village where rice liquor is distilled by hand. Thousands of gold-leafed Buddha figures line the cave walls, left there by generations of pilgrims, and the day closes with an evening climb up Phousi hill.
Day 7: Kuang Si Falls and a final day in Luang Prabang
Roughly half an hour outside town, Kuang Si Falls anchors this last Luang Prabang day, its pale turquoise pools stepping down through the forest, shallow enough in places for a swim and shaded enough for an easy last stroll. If an early start suits you, ask about adding the dawn tak bat alms round to this morning; watch from a respectful distance, keep your camera flash off, and skip the roadside vendors selling pre-packed sticky rice to visitors.
Day 8: Departure
A last transfer sees you off from Luang Prabang, wrapping up a week and a day that has strung together four corners of Laos rarely combined into a single trip.
What’s included
- Hotels in the class you choose, twin or double occupancy, with breakfast each morning, or an equivalent property if the one named is full.
- All meals written into the day-by-day programme below.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle for every transfer and excursion in the programme.
- An English-speaking local guide at each stop on the route.
- Every boat trip, river crossing and cruise named in the itinerary.
- Entrance fees for the sites listed in the programme.
- Drinking water in the vehicle and on boat days.
- Government tax and service charge.
Not included
- International and domestic flights, and rail tickets.
- Visas, and any fee collected at a border post.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals and drinks that are not written into the programme.
- Personal spending such as laundry, phone calls, minibar, souvenirs and watersports.
- Early check-in, late check-out and room upgrades.
- Anything added on the day at your request outside the printed programme.
- Gratuities for your guide and driver.
- Costs arising from weather, flooding, road closures or other events beyond our control.
- Bank transfer charges.
Booking this trip
- Days
- 8 days / 7 nights
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