The whole country, end to end
Fifteen days, eleven hundred kilometres, two land borders and one flight. Everything the shorter routes leave out, at a pace that still stops for two nights at a time.
At a glance
- Length
- 15 days, 14 nights
- Group size
- 2 to 8
- Starts
- Huay Xai, Thai border
- Ends
- Four Thousand Islands
- Effort
- Moderate - several long road days
- From
- USD 1,780 per person
The route
Laos is a long thin country and almost nobody sees all of it. This route does, using the river to enter, the roads through the middle, and a single flight from Vientiane to Pakse to skip the eleven-hour drive that would otherwise cost two days.
It is not a rushed trip, but it is a substantial one. Six of the fifteen days involve three hours or more of travel, and the Plain of Jars section adds a seven-hour mountain drive in each direction. Everything on it is there because it is worth that.
The natural extension is three more days for the Thakhek loop and Konglor cave between Vientiane and Pakse, which turns the flight into a drive and adds the best cave in the region.
Day by day
Huay Xai to Pakbeng
Met at the border, then the slow boat down the Mekong for six or seven hours to Pakbeng.
Pakbeng to Luang Prabang
The second river day, the Pak Ou caves in the afternoon, and arrival at the Luang Prabang pier before dark.
Luang Prabang on foot
The peninsula and its monasteries, the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, and a sunset on the water rather than on the hill.
Kuang Si and a weaving village
The falls at 08:00 before the minibuses, then Ban Xang Khong in the afternoon, where the looms are working rather than demonstrating.
The mountain road to Phonsavan
Seven hours east over the passes through Phou Khoun, climbing to about 1,500 metres, with the villages changing as you go. Arrive in the late afternoon.
The Plain of Jars
The MAG briefing first, then jar sites 1, 2 and 3, and the scrap-metal village. The craters among the jars make more sense after the briefing than before it.
Muang Khoun, then south to Vang Vieng
The bombed old capital in the morning - a standing Buddha with no temple around it - then the long drive south to the karst.
Vang Vieng
Caves and the lagoon in the morning before the day trippers, then a free afternoon for kayaking, cycling the west bank, or nothing.
To Vientiane
Train or expressway to the capital, then the COPE visitor centre, Wat Si Saket and That Luang in the afternoon.
Vientiane and the flight south
The morning market and Buddha Park downstream, then the afternoon flight to Pakse, about an hour and a half.
The Bolaven Plateau
A thousand metres of climb in fifty kilometres, a working coffee farm at Paksong, and the falls at Tad Fane and Tad Yuang.
Tad Lo, then Champasak
The eastern plateau at Tad Lo, then the descent and the drive to the quiet colonial street at Champasak on the Mekong.
Wat Phou, then the islands
The Khmer temple at 07:30 before the heat, running up the hillside to a sanctuary built around a spring, then south to Nakasang and out to the islands by boat.
Don Khon and Khone Phapheng
Cycling the flat island past the 1910 French railway bridge and Li Phi falls, then Khone Phapheng, the largest waterfall in Southeast Asia by volume.
The last morning
Nothing before 10:00. Then either three hours back to Pakse for the flight, or 30 minutes to the Cambodian border with the paperwork done and a driver waiting on the far side.
Prices
| Group size | Simple | Standard | Comfortable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | USD 2,590 | USD 3,290 | USD 4,850 |
| 3 - 4 | USD 2,040 | USD 2,650 | USD 4,060 |
| 5 - 6 | USD 1,780 | USD 2,350 | USD 3,690 |
| 7 - 8 | USD 1,660 | USD 2,210 | USD 3,480 |
What is included
What the price includes
- Fourteen nights with breakfast in the standard you choose
- Two days on the Mekong slow boat with reserved seats
- Private vehicle and driver on every road day, north and south
- Licensed English-speaking guides throughout, changing region by region
- All boats, including the island transfers in the south
- Bicycle hire on Don Khon
- Twelve lunches and three dinners
- All entrance fees, from the Pak Ou caves to Khone Phapheng
What it does not include
- The Vientiane to Pakse flight, quoted at cost
- International flights
- The Laos visa fee and the Cambodian visa if you cross
- Travel insurance
- The Vang Vieng balloon and other optional activities
- Most dinners, drinks and tips
Pictures
Who this trip does not suit
- Anyone who wants a slow holiday. Fifteen days sounds generous and this route uses all of them - six days involve three hours or more of travel and two of those are seven hours.
- Travellers unwilling to take a domestic flight on a small aircraft. The alternative is eleven hours of road, and we will run it that way if you prefer, but it costs two days.
- People who would rather see three places properly than seven adequately. That is a legitimate preference and the ten-day route serves it better.
- Visitors in March and April. This route spends its first eight days in the north, in the worst weeks for haze, and its last five in the south, in the worst weeks for heat.
- Anyone who needs consistent hotel standards. The best available room in Phonsavan and the best available room in Luang Prabang are not remotely the same thing.
Questions travellers ask most
Is fifteen days enough for all of Laos?
For this list of places, yes, at this pace. It is not enough to add the Thakhek loop, Phongsaly in the far north, or the Vietnamese border provinces in the east.
If you have eighteen days, the Thakhek and Konglor extension is the one we would add, and it replaces the flight with a drive.
Why is there a flight in the middle?
Vientiane to Pakse by road is about 680 km and eleven hours, on a road with heavy truck traffic. Flying costs USD 110 to 160 and saves two days of the trip.
If you would rather drive it, we split it at Thakhek and you get a night in central Laos, which is not a bad consolation.
Can we start in the south and finish in the north?
Yes, and it works well if you are arriving from Cambodia. The pricing is the same, and the slow boat becomes the last two days rather than the first two.
The one thing we would keep is arriving in Luang Prabang from the water, so in reverse we usually reorder slightly rather than mirror the itinerary exactly.
Do the guides change along the way?
Yes. We use regional guides - a northern guide to Vientiane, a southern guide from Pakse - because a guide who grew up in Xieng Khouang knows things about the Plain of Jars that no amount of study replaces.
On the comfortable option we can put one guide with you the whole way if you would rather have continuity. It costs more and, in our view, you get less.
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Tell us what you want out of Laos
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.