Our favorite Laos tours and excursions

If destinations and accommodation are the bread and butter of a great vacation, a hands-on cultural experience is the secret sauce that brings it all to life.

We know that not everyone likes the idea of organized fun. You don’t need your hand held – we get it. But we also know that we’d bet our bottom kip that even the most die-hard independent travelers will fall for our incredible guides, whose in-depth knowledge and personal stories make every experience special.

The reason we can be so confident is because we’re independent travelers ourselves, and we know there’s nothing worse than coughing up for a cultural class or guided tour only to find that it feels inauthentic and touristy. That’s why we only recommend experiences we’ve personally road-tested and absolutely loved – no cookie-cutter day trips, no lackluster guides, and no doing something just because everyone else is.

In Laos, that means trekking up 100 waterfalls to picnic off banana leaves against the backdrop of the Nam Ou River Valley. It means cycling around the islands of the Mekong, stopping to watch craftsmen weaving bamboo and eating dinner with a local family. It means swapping Luang Prabang’s World Heritage architecture for its rural fringes, exploring the minority villages and tumbledown temples that line the banks of the Mekong.

We can take you beyond the standard tourist sites, but it takes the knowledge of a local to bring those places to life – and these experiences are the way to do it.

Carol Cassidy in her workshop in Vientiane

Insider Experience: Carol Cassidy's workshop

There are few people better placed to introduce you to traditional and contemporary Lao textile culture than Carol Cassidy.

Carol first came to Laos as a textile expert with the UN Development Program in 1989, and she unwittingly stumbled upon what she describes as “a weaver’s paradise”. Years later, she's still here -- and she now works with 40 Lao artisans to produce woven wall hangings, scarves, shawls and fabric, all using traditional methods. Touring Carol’s workshop is a rare chance to meet a real insider, and you'll have plenty of time to ask her about her experiences over cocktails and canapés in the garden.

Wat Phou Temple

Back in its 11th-century heyday, the Khmer Empire covered over a million square kilometers – including much of what we now know as Laos. Wat Phou is a relic of that golden age, with bas-relief carvings, a sacred spring, and reservoirs surrounded by frangipani trees.

Your guide will be able to tell you about the history of the site, which built by the same people as Angkor, and explain how the temple’s design reflects Hindu religious principles. Then, climb to the top of the temple mountain to be rewarded with panoramic views over the Mekong Plain – and the chance to partake of the spring’s special powers.

Cruising on the Upper Mekong

Where the Lower Mekong is broad, slow, and pulsing with life, the Upper Mekong is faster, narrower, and altogether more remote.

Until 2015, there weren’t any overnight river cruises at all, and even now you can sometimes sail for hours without seeing another boat. Cruising up here is an amazing way to see some of the most inaccessible parts of the country, scrambling up muddy banks or climbing steep bamboo staircases to tiny hamlets of tin-roofed houses. In between, there’s little to do but gaze at the steep-sided limestone mountains cloaked in green foliage – and that’s more than good enough for us.

Bolaven Plateau by vintage Jeep

Over a kilometer above sea level, the Bolaven Plateau is your chance to experience a totally different Laotian landscape – where cool temperatures, volcanic soil and plentiful rain conspire to create a wonderfully rich and fertile land perfect for growing coffee, cassava, bananas, tea and cardamom.

Where most tourists follow a well-worn circuit around the plateau’s edge, we like to plunge right through the middle – bouncing along rugged dirt roads in an open-top 4x4, stopping at Katu minority villages famed for their beaded, handwoven textiles, exploring hidden caves used during the Secret War, and cooling off with frequent dips under crashing waterfalls.

The Plain of Jars

We’re suckers for a mystery, and this is one of Asia’s best archaeological conundrums.

Scattered across hundreds of square kilometers on the Xieng Khouang Plateau, these giant stone jars might have been burial urns, rainwater butts, or rice wine kegs belonging to a race of giants – or none of the above. Debate your favorite theory with your expert guide or come up with your own. What we do know is that there are more than 2,500 of them, they’re over two millennia old, and they make a pretty majestic backdrop for playing Indiana Jones.

The hidden side of Luang Prabang

On this alternative tour, we’ll whisk you away from the boutique hotels and gilded wats of the town center to a side of Luang Prabang few tourists get to see -- where tuk-tuks putter along dirt roads to quiet temples, and minority villages sprawl along the banks of the Mekong.

Here, you can climb to dilapidated hilltop temples with incredible panoramic views, visit a spiritual retreat once used by the kings of Lan Xang, and meet Hmong and Khmu people who live lives governed by ancestral traditions. Finally, you can return to the city by boat, arriving in royal style on the mighty Mekong.