Highlights of Northern Laos

Going off-the-beaten-track half way round the World with people you don’t know, food you’ve never tried before and what appear to be extreme weather conditions. What can possibly go wrong?

A few tips on how to get the best out of your small group tour to Southeast Asia

Vientiane We’ve run through our favourite see and dos in  Vientiane before so this post is more of an overall description and brief rundown on the history of the laid-back Lao capital.(1) Although of course growing, it is still by some distance the smallest of the various Southeast Asian capitals with an estimated 215,000 inhabiting the downtown area, increasing to…

Indochine, as the French called it, comprised 5 regions or territories; Annam, Cambodia, Cochin-china, Laos and Tonkin

Laos – land crossings and airports A brief rundown on the various land border crossings and international airports used on our small group tours to Laos. Airports Vientiane – Wattay International Airport Lao’s capital Vientiane is the arrival point for most, but not all, of our Laos small group tours including;  Highlights of Northern Laos, our Laos and Vietnam tour…

Kuang Si Waterfall The picturesque waterfalls, turquoise cascades and limestone-edged ponds of Kuang Si, nestled amid forest some 30 kilometres southwest of Luang Prabang, are an understandably popular destination with both locals and foreign visitors. Though not far from town, it did used to be a bit of an arduous trip along either muddy or dusty, but always bumpy, trails…

Lao money | Which currencies would I be using on a tour of Laos and how much should I take?

The Plain of Jars The World Heritage Plain of Jars, situated in remote northeastern Laos, is a seriously off-the-beaten-track destination although, fortuitously, visits are facilitated by Xieng Khouang Airport which serves the adjacent town of Phonsavan and provides daily connections to the capital Vientiane. At present, the far-flung provincial capital has just three road connections. Route 7 leads west to…

Luang Prabang The picturesque town of Luang Prabang is justifiably one of the highlights of the small, landlocked Southeast Asian nation of Laos. The historic, ancient northern capital, added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list back in 2013, comes with a stunning location – nestled amid mountains on the banks of the Mekong – and houses a mixture of ancient Buddhist…

Best things to see and do in Vientiane The relatively small capital of relatively small Laos slips under the radar in comparison to larger and more high-profile Southeast Asian capitals such as Bangkok, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur and even Phnom Penh but, while it is very much a low-key and laid-back kind of city, (so much the better), there are certainly…

When’s the best time to visit Laos? Probably the most frequently asked question in respect to this part of Southeast Asia is ‘when’s the best time to visit Laos’. In our opinion, there’s no simple answer so read on for a brief overview of Laos weather and a few of the pros and cons of travel at different times of…

Laos World Heritage Sites The latest addition to UNESCO’s Laos World Heritage List – inscribed in 2019 and to our minds, long overdue – is the Megalithic Jar Sites of Xiengkhuang, commonly known as the Plain of Jars. Usually associated with adjectives such as mysterious or enigmatic the site consists of over 2,000 giant jars, carved out of solid rock…