Angkor and Southern Laos in 9 Days: Temples, the Bolaven Plateau and the 4,000 Islands

Your guide and driver meet you at Siem Reap airport. Visit the Artisans d'Angkor workshops, where young Cambodians train in silk weaving and stone carving, and stroll through the Old Market. In the evening, enjoy dinner with a performance of Apsara dance.Overnight: Siem Reap · Meals: D

Watch dawn break over Angkor Wat, then explore its long galleries of carved reliefs. Continue to Angkor Thom, the faces of the Bayon, the royal terraces and Preah Khan. After lunch, wander through Ta Prohm, where fig trees grow through the towers, and end with sunset from Pre Rup.Overnight: Siem Reap · Meals: B, L

Climb the hilltop temple of Phnom Bok for a view over the plain, enjoy a picnic lunch in a village and continue to Koh Ker, a 10th-century capital where a seven-tiered pyramid rises from the forest. Dinner is home-style or at your hotel.Overnight: Koh Ker · Meals: B, L, D

Explore Beng Mealea, a vast 12th-century temple still wrapped in jungle, and stop at the monastery of Pouk. Later, take a boat through a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, where houses and schools rise and fall with the water, as the light softens. Dinner at a local restaurant in Siem Reap.Overnight: Siem Reap · Meals: B, L, D

Fly from Siem Reap to Pakse in southern Laos, direct on flight days or via Vientiane. Your Lao guide meets you and you drive up onto the Bolaven Plateau, home of the finest Lao coffee. Visit a coffee and tea plantation for a tasting, then the waterfalls of Tad Fane, the highest in Champasak province, and Tad Yuang.Overnight: Paksong (Bolaven Plateau) · Meals: B, L

Drive down into the Mekong plain to Champasak, a sleepy town of French colonial houses, and visit Wat Phou, a UNESCO-listed temple begun around the 5th century, with carvings of Indra and Vishnu on its sandstone shrines. Continue south to Don Khong, the largest island of Si Phan Don.Overnight: Don Khong · Meals: B, L

Spend the day exploring Si Phan Don by boat, where the Mekong spreads up to 12 kilometers wide and countless small islands appear as the water drops. Pass Don Det and continue to Don Khone, quieter and greener, linked by an old French-era bridge, and walk its peaceful paths with your guide.Overnight: Don Khone · Meals: B, L

Return to the mainland to see Khone Phapheng, where the whole Mekong tumbles over a wide rock shelf near the Cambodian border. Then drive north to Champasak for your last night in a villa on the riverbank.Overnight: Champasak · Meals: B, L

Enjoy a free morning by the river in Champasak, then transfer to Pakse airport, about an hour's drive, for your flight home or to your next destination.Meals: B