Laos Family Adventure in 19 Days: Luang Prabang to Kong Lor and the 4,000 Islands

Your guide meets you at Luang Prabang airport and takes you to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to settle in. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage town on a peninsula between the Mekong and Nam Khan, small enough to explore on foot. Take a gentle walk past monasteries and teak houses, and find a riverside spot to watch the sun go down over the Mekong.Overnight: Luang Prabang

Explore Luang Prabang on foot with your guide, focusing on the quieter lanes. Learn to spot the four styles of building protected by UNESCO: traditional Lao stilt houses, half-wood half-brick homes, French colonial villas and old Chinese shophouses. In the afternoon, visit Wat Sene, Wat Xieng Thong, and the Heuan Chan heritage house for Lao coffee or tea. See the Royal Palace Museum and nearby Wat Mai, then climb Phousi Hill for sunset before browsing the night market.Overnight: Luang Prabang · Meals: B

Take a tuk tuk to the pier and a boat down the Mekong to Ban Chan, a village of potters. Walk past the kilns and brick works, then shape your own clay souvenir with local potters; it is fired and sent to your hotel. Enjoy lunch on a riverside terrace. Then cruise upstream to the Pak Ou Caves, filled with thousands of Buddha images left by pilgrims, stopping at Ban Xang Hai, a village known for rice wine, on the way.Overnight: Luang Prabang · Meals: B, L

Rise early to watch monks collecting alms and visit the morning market. After breakfast, stop at the Buffalo Dairy Farm, where children can meet the water buffalo, then continue to Kuang Si Falls to swim in the blue pools. On the way back, visit Ock Pop Tock, a weaving center by the Mekong, for its treasure hunt: armed with a map and a set of riddles, children and adults search the gardens and workshops for clues and learn about Lao textiles as they go.Overnight: Luang Prabang · Meals: B

Visit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC), a small museum that brings to life the clothing, crafts and beliefs of the ethnic groups of northern Laos, and is a perfect warm-up for the villages ahead. Then drive to Ban Phanom, a Tai Lue weaving village where families work at looms under their houses. Lunch is free in town. In the late afternoon, take a gentle boat ride on the Nam Khan River as the light fades over the hills.Overnight: Luang Prabang · Meals: B

Drive out of town to Green Jungle Park, a forest park on the road towards Kuang Si. Glide over the treetops on its zipline, then walk the forest trails and rope bridges at an easy pace. Lunch is at a local restaurant on the way back, and the afternoon is free to relax in town.Overnight: Luang Prabang · Meals: B, L

Enjoy a slow morning in Luang Prabang, with time for a last café visit or a swim at your hotel. Around midday, transfer to the station and board the express train south. In about an hour you arrive in Vang Vieng, where the Nam Song River runs beneath tall limestone peaks. Check in, then take an easy evening walk along the river as the cliffs turn gold.Overnight: Vang Vieng · Meals: B

Visit Tham Jang, a cave once used by local people as a refuge, and Tham Nang Fa, the Angel Cave, full of stalactites and strange limestone forms. Teenagers can add an optional zipline nearby. Cool off with a swim at Blue Lagoon 3, a clear green pool shaded by trees. In the afternoon, drive to Ban Thaheua on the shore of Nam Ngum Lake and settle into your lake-view bungalow.Overnight: Nam Ngum Lake (Ban Thaheua) · Meals: B

At ten o'clock, board a traditional sala boat and cruise among the forested islands of Nam Ngum Lake, watching fishermen at work and learning about rice farming along the shore. Around midday the boat moors at an island for a barbecue lunch, with time to swim or fish. You are back at the resort by early afternoon, free to relax or try the resort's floating swimming pool.Overnight: Nam Ngum Lake (Ban Thaheua) · Meals: B, L

Drive south to Vientiane, a relaxed capital where Lao, Thai, Chinese, Vietnamese and French influences mix. In the afternoon, visit Wat Sisaket, the oldest temple still standing in the city, with its murals and thousands of small Buddha images, and Haw Phra Kaew, the former royal temple. Then climb Patuxai, Vientiane's own triumphal arch, and finish at That Luang, the golden stupa that is the symbol of Laos.Overnight: Vientiane · Meals: B

Begin at Wat Si Muang, where locals come for blessings, then visit the Vientiane Museum of Contemporary Arts, where carvers turn tree roots salvaged from cleared forests into striking sculptures. At COPE, learn about the unexploded ordnance that still affects rural Laos and the people helping survivors walk again. After lunch, drive about 45 minutes to Buddha Park and its more than 200 sculptures. End the day on the Mekong riverside with a cold drink or a snack from the food stalls.Overnight: Vientiane · Meals: B

Today is a long but scenic travel day. Head south on Route 13, stopping at Wat Phabath Phonsanh, a temple that guards a footprint of the Buddha. After about three hours, turn off the highway into Phou Hin Poun National Protected Area, where the road winds between limestone towers, forests and rice fields. Reach the village of Kong Lor in the late afternoon. If there is time, walk through the nearby villages or swim and kayak in the lagoon by your resort.Overnight: Kong Lor · Meals: B

Early risers can join a village walk as the day begins. After breakfast, collect life jackets and head torches and walk to the cave mouth. A long-tail boat then carries you 7.5 km through the mountain along the Hin Boun River, in chambers up to 90 m wide and 100 m high, with stops to walk among stalactites and stalagmites. On the far side, have a drink and visit a village before returning through the cave. In the afternoon, drive about four hours to Thakhek for sunset on the Mekong.Overnight: Thakhek · Meals: B

Drive south to That Ing Hang, a revered 16th-century stupa. Continue to Savannakhet for a walk among its French villas and the Catholic church of St. Teresa, and visit the small Dinosaur Museum, where fossils found nearby are on display. In the afternoon, drive about three and a half hours toward the Bolaven Plateau to Fandee Island, where tonight you sleep in a treehouse surrounded by forest and water.Overnight: Fandee Island · Meals: B

Spend the morning enjoying Fandee Island at your own pace. Its water park and adventure park offer swimming, rope bridges and ziplines, and there is plenty of space simply to relax. In the afternoon, drive to Paksong, the coffee capital of the Bolaven Plateau, and check in at Sinouk Coffee Resort, set among gardens and coffee trees. In the evening, enjoy the cool upland air, a welcome change from the heat of the Mekong valley, and perhaps a cup of the resort's own coffee.Overnight: Paksong · Meals: B

Leave Paksong after breakfast and stop at Tad Fane, where twin waterfalls drop into a deep forested gorge. Drive past farms of coffee, tea, cardamom and bananas down to Champasak, and explore Wat Phou, a UNESCO-listed Khmer temple complex begun in the 5th century, centuries before Angkor Wat. Walk among Champasak's old colonial houses, then continue to Don Khong, the largest island in this part of the Mekong.Overnight: Don Khong · Meals: B

Board a long-tail boat for 1.5 hours through Si Phan Don, where the Mekong spreads wide around countless islets. Land on Don Khone and walk past French colonial buildings and the remains of the first railway in Laos, with its old locomotive. Ride a tuk tuk to Li Phi Falls, also called Tad Somphamit, close to the Cambodian border, and stop at a village temple. Later, rent bicycles for a family sunset ride around the island.Overnight: Don Khone · Meals: B

Cross back to the mainland at Ban Nakasang and see Khone Phapheng, a roaring series of cascades and the largest waterfall by volume in Southeast Asia. Then drive north to Pakse, the riverside capital of Champasak province. In the afternoon, visit the stone carvers of Ban Khoh and walk to Wat Chomphet with its large seated Buddha. At dusk, drive up to Wat Phou Salao for a view across the town and the Mekong.Overnight: Pakse · Meals: B

After breakfast, your driver takes you across the Chongmek border into Thailand and on to Ubon Ratchathani airport for your flight to Bangkok and home. Allow about three hours, including the border crossing. You can also fly out of Pakse instead, with links to Bangkok, Vientiane, Siem Reap and Ho Chi Minh City. Before you leave, your guide can help with any last questions about onward travel.Meals: B