Fairy-tale landscapes, golden wats and the finest cuisine
Laos offers you a Southeast-Asian experience without the full-on tourism vibe. On your tailored Laos holiday, you could trek to the remote villages and jungles of the highlands, explore the plateaus and rice fields of the southwest or take in the scents of the tea-covered mountains of the north.
Uniting your Laos holiday will be the Mekong River that flows through the country. One of the best ways to experience rural Laos is by heading south towards the border with Cambodia where you can enjoy a cruise on the Mekong River. Gliding by ancient temples, lush countryside and traditional riverside villages you may even be lucky enough to see the elusive and captivating Ayeyarwady river dolphin.
Throughout Laos there will be opportunities to sample the delicate but aromatic Laotian cuisine, which is seriously underrated compared to its Thai counterpart.
In the capital of Vientiane you can saunter along the wide boulevards lined with French colonial architecture and old Buddhist temples. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang is flanked by both the Mekong and Khan rivers. It is imbued with charm and its faded, old-colonial feel is spiked by attractive architecture, palaces and temples. The delightful Phu Si, Royal Palace and Wat Xieng Thong monastery are as aristocratically graceful as the Kuang Si Falls, just 30 kilometres away, are all rugged excitement.
Laos’ enigmatic atmosphere truly comes to the fore in the ancient monuments at Phonsavan. The Plain of Jars, makes a fascinating addition to any Laos holiday, as these large, ceramic urns that are thought to date from around 500BC, continue to baffle and puzzle historians and visitors alike.