Laos is not a country where you hop from city to city, tick off a temple and move on. Laos wants you to slow down. To spend two days on a river instead of two hours on a bus. To get lost on a scooter and stumble onto the best view of your whole trip by accident.
Seventy percent of the country is mountains and jungle, and you can tell from what there is to do. Flying through the rainforest on a zipline, spending days on mountain roads, drifting down the Mekong, jumping into turquoise waterfalls: this is what adventurous backpackers secretly dream about, and here it costs a fraction of what it would anywhere else.
If we have to choose, it is these five. They are in the order we would do them if you only have part of your time.
1. The Gibbon Experience
Put this one at the top. In the jungle near Huay Xai there are huge treehouses high up in the canopy, and you do not walk to them: you fly.
You zip between the treetops on lines hundreds of metres long, trek through dense rainforest and end up high above the ground in a treehouse that is your home for the night. The next morning you wake up with nothing but green around you and the sound of the forest waking up, and with a bit of luck you hear or see a group of gibbons.
It is not cheap, certainly not by Lao standards, and that is the most honest caveat on this whole list. But it is also one of those experiences where you realise afterwards that this is why you went backpacking. Everything you need to know beforehand, from how long it takes to why you book it early, is on our Huay Xai page.
Our verdict: the most unique adventure in Laos, and worth rearranging your route for
2. The Thakhek Loop
For a lot of backpackers this turns out to be the surprise of their whole Laos trip. You rent a scooter in Thakhek, leave your big backpack somewhere safe and set off. No tour, no minivan full of strangers, no fixed schedule.
You ride past towering limestone mountains, through tiny villages, past caves and endless rice fields. The highlight on the way is Kong Lor Cave, a gigantic cave you travel through by boat for kilometres, in pitch darkness.
The best part is the freedom. See something beautiful, pull the scooter over, and ride on whenever you are ready. For a lot of people that is the ultimate backpacking feeling. More about the town it starts from is in things to do in Thakhek.
One serious note: do not use this loop as your first ever riding lesson. Roads and conditions vary enormously, and you want to come back with good memories and your skin still intact. Carry the 1949-convention international driving permit that Laos recognises, alongside your own licence.
Our verdict: the purest backpacking feeling in the country, and at its best with some scooter experience behind you
3. The slow boat down the Mekong
Normally you want to get from A to B as fast as possible. In Laos you take two days over it on purpose, and that is exactly the point.
The slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang is one of the most legendary backpacker experiences in the country. Two days on the water with a night in sleepy Pakbeng halfway, and green mountains, jungle and river villages sliding past your window.
But the real highlight is what happens on board. You get on a boat full of strangers, and by the time you tie up in Luang Prabang you have a new travel group and sometimes friends for the rest of your trip. How to get to the start of that route from Thailand is in Chiang Rai to Laos.
Bring food, water and something soft for your back. The benches are wooden and two days is two days.
Our verdict: not transport but an experience, and the best way to arrive in the country
4. Kuang Si Waterfalls
You had seen the photos before you ever thought about Laos: that unreal turquoise water stepping down over several tiers, right in the middle of the jungle near Luang Prabang.
The remarkable thing is that the real thing does not disappoint. You walk up alongside the falls, and at the spots where it is allowed you dive straight into the cold water. Yes, it is touristy, and sometimes a place is popular simply because it is ridiculously beautiful.
Go as early as you can. Later in the day it gets busy, and then you lose exactly the calm you came for. More about the area is in things to do in Luang Prabang.
Our verdict: the most beautiful waterfalls in Southeast Asia, as long as you get there before the coaches
5. Viewpoints and Blue Lagoons in Vang Vieng
For years Vang Vieng was mainly known for tubing and parties. Look a little further and you find that the surroundings are absurdly beautiful.
Rent a scooter and ride between the limestone cliffs and rice fields out to the Blue Lagoons and the viewpoints around town. Those viewpoints are an experience in themselves: you start the climb full of enthusiasm, after ten minutes you wonder why you are doing this voluntarily, and twenty minutes later you are soaked in sweat and questioning your life choices.
And then you reach the top, and you get it straight away. Kilometres of view over mountains and valleys, as far as you can see. Afterwards you cool off in a Blue Lagoon and that is your day done. See also things to do in Vang Vieng.
Our verdict: the best view for the least travel time, and the easiest of these five to fit in
Got time to spare?
Three places, properly. Laos is big and the bus rides are long, so doing three places well gives you more than rushing through six. The travel days in between are not a side issue here either: the landscape on the way is part of what you came for.
Vang Vieng for the lagoons. Tubing still exists and can be a fun afternoon, but the viewpoints, the lagoons and the balloon flight at sunrise are the real highlight of this town these days.
Take the slow boat. Two days on the Mekong sounds like a lot of time, and it is one of the five things on this list. Take the bus instead and you reach Luang Prabang faster, but you miss the best arrival of your whole trip.
Our top five in Laos
- The Gibbon Experience near Huay Xai, sleeping in a treehouse above the jungle
- The Thakhek Loop by scooter, with Kong Lor Cave on the way
- The slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, two days on the Mekong
- Kuang Si Waterfalls near Luang Prabang, as early in the day as you can
- The viewpoints and Blue Lagoons around Vang Vieng
What should you really not miss in Laos?
If you have enough time, do all five. They also sit fairly logically on one route: you come in at Huay Xai, take the boat to Luang Prabang, head down to Vang Vieng and Vientiane, and carry on to Thakhek in the south.
If you have to choose, the Gibbon Experience and the Thakhek Loop go straight to the top for us. The first is the most unique adventure on this list, and there is very little in the world like it. The second gives you exactly that free, unplanned feeling that is really why you come to Laos.
One piece of advice about that loop: do not plan it too tightly. The best thing about it is that you stop wherever you want, and you are guaranteed to find places that are on no list at all. And if you are not confident on a scooter, pick the slow boat and Kuang Si instead. They give you the same country without the risk.
