Pakse is not the place for ticking off sights. You can see the town itself in a morning, and everything you remember from here happens outside it: up on the plateau, under a waterfall, or somewhere on a mountain road with coffee fields on either side.
A few things genuinely belong on the list: the loop, the coffee and at least one waterfall you can stand under. Others just happen to be nearby and are a nice extra if you have a day left over next to the plateau. At €17 a day your budget is not the issue here. Your time is.
So the real question is: what do you take onto the loop with you, and what do you save for later?
Want the practical side first, like how many days you need, where to sleep and how to get there? That is all on our Pakse page.
The Bolaven Loop by scooter
This is what you come for, and it is the best thing southern Laos has to offer. You ride up from Pakse onto the Bolaven Plateau, more than a thousand metres above the Mekong, and within an hour the heat is gone and you are riding through coffee fields, forest and villages that barely see a bus. For three days you decide where to stop.
The big loop is about 350 kilometres, the small one about 200. You rent a scooter in the centre from around €8 a day, and the rental shops store your big bag while you are away. Bring cash, because ATMs on the plateau are few and fussy.
Have your scooter checked before you leave and really test the brakes. You are riding mountain roads with patchy tarmac for three days, and most of the trouble on this route comes not from the bends but from a wreck you could have turned down at the rental shop. Carry a 1949-convention international driving permit, which is the one Laos recognises, and check that your travel insurance covers riding here on your licence category.
Our verdict: absolutely, and give the big loop the full three days
Sleeping on a coffee farm near Paksong
Around Paksong, Laos grows its arabica at about 1,200 metres, and plenty of farms along the loop rent out a simple room. You sleep between the fields, in the evening it is cool enough for a jumper, and in the morning you get coffee from the plot right next to your bed.
It is the obvious first night on the loop: you ride up from Pakse in half a day and still have time for Tad Fane afterwards. You can taste at almost every farm, and buy bags of beans too. This is the coffee region of Laos, so this is also the best coffee of your whole trip through the country.
Take that warm layer seriously. Backpackers fresh from Vang Vieng or the 4000 Islands often pack nothing but T-shirts and then sit shivering at eight in the evening, a thousand metres up.
Our verdict: a must, this is the part people remember afterwards
Tad Fane, the hundred-metre double drop
Two streams of water plunging side by side about a hundred metres into a forested gorge: Tad Fane is the most impressive waterfall around, and it is close to Paksong, so it is easy to fit into your first day on the plateau.
You look at it from the edge on the opposite side of the gorge, because you cannot get down to the bottom here. That sounds like a drawback, but it is exactly why it works: you see the whole fall in one go, from the top edge to the bottom.
Come at the end of the rainy season, in September or October, and you hear it before you see it. In March, April and May there is a lot less of it.
Our verdict: absolutely, even though it only takes half an hour
Swimming at Tad Yuang and Tad Lo
Where Tad Fane is mainly for looking at, these are the waterfalls you can get into. Both have a swimming spot at the bottom, and after a morning on the scooter that is exactly what you need. Tad Lo also has a small village around it, where a lot of travellers end up staying longer than they planned.
Both are on the route, so there is no detour involved. At Tad Yuang it is a few minutes’ walk down from the road. So keep your towel and swimmers at the top of your bag, not at the bottom with the stuff you should have left at the rental shop.
Stay on the marked paths, even if you spot a nicer place further along. There is still unexploded ordnance in the ground in this province, and that is exactly why those paths are there.
Our verdict: absolutely, and plan a long break around it
Wat Phou, the Khmer temple older than Angkor
About 120 kilometres south of Pakse there is a Khmer temple complex on the UNESCO World Heritage list, older than Angkor Wat. It climbs a hillside in terraces, and at the top you stand looking out over the plain towards the Mekong.
Count on about an hour and a half on the road from Pakse, and half a day including the drive. It is the perfect way to fill the one day you are not on the loop, for example the day you arrive or the day before you head on to Don Det.
Go in the morning. Not because of the crowds, because there hardly are any: this is one of the quietest World Heritage sites you will find in Southeast Asia. But the stairway to the top is in full sun, and at two in the afternoon that climb is a lot harder.
Our verdict: a great half-day trip if you have the morning for it
The villages on the plateau
On the northern half of the loop you ride through villages of several different ethnic groups, where life has very little to do with tourism. No entry fee, no show, no stalls: you just ride through and stop wherever you feel like it.
This is exactly why three days is the minimum for the big loop and why rushing is a shame. The best stretches of this route are between the dots on your map, and you miss them if you race from waterfall to waterfall.
Ride slowly here and never in the dark. There is no lighting on the plateau and there are animals on the road, so make sure you are at your bed for the night before sunset.
Our verdict: this just happens to you, as long as you give yourself the time
Sunset on the Mekong and the night market
Back in Pakse, the river is the best thing the town itself has to offer. In the evening the night market sets up by the water, and you eat Mekong fish off the charcoal grill or a plate of laap for about €2, with the sun going down over the far bank.
A beer costs around a euro, so this is the cheapest good night of your whole route. It is also where you meet travellers who have just come off the loop or are starting it tomorrow, which is often how you find people to ride with for the next few days.
Do this on your last evening, not your first. After three days of riding mountain roads, grilled fish by the river tastes about ten times better.
Our verdict: one evening is enough, but make it a good one
Got time to spare in Pakse?
A morning around town
Pakse is small, flat and hardly touristy, and that is exactly its charm. Walk around for a morning, have a coffee at one of the cafes in the centre and have a look at the market by the Mekong. Then head up onto the plateau, because that is where the thing you came for starts.
The small loop or the big loop
The big loop is 350 kilometres in three days over mountain roads with patchy tarmac. Not done many kilometres on a scooter yet? Then pick the small loop of about 200 kilometres: the same waterfalls, the same coffee and the same villages, with a lot fewer hours in the saddle. If you ride more often, the big loop is one of the most beautiful routes in Laos.
The waterfalls in the right season
In September and October, at the end of the rainy season, Tad Fane and Tad Yuang are at full force. In March, April and May it is hot and dry and Tad Fane turns into a thin trickle. In Pakse during those months? Then make the most of the coffee farms, the villages and Wat Phou.
Arriving before dark
Plan your stages so you arrive before sunset. There is no lighting on the plateau, there are animals on the road and a lot of rental scooters have a fairly modest headlight. An extra night in a guesthouse along the way costs you about €5, and then you ride the best stretches in daylight.
Our top five in Pakse
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The Bolaven Loop by scooter, three days for the big loop
- A night on a coffee farm near Paksong, with fresh coffee at breakfast
- Tad Fane, the hundred-metre double drop
- A swim under Tad Yuang or Tad Lo, halfway through your riding day
- Grilled Mekong fish at the night market at sunset
Still got a day left after that? Wat Phou is the best way to spend it: an hour and a half south, a Khmer temple older than Angkor and hardly anyone walking around. And if you are really in no hurry, ride the northern half of the loop again, but this time without a plan.
So what do you really have to do in Pakse?
Honestly? This list is here to help you choose, not to fill your days. Pakse works precisely because nothing is compulsory: no queues, no time slots, no tickets to sort out in advance. You rent a scooter, you ride off and you see where you end up that night.
If we had to pick just one thing: ride the loop and sleep at least one night on a coffee farm. Not even for the coffee, although it is good, but for the moment just before. You park your scooter, it is cool for the first time in weeks, and there is absolutely nothing else to do.
And do not rush back down. Most travellers who plan three days for the loop wish afterwards they had given it four.
