Laos with children: what works, what does not, and what we change
Laos with children is a better idea than it sounds and a worse idea than it looks, depending entirely on how the route is built. The country is safe, the people are unusually warm with children, the food is easy to make plain, and the two things children like most here, boats and caves, are the two
The failure mode is equally clear. This is a country of long, slow drives, and a schedule with three transfer days in ten will break the trip for a six-year-old faster than any amount of heat or unfamiliar food.
So this is what we change when there are children in the party.
The three rules we apply
One: no more than three hotel changes in ten days. Every change costs a morning, and with children it costs a morning and a mood. Our family route is built to three deliberately.
Two: no drive over three hours. The adult tolerance in Laos is five hours and we still avoid it. With children the number is three, and we use the railway wherever it can replace a road. Vientiane to Luang Prabang is about two hours by train against nine to eleven by mountain road, and that single fact is the reason family trips to Laos work now in a way they did not before December 2021.
Three: one thing per day, and it happens before eleven. Heat, and the fact that a temple is more interesting to a child at nine than at two.
What genuinely works
The river. A private long-tail on the Mekong or the Nam Khan is the best hour of most family trips here. It costs $60 to $150 for the boat rather than per person, the children can see the front of the boat and the driver, and there is a beach to stop at in the dry season. If you buy one thing in Laos, buy this.
Kuang Si. Turquoise pools about 20 miles (32 km) from Luang Prabang with shallow swimming levels, wooden walkways and a short climb. Go at opening or after three, when the coaches have gone. The bear rescue centre at the entrance houses Asiatic black bears taken from the bile trade, it takes twenty minutes, and it is the single most reliable twenty minutes with a seven-year-old in the country.
Vang Vieng. This is the place we recommend to families and often skip for everybody else. A hot air balloon at dawn over the karst towers, caves you float through on an inner tube, a lagoon to jump into, kayaking on a gentle river, and a bicycle ride through rice fields. The old backpacker reputation is largely gone. It is also now about an hour from Vientiane by rail rather than four by road, which makes it easy to reach.
Caves at Nong Khiaw and Vieng Xai. Children who have been told the caves were used as shelters during the bombing listen more closely than adults do.
The night market in Luang Prabang. Cheap, safe, walkable, full of things a child can choose. The food lane is fine rather than good, which is a reasonable trade for an easy dinner.
A weaving village or a cooking class. Anything with hands in it. The sticky rice, rolled in the palm and used as a utensil, is a genuine novelty and a good way to get a fussy eater to eat rice.
The elephants, done properly. No riding, on any of our trips, and we will not build one. There are two genuine conservation projects we use, where the day is about observation, feeding and river bathing, and we name the specific one in your proposal.
What does not work
Long drive days. Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw is three and a half to four hours on winding mountain road, and a proportion of children are travel sick on it. If the north matters to you, we do it as three nights so the drive is amortised, or we leave it out.
The Plain of Jars with children under twelve. Reached by air or a long drive, needing two nights, and the site itself is a field of stones whose meaning is entirely in the explanation. Older children who have been prepared find it fascinating. Younger ones find it hot.
The two-day Mekong slow boat. Two full days sitting still on hard benches. Adults with a book manage. Most children do not, and the private boat option, which is much better, still involves two long days. We do the short Luang Prabang river legs instead.
March and April. Heat above 96F (36C) in the lowlands, and the northern burning haze that can sit over Luang Prabang for weeks and is genuinely poor air to have a child running around in. If your only window is the school holiday in April, we will tell you honestly and we will build the trip in the south, where the haze is weaker. The full calendar is in Laos month by month.
Si Phan Don with small children. Simple bungalows, cold showers, power cuts, and a river with a current. It is wonderful with teenagers and hard work with a four-year-old.
By age
Under five. Possible, and we would rather send you to Vietnam or Thailand, where the medical infrastructure is better outside the capital and the transfers are shorter. If Laos is the plan, keep it to Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, both reachable by rail, with a pool.
Five to nine. The sweet spot for the classic family route: Luang Prabang, the river, Kuang Si, the bears, Vang Vieng and its balloon and caves, Vientiane. Three hotels, one train, no drive over three hours.
Ten to fourteen. Now the north opens up. Nong Khiaw, one viewpoint climb of two to three hours, a boat to Muang Ngoi, a village walk, caves. The UXO Laos Information Centre in Luang Prabang and COPE in Vientiane become genuinely valuable at this age, and children of twelve and up take the history seriously.
Teenagers. Kayaking, cycling, the multi-day village trek out of Luang Namtha with a homestay night, the deep south. This is the age at which Laos beats its neighbours, because a teenager who has already done Thailand notices that here they are the only visitors on the trail.
The safety conversation, honestly
Laos is safe for family travel in the ordinary sense: crime against visitors is low, and the country is welcoming to children in a way that will surprise you at every meal.
Two things are worth saying plainly.
Unexploded ordnance. Between 1964 and 1973 Laos was bombed more heavily per head of population than any country in history, and a significant proportion of the ordnance dropped failed to detonate. Towns, temples, tourist sites and roads are cleared and safe. In Xieng Khouang, Savannakhet, Salavan, Sekong, Attapeu, Khammouane and Houaphanh, the rule is absolute: stay on marked paths and cleared ground, and do not let a child wander into a field or an old crater. At the Plain of Jars the clearance markers are white on the cleared side and red on the uncleared side. This is a conversation to have with children before you arrive, in calm terms, rather than at the trailhead.
Medical facilities. Limited outside Vientiane, and serious cases are usually moved to Thailand. Our Hanoi office handles that if it happens and is on WhatsApp for the whole trip. It is one reason we keep family routes on the rail corridor and near the two cities.
Practical smaller things: bottled or filtered water only including for teeth, mosquito cover at dawn and dusk, cash rather than cards outside the main hotels, and a battery pack because power cuts are normal in the north.
Would we send a family to Laos at all?
Yes, with two caveats we say out loud.
If this is your first trip to Asia with children, Vietnam or Thailand is easier, and our Asia with children article makes that comparison across the region. Laos has fewer beaches, fewer child-facing attractions and slower roads.
If you have travelled in Asia before and you want the version where your children are the only foreign children in the village, Laos is the best country in the region for it. The pace that makes some adults restless is the pace that suits a family, and the ten-day version with three hotels is one of the calmest trips we build.
Plan this trip
Tell us the ages of your children and the dates you are tied to, and a Laos specialist will build a route with the drives kept short and the days built around them. Free first outline, no obligation.
Keep reading
- Laos: the complete guide to planning your trip
- Laos with children, 10 days
- Asia with children, country by country
- How many days do you need in Laos?
- Laos month by month
- All our Laos trips
Frequently asked questions
What is the best length for a family trip to Laos?
Will children eat the food?
Are there family rooms?
Is the train suitable for children?
Do you build a swimming day in?
Plan a trip to Laos is the slowest country in the region, and that is the point All Laos is the slowest country in the region, and that is the point trips
