Laos and Vietnam in 21 days, with Cambodia as the alternative ending
Twelve days is what it takes to see Laos from the northern mountains to the Cambodian border, and almost nobody gives it that. This route does, and then it uses the remaining nine days on Vietnam, which is the natural second country because our own office runs both.
- Duration
- 21 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Hotel changes
- 9
- Best months
- Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
- From
- $3,255 per person
The shape is simple. North to south down Laos, by rail where the rail exists and by air where it does not, ending in the four thousand islands where the Mekong spreads out across the border. Then a flight to Hanoi and the classic northern and central Vietnam thread. If you would rather end in Cambodia, the second half swaps out cleanly and we set out how below.
Twenty-one days, nine hotel changes, three internal flights, one rail leg, and five days with nothing scheduled.
Who it suits: travellers with three weeks who want depth in one country and breadth across two. It is a full route rather than a slow one, and it involves real distances.
Your specialist: Osnat Angerman or Paz Prosianoy, with our Hanoi office running both countries.
Day by day
Laos, days 1 to 12
Day 1: Arrive Luang Prabang. Transfer, nothing scheduled, a night in the heritage zone.
Day 2: Luang Prabang, the old town. The alms round at first light, briefed the night before, watched from across the street without a camera in anyone’s face. Breakfast at the morning market. A guided walk through Wat Xieng Thong, the Royal Palace Museum and the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre. Sunset from a private boat on the Mekong.
Day 3: Kuang Si. The waterfall at opening, the pools while they are empty, the bear rescue centre at the entrance, and a village lunch on the way back. Afternoon free.
Day 4: The Mekong, upstream. A private boat to the Pak Ou caves, two hours up and one back with the current, with a stop at the rice whisky village. Afternoon at a weaving studio across the river, or free.
Day 5: Luang Prabang, free. Nothing scheduled. Cooking, bicycles, the UXO Laos Information Centre, or nothing.
Day 6: Train to Vientiane. Station transfer, then about two hours south through the mountains that used to take a full day to cross by road. Afternoon in the capital: Pha That Luang and Wat Si Saket.
Day 7: Vientiane, then south by air. COPE in the morning, the centre that makes prosthetic limbs for people injured by unexploded ordnance, which is free, takes an hour and is the most important thing in the city. Buddha Park after lunch if you want it. Evening flight to Pakse.
Day 8: Champasak, Wat Phou, and up to the plateau. An hour from Pakse to the pre-Angkorian Khmer temple that climbs a hillside above the Mekong plain, listed by UNESCO and quiet in a way Angkor has not been for decades. Lunch on the river, then up onto the Bolaven Plateau in the afternoon, where the air is several degrees cooler.
Day 9: The Bolaven. A working coffee farm in the morning: arabica and robusta, processing, roasting and a real tasting. Tad Fane in the afternoon, twin falls dropping about 400 feet (120 m) into a gorge, and Tad Yuang, which you can swim under. A walk between Katu villages if there is appetite, on marked paths only.
Day 10: Down to Si Phan Don. Off the plateau and south to the four thousand islands, about three hours, then a boat out to Don Khon or Don Det. Bungalow on the water. Khone Phapheng in the late afternoon, which carries more water by volume than any other falls in Southeast Asia and is a genuinely alarming amount of river.
Day 11: Si Phan Don. Nothing happens here and that is the reason to come. Bicycles between the islands over the old French railway bridge, the abandoned colonial locomotive in the undergrowth, the Li Phi rapids, and a hammock. We will tell you honestly that the Irrawaddy dolphins that used to be the draw on this stretch are effectively gone, and we do not sell a boat trip to look for them.
Day 12: North to Pakse, and out. Back up in the morning, and the afternoon flight to Hanoi via Vientiane. A long travel day and the price of having gone all the way south.
Vietnam, days 13 to 21
Day 13: Hanoi. Arrive late morning. Afternoon in the Old Quarter on foot, the lake, and a bia hoi on a plastic stool at the end of it.
Day 14: Hanoi. The 36 trade streets with a guide in the morning, the Temple of Literature, bun cha for lunch. Afternoon at the Museum of Ethnology, which explains the country’s 54 ethnic groups better than anything else in Vietnam and which almost nobody makes time for.
Day 15: Hanoi to Lan Ha Bay. Three hours east to Haiphong and aboard a small vessel by early afternoon. Kayaking among the limestone before dinner. We use Lan Ha rather than central Halong, which carries several hundred boats on one route.
Day 16: Lan Ha Bay to Hue. Disembark mid-morning, drive back to Hanoi, evening flight south. The second long day on the trip and the last one.
Day 17: Hue. The Imperial Citadel in the morning, which needs a guide to be more than walls, and two royal tombs in the afternoon. Hue cooks the most refined food in Vietnam and we book accordingly.
Day 18: Hue to Hoi An by train. The two-and-a-half-hour coastal train over the Hai Van Pass, on the seaward side of the carriage. Car from Danang station. Evening in the Ancient Town.
Day 19: Hoi An. Out at seven, when the old town is a working Vietnamese town rather than a lantern-lit stage set. Guided walk through the merchant houses and the Japanese bridge, then the whole afternoon free. Start a suit or a dress if you want one, because a good tailor needs 48 hours.
Day 20: Hoi An, free. Bicycles to the beach, a cooking session that starts at the market, or the Cham ruins at My Son at the 6.30am opening. Most people choose the beach.
Day 21: Departure. Transfer to Danang and the flight home.
What is included
Accommodation with breakfast throughout, two nights full board on a small-vessel Lan Ha Bay cruise, three internal flights with a real baggage allowance, the Luang Prabang to Vientiane rail leg in reserved seats with station transfers, the Hue to Danang train in reserved seats, private air-conditioned car with English-speaking driver on every transfer and site day in both countries, licensed local guides on eight days, the private Mekong boats in Laos, the Si Phan Don boats, all entrance fees on guided days, a day-by-day document with real drive times and flight numbers, and a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hanoi office for the whole three weeks.
The Cambodia ending instead
If you would rather finish in Cambodia than Vietnam, the route is better for it in one specific way: you can cross by land from Si Phan Don rather than flying back north.
Days 1 to 11 are unchanged. On day 12 you cross at Nong Nok Khiene into Cambodia and drive to Kratie or Stung Treng, then continue to Phnom Penh over the following two days, and finish with four nights at Siem Reap and Angkor. It is a slower, quieter ending, it removes a flight, and it costs you Hanoi and Hoi An. We build both and let you choose.
Visas, and the trap worth knowing
Laos issues a tourist visa on arrival at its main entry points and also operates an online application. Vietnam runs an e-visa applied for online. Cambodia offers both an online visa and a visa on arrival. All of that is guidance rather than a rule.
The detail that catches people is entry points. A Lao visa on arrival available at Vientiane airport is not automatically available at a small land border, and a Vietnamese e-visa is issued for a specified point of entry. On this route you enter Vietnam once, by air into Hanoi, so a single entry is correct. Change the route and that changes. We confirm the current requirement for your specific passport and each crossing before we quote.
Honest notes
Nine hotel changes in twenty-one days is a lot, and we have squeezed it as hard as the geography allows. If you want fewer, the honest answer is to remove the Lao south rather than to compress the driving, and to run a fourteen-day Laos and Vietnam trip instead.
Days 12 and 16 are both long. There is no railway south of Vientiane, no useful flight out of the four thousand islands, and no way to reach the deep south of Laos and then reach Vietnam without a travel day. We tell you which days those are so that you can plan your energy rather than discovering it.
Si Phan Don accommodation is simple. River bungalows, fans rather than air conditioning in some rooms, and power that is intermittent on the smaller islands. It is one of the most restful places in Southeast Asia and it is not a resort.
Three countries in three weeks is a warning sign in most hands. It works here for one reason, which is that Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are a single operation for us, run from our own office in Hanoi, so the borders and the internal flights are one plan rather than three suppliers passing you along.
Built by Osnat Angerman, our Southeast and Central Asia specialist, and checked by our Hanoi office before it goes out.
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