Laos North to South: Luang Prabang to the 4,000 Islands, 9 Nights

You are met on arrival in Luang Prabang and driven to your hotel. The town is among the best-preserved traditional towns in South-East Asia, and its quiet streets, temples and river setting make it the most rewarding place to stay in Laos. Only vehicles of up to 16 seats are allowed into the old quarter. The rest of the day is free. No meals are included today.

At about 8:30 you leave for a working rice farm about 45 minutes from town, set among old rice terraces. Over half a day you see how rice is grown and can try each stage yourself, from planting to threshing and ploughing with the farm's water buffalo, or simply watch from the terrace. There is a stop for a Lao lunch at the farm, looking over the paddies. The afternoon is at Kuang Si waterfall, where the water drops over pale limestone tiers into a string of turquoise pools, and the bear rescue centre beside it, with a stop at the Hmong village of Ban Na Ouan on the way. Back in town you climb Mount Phousi to the gilded stupa at the top for sunset over the Mekong, then walk through the night market and its handmade textiles. Meals included today: breakfast.

With your guide you visit Wat Xieng Thong, Wat Sene and Wat Visoun, then the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum, which was the seat of the Lane Xang kingdom's last royal line and holds religious and court objects. You then take a boat upstream on the Mekong to the Pak Ou caves, two caverns in a cliff that hold thousands of Buddha images left by pilgrims. The boat also stops at riverside villages, among them Ban Xang Hai, where rice spirit is distilled, and Ban Xang Khong, where saa paper is made. You stay overnight in Luang Prabang. Meals included today: breakfast.

The day starts before breakfast with tak bat, the dawn alms-giving to the town's monks, which you can watch or take part in, followed by a walk through the morning market. After breakfast you visit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, with its displays of clothing, tools and ritual objects from Laos's ethnic groups, and Heuan Chan Heritage House, once the home of a royal guard and now a collection of traditional Lao household tools. Around midday you take the train to Vang Vieng, a ride of about an hour. In Vang Vieng you visit Tham Chang cave on the south side of town, with its spring at the foot of the cliff and views over the rice fields, then Tham Phu Kham and the Blue Lagoon, where you can swim. The day ends on a small boat on the Nam Song river at sunset. Meals included today: breakfast.

You drive to Ban Pha Thao, about 15 kilometres north of Vang Vieng, for a walk of about two hours between caves: Tham Hoi, the Snail Cave, with a large Buddha at its entrance, Tham Nam, the Water Cave, and Tham Xang, the Elephant Cave. The last stop is Tham Nang Fa cave. You then visit an organic farm and take the expressway to Vientiane, about an hour and a half. After check-in the rest of the day is free in the capital. Meals included today: breakfast.

A full day in the capital. The morning covers Haw Phra Kaew, Wat Sisaket, Pha That Luang, the golden stupa that is Laos's most important religious monument, and Patuxai, the victory arch with a view over the city from the top. In the afternoon you drive out to Buddha Park, a riverside field of Buddhist and Hindu concrete statues that includes a reclining Buddha 40 metres long, and visit the COPE visitor centre, which explains the prosthetic and rehabilitation work done for people injured by unexploded ordnance. You are driven back to your hotel. Meals included today: breakfast.

In the morning you fly to Pakse; the flight is not part of the package and is quoted separately. You are met on arrival and driven up to the Bolaven Plateau, by way of Salavan province, with a tea stop on the road. The plateau is cooler than the plain, and its rivers fall off the edges into forest: you stop at Tad Fane and Tad Yuang waterfalls and see how coffee, tea, cardamom and bananas are grown. The route also passes villages of the plateau's ethnic minorities. You stay overnight on the plateau. Meals included today: breakfast.

After an early breakfast you drive to Wat Phou, a UNESCO-listed pre-Angkorian temple set on the slope below Mount Phu Kao, with origins in the fifth century. The route continues past Wat Oum Muang and Phou Asa to Don Khong, the largest island in the stretch of the Mekong known as the 4,000 Islands. You walk to the hotel, cycle around the island and its colonial-era buildings, and watch the sunset over the river. Meals included today: breakfast.

After breakfast you drive south to Khone Phapheng, near the Cambodian border, the largest waterfall in South-East Asia by volume. At Ban Nakasang you board a boat to Don Khone for the old French locomotive and buildings and the Li Phi rapids, known as the Devil's Corridor, by tuk-tuk or bicycle. From Ban Hang Khone, at the island's southern tip, a boat takes you out on the stretch of river near the Cambodian border where the Mekong's freshwater dolphins live; sightings cannot be promised. You then collect your bags, cross back to Ban Nakasang and drive to Pakse. Meals included today: breakfast.

After breakfast the time is your own until the transfer to Pakse airport. The package services end at the airport. Meals included today: breakfast.