Luang Prabang & Vientiane, 3 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.

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 Wat Xieng Thong and the former Royal Palace, now the National Museum. 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. 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.

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. A Lao lunch is served at the farm. 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 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. In the evening you take the train to Vientiane, a journey of under two hours, arriving at about 21:00, and are met and driven to your hotel. Meals included today: breakfast and lunch.

A full day in the capital before you leave. 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 then driven to the airport, where the package services end. Book an evening departure. Meals included today: breakfast.