Luang Prabang, the Bolaven Plateau & the 4,000 Islands, 6 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.

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 breakfast you visit Tad Pha Suam waterfall and the traditional houses of several ethnic groups gathered beside it. You then 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 take a boat down the Mekong to Don Khone. On Don Khone and neighbouring Don Det you see village life, the old French buildings and locomotive left from the colonial railway, and the Li Phi rapids, known as the Devil's Corridor, getting around by tuk-tuk or bicycle. The boat then returns you to the mainland at the fishing village of Ban Nakasang, where your driver is waiting, and you drive south to Khone Phapheng, near the Cambodian border, the largest waterfall in South-East Asia by volume. From there you drive north to Champasak for the night. Meals included today: breakfast.

After breakfast your guide takes you up to the viewpoint at Wat Phou Salao, which looks across the Mekong to Pakse, and through the town's market. You are then driven to Pakse airport, where the package services end. Meals included today: breakfast.