Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng & Vientiane, 5 Nights

The airport is a few minutes from town, and the driver takes you straight to the hotel. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO-listed town of gilded temples and two-storey French houses on a peninsula where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong. Once the heat has gone, the night market spreads along the main street under red and blue awnings, with handwoven scarves, paper lanterns and Hmong embroidery. Dinner is at an Indian restaurant.

Up early, if you like, to watch the monks’ silent alms round at first light. The guided tour then visits Wat Xieng Thong, built in 1560 with low sweeping roofs and a wall of glass mosaic, and the Royal Palace museum with the Phra Bang, the Buddha that gave the town its name. After lunch, south into the hills to the Kuang Si falls, where a chain of turquoise pools steps down through the forest, and the bear rescue centre by the gate.

A morning trip up the Mekong to the Pak Ou caves, two caves in a limestone cliff opposite the mouth of the Nam Ou, where thousands of wooden and gilded Buddha images have been left over the centuries. Then to the station for the train south, which reaches Vang Vieng in about an hour. The town sits on the Nam Song river under a wall of karst peaks, and the evening is best spent on a riverside terrace watching the sun go down behind them.

West of town across the river, a dirt road leads between rice fields to the Blue Lagoon, a clear green pool at the foot of the cliffs, with a rope swing and a scramble up to Tham Phu Kham cave above it, where a reclining Buddha lies in the gloom. Bring a torch and shoes with grip for the cave. After lunch the train continues to Vientiane, the unhurried capital on the Mekong, arriving in the late afternoon.

Pha That Luang, the great golden stupa that is the national symbol of Laos, opens the guided tour. Patuxai, the city’s arch, is a monument to independence built in the 1960s, famously with cement meant for an airport runway; the view from the top takes in the whole city. Wat Si Saket, from 1818, has walls lined with thousands of small Buddhas, and Haw Phra Kaew opposite was built for the Emerald Buddha. The riverside night market is close by for the evening.

Breakfast and a free morning. The walk along the Mekong promenade, with Thailand across the water, is an easy last hour, and the old French bakeries of the centre are a reminder of the colonial years. The driver then takes you on the short drive to Wattay airport.