Mekong Slow Boat to Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng & Vientiane, 7 Nights

At about 8:00 your English-speaking guide meets you at the Lao immigration office at Houay Xai and helps with the border formalities; travellers crossing from Chiang Khong should be at the Thai immigration post before 7:30. A shared minivan takes you to the pier, and the boat, shared with other travellers, leaves by 9:00. Your guide gives a short introduction to Lao customs, and a Lao set lunch is served on board. Before Pakbeng the boat stops at Ban Houa Phalam, a Khmu village of about 90 families. You reach Pakbeng before dark and stay there overnight. From October to March the boat departs on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Meals included today: lunch.

The boat leaves Pakbeng at 8:00. During the morning the crew show how some Lao desserts and drinks are made, to be eaten later in the day. The first stop is Ban Baw, a village of Lao Loum, Shan and Tai Lue families known for distilling lao-lao rice spirit. A Lao set lunch is served on board. In the afternoon the boat stops at the Pak Ou caves, Tham Ting, with their more than two thousand Buddha statues. You reach Luang Prabang before 16:30, where a driver takes you to your hotel. Meals included today: breakfast and lunch.

Today you explore the heritage town by bicycle with your guide: 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. In the afternoon you visit the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, on the country's ethnic minorities, and the handicraft village of Ban Xang Khong. After returning the bicycles you climb the 328 steps of Mount Phousi for the sunset, then walk down into the night market, open from dusk until about 22:00, for textiles, carvings, basketry and handmade paper. 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 drive to 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. Lunch is served on the terrace over the paddies. Afterwards you walk for about an hour to 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. You return to Luang Prabang in the late afternoon, and the evening is free. Meals included today: breakfast and lunch.

The early morning is free in Luang Prabang. You are then taken to the station for the late-morning 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.

A sunrise hot-air balloon flight can be added at extra cost. The morning starts at Kaeng Nyui, a 30-metre waterfall east of town that is strong in the wet season and thin in the dry months. 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. From there you kayak down the Nam Song river, stopping at Tham Nang Fa cave, to the end point near town. Meals included today: breakfast.

After breakfast you take the expressway to Vientiane, about two hours. In the capital you visit 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 continue to Buddha Park, a riverside field of Buddhist and Hindu concrete statues that includes a reclining Buddha 40 metres long, and to the COPE visitor centre, which explains the prosthetic and rehabilitation work done for people injured by unexploded ordnance. You stay overnight in Vientiane. Meals included today: breakfast.

After breakfast the time is your own, at the hotel or in town, until the transfer to Vientiane airport. The package services end at the airport. Meals included today: breakfast.