Vientiane, Vang Vieng & Luang Prabang, 5 Nights

Your guide and driver meet you on arrival in Vientiane and take you to your hotel. In the afternoon 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 late afternoon you watch the sunset from the bank of the Mekong and walk through the night market. No meals are included today.

After breakfast you visit the COPE visitor centre, which explains the prosthetic and rehabilitation work done for people injured by unexploded ordnance, then Buddha Park, a riverside field of Buddhist and Hindu concrete statues that includes a reclining Buddha 40 metres long. From there the expressway takes you to Vang Vieng in about two hours. 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. After breakfast you visit the Hmong village of Ban Pha Thao and Tham Lom cave, then kayak down the Nam Song river, stopping at Tham Nang Fa cave, and paddle on into the centre of Vang Vieng. After time to freshen up at the hotel you take the mid-afternoon train to Luang Prabang, about an hour, and are driven to your hotel. 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, followed by 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 Luang Prabang you watch the sunset from Wat Pha Bat Tai on the bank of the Mekong. Meals included today: breakfast and lunch.

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