The Ultimate 6 day Laos Itinerary & Travel Guide

Last Updated on April 7, 2024 by Adam Watts

Before any hardcore travelers start screaming about slow travel being the best, yes, I know a 6 day Laos itinerary isn’t enough. But we have jobs, we have cats, we have a bag of tomatoes in the fridge fast going soft, and we don’t have time for a three-month backpacking jaunt across Southeast Asia. So if you want to know what to do in Laos for only 6 days, you’re in the right place.

Day One: Arrive in Vientiane, Catch the Sunset

Most nationalities can get a visa on arrival in Vientiane. Most nationalities can also get a Laos e-visa, which I highly recommend.

I saw “visa on arrival” and I was like, alright, I’ll just get it at the airport, and thought nothing else of it.

So we arrived at immigration. My better half, being Singaporean and in possession of the most powerful passport in the world, joined the visa-free line and waltzed on through.

Unfortunately, “visa on arrival” for me meant a very slow queue and a $40 USD fee to be paid in cash. Cash we didn’t have. Since my better half was already past immigration, she was able to withdraw local currency and hand it over to me across the barrier like I was being smuggled some contraband. But I made it. We made it.

Welcome to Laos.

I’d recommend taking a minivan from the airport, or at least know that 300,000 Kip ($15 USD) actually is quite expensive for a 15-minute ride to hotels in the main tourist area. The driver, having fleeced us at least double the price it should have been, enthusiastically gave us his WhatsApp number and offered his services for all future rides.

We checked into Riva Hotel ($45 USD/night) and, if you’re planning train travel in Laos, my next recommendation is to organize train tickets through your hotel. A bit more on train travel in Laos:

Laos has a new railway system, called the Lao–China Railway, opened in 2021, and it’s clean, efficient, fast, reliable and a lot of other superlatives. However, buying tickets is tricky. You can’t buy online directly with the railway, you can only buy two days in advance, and the train stations are stupidly far from the city. It’s like they don’t actually want anyone to use their bright shiny new toy. But there is an easy solution: buy tickets from your hotel. They’ll sell you the tickets and arrange a minibus transport from the hotel to the train station. Easy.

After booking train tickets, it was time to hit the city. You can explore the tourist centre a bit and then enjoy some cheap(ish) beers from the rooftop of Elephant Lounge and watch the sun set over the city.

Then, depending on how you like your travel experiences, maybe you’d like to pamper yourself by finding a cute, cosy salon to get an inexpensive mani-pedi that will put you in a happy mood for the rest of the trip; or maybe you prefer to walk aimlessly block by block around the small touristy centre of the city, getting lost, ending up by a main road that holds no appeal even for the most stubborn of wandering travelers, then stumbling into a boring, neon bar and glugging away at another cheap beer.

Guess which one I chose.

To end the evening, you could find a chic restaurant with some pleasant ambience and some exquisite local food. Or you could end the night by sitting on plastic chairs on a street corner gobbling messy kebabs from a food truck. Guess which we did.

(It was delicious.)

Day Two: Vientiane to Luang Prabang by train

I’ll do a write up of the exact steps to take the train from Vientiane to Luang Prabang soon because we spent more time researching that than literally any other part of the trip, but as I mentioned already: to get tickets, ask your hotel as soon as you arrive. Check out Lao-China Railway times here.

A minivan picked us up from the hotel on-time and we were given a piece of paper to exchange for a ticket at the station when we arrived 30 minutes later, after driving miles outside the city, past lots of empty land that, to my ignorant brain, would surely have made for any number of better places to put the train station.

The station itself (and later in Luang Prabang too) was extremely grand and spacious and organized. We bought some snacks from the station kiosks and boarded the train when instructed and were directed to our right carriage and right seats by the plentiful staff. I was looking forward to the next two hours looking out the window at the Lao landscape. Unfortunately that desire was in direct contrast to the kid sitting in front of me who had full control over the window blind. He put the blind down immediately.

Then put it up.

Then down.

Then up.

In fits. And bursts. I saw. Exactly half. Of the. Beautiful landscape. Of rivers. And fields. And trees.

On time two hours later we arrived in Luang Prabang. A little more savvy now about taking taxis, we joined a minibus to the tourist centre for 40,000 Kip per person ($2.50 USD).

A majority of the other people on the minivans were solo-traveling Europeans with rucksacks, clearly in the middle of those aforementioned three month backpacking jaunts.

We checked into what was supposed to be a cute riverside guesthouse with a balcony and king size bed. What we got was a cute near the riverside guesthouse with a balcony and king size bed. And it was on the ground floor right next to reception. And it had no windows. It was only a few steps up from a prison cell, and much less nice than some hostels I’d stayed in (like this one in Santa Ana, El Salvador).

It wasn’t the room we expected, or the room that we paid for. But the man at reception was unimpressed, shrugged, and reluctantly offered to do our laundry for free. Okay then.

(Don’t forget to also get your train tickets from the hotel, and I can’t stress this enough: do it as soon as possible. We wanted to take the train back to Vientiane two days later, but all the 2nd class tickets were sold, so we had to settle for paying a bit more for 1st class (what a terrible tragedy, I know). But even the 1st class was almost sold, so we got a little lucky. Without the train it’s a 9-hour bus journey, and even though I love long bus journeys, I love train travel even more.)

Wanting to get our minds (and bodies) away from the hotel as fast as possible, we went exploring the small town of Luang Prabang in search of a good massage. We walked along the road adjacent to the river, passing lots of riverside restaurants that weren’t open yet on one side, and various cafes, tourist offices, and massage parlors on the other. It’s similar to Chiang Mai in Thailand, but quieter.

After 20 minutes of walking, we found ourselves outside a small massage parlor, with room enough for three people to get a massage simultaneously, on mats almost side by side with a hint of a curtain between them. We decided it was good enough and enjoyed a lovely cosy massage with a blonde Australian guy as our third wheel.

After the massage it was time to grab a drink and a sandwich at one of the many lovely coffee shops (Joma Bakery) before heading to Phusi Hill in the center of the city to catch the sunset. You know how I said Luang Prabang was lovely and quiet? Don’t go to Phusi Hill at sunset. It’s awful.

I recommend saving the $2 ticket to the top and just seeing the sunset from this area near the entrance.

After heading back down with the hordes of other people, take a walk through the night market: buy some fridge magnets, eat some street food snacks, haggle for a wooden sculpture of an elephant that looks amazing now but will look completely out of place once you put it on your shelf at home.

Then settle in for a nice dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Mekong and enjoy the rest of your evening.

Day Three: Day Tour from Luang Prabang

Probably the biggest tourist attraction in Laos is Kuang Si Waterfall, and we booked a day trip with Viator to take us there, as well as visit an elephant sanctuary, get a sunset cruise on the Mekong River, and visit Pak Ou Caves (aka Buddha Caves). That’s the official list of highlights anyway, but they can also add: fire a crossbow, get drunk on snake-infused whiskey, and free-climb a waterfall.

Half the guests in the 10-person minibus were coughing, sniffing, wheezing and retching all day long. I don’t blame Viator for that, but I will say that if the tour guide had accidentally on purpose abandoned them at the caves I’d have certainly tipped more.

This was the itinerary of the Kuang Si Waterfall tour:

• Visit Hmong tribe village to watch and learn about traditional culture, and try your hand at milling rice and shooting a crossbow if you want.
• Kuang Si Waterfall. The area is pretty big with several different “levels” of waterfalls. The upper level is the photoshoot area with the biggest waterfall; the lower level you can swim in, or be a daredevil and free-climb the slippery rocks engulfed by cascading water and risk breaking many many bones like some idiots while we were there. Heads up: there are also no changing rooms in the area, only some bathrooms with little space and soaking wet floors. You’ve been warned.
• Stop for lunch at an elephant sanctuary, where you can feed the elephants and enjoy a delicious self-serve buffet of pumpkin soup, meat and non-meat skewers, green curry, and various fresh fruits.
• Take a boat upriver to Pak Ou caves. Boat rides are second only to train travel in enjoyment; there’s nothing that makes you forget home more than standing at the front of a boat chugging up the Mekong with the wind in your hair. Pak Ou (or Buddha) caves has a lower level and a higher level. The higher level has a lot more steps and a lot less buddhas so you’re not missing much if you skip it in favour of the lower level with more buddhas and less steps.
• Stop at a rural “brewery” to sample some local liquor. Japan has sake, the Caribbean has rum, and Laos has snake-infused whiskey. I don’t think it will explode in popularity anytime soon. The guide also showed us whiskey “infused” (if that’s the right word?) with geckos, wasps, and scorpions, all of which we were all far too cowardly to try, and settled instead for trying the alcohols closer to wine and a clear and super strong “Happy Juice”.

After all that, everyone was slightly buzzed for the sunset boat ride back along the Mekong to Luang Prabang, with complimentary banana chips and beers to accompany the ride.

Grab a nice dinner in Luang Prabang, either at a riverside restaurant, grab some street food from the night market, or find a cosy eatery elsewhere in the center. There are lots of options.

Day Four: CAFE Hopping in Luang Prabang

Turns out spending a day in close proximity to half a dozen sick people isn’t good for your health. And so our second and last full day in Luang Prabang we were a little under the weather, but frankly there isn’t a lot to do in Luang Prabang anyway. There are a couple of temples, maybe another day trip you could do that would objectively be worse than Kuang Si Waterfall, or you could do a Lao cooking class.

For us, we coffee shop-hopped. There are a lot of cute cafes in the area, and no matter the time of day, there weren’t a ton of people occupying them. Our lunch spot, upstairs in a spacious wood-paneled establishment, had only two other people there: a French couple digital nomading all over a giant table with laptops and wires and notebooks.

Shoutout to DaDa Cafe and Saffron Coffee as our top recommendations.

Luang Prabang is a fantastic place to fill out your slow travel itinerary if you have some days to spare after seeing Thailand and Vietnam. If you enjoy the slower pace of life you’ll love Luang Prabang. Move there and open a coffee shop and enjoy your new life.

For me, booooooooooooored. There’s only so much card-playing I can do, so many smoothies I can drink, and somehow I even reached the end of my Instagram feed.

Day Five: Luang Prabang to Vientiane by train

To get back from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, just read the Vientiane to Luang Prabang section backwards and you’ll figure it out. The train is easy and comfortable. Take minibuses not taxis.

Day Six: Depart Vientiane

I want this entire section to serve as a warning. There’s one crucial aspect of flying home from Vientiane that you absolutely, positively must stick to. If you remember nothing else from this Laos itinerary, remember this one thing.

At Laos airport international departures, AVOID KAOGEE CAFE.

We had a 3-hour flight with Scoot and wanted some food to eat before flying or take on board. It was early afternoon, not some weird off-peak hour, bear that min mind. The airport is small, so options are limited. But Kaogee Cafe at one end of the departure area looked good, it showed some hot meals for $5 USD, had a couple of croissants in a display case, and a fridge of drinks. Perfect.

We asked, they said they didn’t have hot meals, all they had left was the croissants and a mountain of pot noodles scattered across the shelves behind them. So we bought two croissants and a pot noodle to share.

$20 USD.

I’m not even exaggerating that for comedic effect. $20 USD for two croissants and a pot noodle.

However you break that down, the prices are absurd. Even in Singapore, the most expensive city in the world, at an extremely overpriced bakery a croissant will cost about $6 USD. Whoever says the margins on food & beverage shops is thin has clearly never worked at Kaogee Cafe in Vientiane airport.

To make matters worse, as we sat there and waited for our food, it was clear that they were bringing croissants from the only other coffee shop option in the departure area. So clearly the business strategy of this store is to entice you in with reasonably priced hot meals, coincidentally be run out of hot meals, then overcharge you for things they do have that they buy at a normal price from somewhere else. Unethical? Definitely. Effective? Definitely.

My recommendation is to buy from the nicer-looking store, or bring food from the city, or even buy food directly on Scoot. Anywhere but Kaogee Cafe.

6 day Laos Itinerary Summary

That was a lot of words, I know. You probably skipped half of it. That’s okay. Here’s your 6 day Laos itinerary summary:

Take the train, it’s great. Kuang Si Waterfall is probably the only must-see attraction, and we had a fantastic experience with this Viator tour (apart from the other guests anyway). Luang Prabang is great for slow travel if you have a lot of days to spare, or are a digital nomad looking for somewhere to cheap to work.

And whatever you do, do not visit Kaogee Cafe at Vientiane airport.

If you’re planning a trip to Laos, check out other Viator tours below. Booking through these links comes at no extra cost to you and I may earn a small commission. And I genuinely recommend Viator, we use them on almost all our trips!