Southern Laos Adventure

Sabaidee and welcome to Laos. Arrive in Pakse, where your guide will be waiting to transfer you to your hotel to check in and freshen up. This evening, join your guide for dinner on a rooftop with sweeping views over the town and surrounding countryside. Overnight in Pakse.

Head into the Bolaven Plateau, a region of waterfalls, coffee and hill villages, taking it at a relaxed, hop-on hop-off pace. Start with a cup of Lao organic coffee, then a picnic lunch at the top of Tad Soung waterfall, its views and cooling pools well worth lingering over. Hike around 800 metres to a smaller waterfall tucked into thick jungle, then visit Tad Lo for a final waterfall and a short walk through a local village. Arrive at a coffee estate resort in the mid to late afternoon, its gardens and natural pool a welcome place to unwind, with a guided wander through the surrounding coffee plantations for a closer look at how the region's beans are grown and processed. The evening is yours to enjoy the cooler highland air. Overnight in the Bolaven Plateau.

Transfer around half an hour to meet your ride for the day, vintage 4x4 trucks left behind from past conflicts and kept running by local villagers, who now use them to explore areas well off the usual tourist routes. Head through dense, remote landscapes to a string of little-visited waterfalls, walking through vegetable fields along the way and learning about the crops grown in this part of the plateau. Arrive at a homestay for the night and a hearty local lunch, followed by a stroll through your hosts' coffee plantation, the largest in the area, with 360-degree views over the Bolaven Plateau from the mountainside. Hike to a nearby village to meet the locals, then help your hosts prepare dinner before an evening of storytelling. Overnight at the homestay.

Wake to birdsong and a simple breakfast with your hosts before setting out on a day of trekking across the hills, passing bomb craters left over from past conflicts along the way. Visit Phou Sanak, known as the sleeping volcano, then continue trekking to Phou Kat, taking a picnic lunch before reaching Souy, a local ethnic minority village. From here, your 4x4s return you to a waiting minivan for the transfer back to Pakse. Overnight in Pakse.

Discover Vat Phou, a Khmer temple complex built shortly before construction began on Angkor Wat, its architecture and decoration strikingly similar in style. Begin at Hong Nang Sida, a local temple with a story of its own, before hiking up to the monkey stairs and an ancient stone quarry, marvelling at how the Khmer Empire once cut and transported the giant stones used to build these structures. A road once ran from here in a straight line all the way to Angkor Wat, the main trading route between the two. Hike through rice paddies to the little-visited Thao Tao ruins, likely to be entirely yours to explore, before driving to the entrance of the main Vat Phou temple complex for lunch and an unhurried look at its gardens, temples and museum. Cross the Mekong by local ferry to Don Daeng Island, where an elegant riverside lodge, the finest stay of the trip, awaits, a perfect place to relax by the pool or from your balcony overlooking the river. If energy allows, borrow one of the lodge's bicycles for a roughly two-hour loop of the island, a genuine, unhurried look at local island life. Overnight on Don Daeng Island.

Drive to Ban Nakasang village for a boat trip among the islands of Si Phan Don, the Mekong's 4,000 Islands region, to Liphi Waterfalls. Close to the Cambodian border, locals believe the falls trap bad spirits, and a short stretch of French colonial-era railway, once used to move goods around this unnavigable stretch of river, makes for a fitting viewing platform. Lunch is at a local restaurant overlooking tranquil surroundings, before continuing to Don Khon, one of the region's largest inhabited islands, for an afternoon of cycling past fading colonial buildings, rice paddies, villages and farms, a relaxed way to see the traditional lifestyle of southern Laos, with plenty of chances to stop for photos or a chat with the locals. Overnight in the 4,000 Islands.

After a filling breakfast and a short transfer, your guide runs through the basics before you set off by kayak, paddling to the western side of Don Det and past smaller islands north of Don Khone, about forty minutes of paddling that includes some minor rapids before building to more exciting grade 2-3 rapids. Stop to walk to Khon Pa Soi waterfall, then continue paddling with the hope of spotting endangered Irrawaddy dolphins near the Cambodian border. Stop at a beach for a barbecue picnic lunch and a swim in a spot known mainly to local fishermen, then continue downstream to Veun Kham village, where a car transfers you to Khone Phapeng, considered Southeast Asia's biggest and wildest waterfall. From here, drive to Nakasang to rejoin your kayaks for the paddle back to Don Det. Round off the day with a farewell dinner with your guide. Overnight in the 4,000 Islands.

Enjoy a late breakfast and some time to relax before checking out and departing, bringing your adventure through southern Laos to a close.