Laos holidays

Laos is South-East Asia's most-relaxed and least-touristed country — a landlocked, mountainous, Buddhist nation of 7 million people that has retained the slowness of pre-tourism South-East Asia in a way that Thailand and Vietnam haven't. The headline experiences: Luang Prabang (UNESCO old town, the morning monk alms-giving procession at dawn, the French-colonial Mekong-river setting, Kuang Si waterfall, the Pak Ou Buddha caves); the 4,000 Islands (Si Phan Don) on the Mekong at the Cambodian border (the laid-back hammock-and-Beerlao Don Det island culture, the Khone Phapheng waterfall); the Bolaven Plateau coffee-and-waterfall region near Pakse; the mysterious Plain of Jars near Phonsavan (UNESCO, 3,000-year-old megalithic stone jars of unknown civilisation); and the slow-boat down the Mekong from the Thai border at Huay Xai through to Luang Prabang (2 days drifting, sleeping in Pakbeng overnight).

A 10-14 day Laos trip: Luang Prabang (4-5 nights — the dawn monk procession at 5:30am, Mount Phousi sunset, the night market, day-trip to Kuang Si Falls and the Tat Sae Waterfalls, the Mekong cruise to Pak Ou caves, dinner at the night market hot-pot rows or at Manda de Laos and Tamarind for elevated Lao cuisine) → fly to Vientiane (1-2 nights — the modest French-colonial capital, Pha That Luang gold stupa, Patuxai Arc de Triomphe, the riverside Anou Pavilion at dusk) → fly to Pakse for the Bolaven Plateau and 4,000 Islands (4-5 nights — coffee-plantation tours at Mr Vieng and Sinouk Coffee Estate, the spectacular Tad Fane and Tad Yuang waterfalls, the cruise down to Don Det/Don Khone in the 4,000 Islands for the Khone Phapheng falls and the Irrawaddy river-dolphin viewing).