After seven glorious days in Taipei, our next stop was Laos and Vang Vieng. This would be our home for the next few days, again not knowing what to expect we were excited. We landed in Laos’ capital Vientiane, a very laid back capital to be honest, not the loud bustling capital of other South-East Asian countries and it left us yearning for more….unfortunately in this case…. there wasn’t much more but lucky for us we had only planned to spend a single night here. The following morning we were picked up by our pre-paid taxi, we were informed and had read that public transport is far from great with reliability also an issue so we decided the best option would be to pre-book through a company called Toursby, a more reliable form of transport to get us to Vang Vieng.

After a 3 hour journey later and we were here, the first impression was not so great as the town looked rather unkept but we’d read great things regarding the beauty of the surrounding areas so we were still excited about exploring. We chose to stay at the Riverside Boutique Hotel, a beautiful hotel on the banks of the Nam Song River. The room, hotel grounds and staff were spectacular along with the most amazing view of the limestone mountains from our room we were all set and ready for adventure.

We had decided before our arrival that a hot air balloon ride was a must while we in Laos and this was to become, by far, the highlight of our trip to Vang Vieng. We booked through Above Laos a French – Laos company based in Vang Vieng and we couldn’t wait!! We had booked the morning session in order to catch the sunrise and were duly collected from our hotel at 5.30 am. We were driven to the Above Laos base camp and following a safety briefing we ventured upwards towards the calm morning Laos sky. I don’t need to mention how spectacular the views are from up there…..I’ll let the photo’s do the talking. €105 per person if it’s something that interests you, this also includes a champagne breakfast……all in all a totally stunning experience and worth every single penny!!

We hired an All-Terrain Buggy for 2 days as we wanted to explore and experience the mountain ranges and drive along the Nam Song river…….hair raising……dusty……and very very bumpy, although saying that we laughed so much driving around in it, it was great fun. There are many vendors hiring them out but a word of warning…. take it for a test drive as some of them are really worn out and have some seriously tired & loose steering and do make sure you check everything before you head off as you must leave your passport as insurance. Before I drive off in or on anything I make sure I take photo’s from every angle.

Vang Vieng is surrounded by tremendous beauty once you cross the wonderfully rickety wooden bridge that straddled the road and cross the river. We took the dirt road towards the blue lagoon and we managed to see lagoon’s 1,2 & 3 (there are 5 in total), each of them different but as beautiful as each other.

It would be impossible for us to travel to any place where there is a safe haven for elephants and not visit. So we made sure we planned a day or so at the Elephant Sanctuary in Vang Vieng. We absolutely adore elephants and as regular visitors to the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai we often visit and compare every sanctuary with ENP, nothing quite comes close but all offer something different and for us, the most important is knowing and witnessing that the elephants are in good health, roam free and are being properly cared for. I would like to believe that we made the right choice by visiting this place for their half-day tour. There were a few things that didn’t seem right and a little ‘staged’, initially this was a concern. The elephants appeared from four different locations and 30 seconds later their mahouts appeared right behind them in what seemed like more of a show than a natural occurrence. So we were rather sceptical as to whether they were chained up and were then released when we arrived……due to this we asked countless questions and Mick made sure he checked all the elephants’ ankles for signs of chains and other signs of mistreatment….thankfully there were none and we felt a little more relaxed about spending our time there as we felt confident that this was indeed a legitimate sanctuary. What also made this a great choice was that enjoyed some quality time with the beautiful elephants we also met some wonderful people who we now consider friends and look forward to meeting up with again on our travels soon

We always love visiting markets during our trips so we decided to visit Vang Vieng Walking Street, this ended up being a somewhat average street market, nothing like the markets that you would find in Thailand but for a stroll it was nice. You could bargain with the vendors but with everything being so cheap there really isn’t much need.

Our favourite pass time was people watching along the Nam Son river. There were kids swimming and jumping off the bamboo bridge, people tubing across the river – something we tried and enjoyed in Chian Mai but chose not to do here – Locals setting up their little cafe/bar along the banks of the river and to top it all off, the sunsets! They were to die for. Magical in fact.

Restaurant du Crabe d’Or is located at the Riverside Vang Vieng hotel where we were staying. The views were stunning and the food was nice but I would say that they could definitely improve on that…..for such an outstanding hotel, the restaurant didn’t manage the same standard which was a shame.

Happy Mango Thai restaurant is super popular in Vang Vieng and with good reason. We gave it a try and the food was good although we have had better Thai food…..no surprise seeing we’re in Thailand so often but the atmosphere was absolutely great as were the prices. On average we paid €10-12 for the two of us including drinks.

Cafe eh eh was our go-to place for a drink offering refreshing smoothies, juices, a range of teas & coffee. It’s super cute with a selection of breakfasts & snacks too. They also had a small area selling trinkets you could buy to take back home. Definitely recommend this cute little cafe.

One evening we decided to have Italian as we wanted to have a bit of western food and we found Il Tavolo, a traditional pizzeria with its authentic pizza oven and Italian owner and we were very impressed. The food was really good and we highly recommend it as a must-try if you are craving something non-Asian while in Vang Vieng.

The Khop Chai Deu restaurant is located within the stunning Inthira Vang Vieng hotel, which sits on the banks of the river and was our choice for our meal on our very last night. The restaurant is located on the lower level with the external seating area directly adjacent to the river. It was a touch expensive in comparison to the other restaurants in the area but the view, food and service were lovely. We opted specifically for Laos dishes as was their speciality and everything was delicious.

….and here are some of our other various moments and memories from our time in Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng on first impressions may not wow you….the secret is getting out there and exploring what lies within its wonderful landscapes, its unbelievably beautiful hidden valleys and its stunning waterfalls and lagoons…..if you make the most of what’s on offer, it won’t disappoint

Andria