Kids: Big Sister 9y11m, Twins 7y5m
Flights: Hong Kong - Hanoi on Vietnam Airlines, Hanoi - Vientiane - Hanoi in Lao Airlines and Hanoi - Hong Kong on Dragon Air.
Booked through: Flights booked through Sunpac as I never found these flights online (only more expensive through BKK with Thai and even our flights weren't super cheap), hotels were all booked direct through yet again an extensive Tripadvisor search! In Vientiane we stayed in Green Park Boutique Hotel for 3 nights and Riverside Boutique Resort for 3 nights (we had 2 full days in Vientiane and 2 1/2 full days in Vang Vieng).
This trip had been on my radar for a long time. I saw an article about 2 years ago on the hotel in Vang Vieng and it simply looked stunning. Little did I know about Vang Vieng as a party place with many injuries and even death resulting from alcohol, drugs and crazy people jumping of swings and diving boards into the river and potentially breaking their necks. A quick google search told me all about it (including You Tube videos), and it wasn't pretty (unless you're 20 years old and on an adventure?). However, the Lao Government has cracked down many bars and facilities in 2012 and Vang Vieng is working hard on changing its image and attracting a different type of tourist. I found several blogs from families who had travelled to this region with kids and highly recommend it, so that gave me confidence boost that we could pull this off as well. The bottom line is, Vang Vieng is utterly beautiful and worth visiting. And even Laos' small capital Vientiane deserves a visit!
Again, this is not a trip for those who rely on kids' clubs, child meals and lots of activities scheduled around children. There is no beach in Laos! We travel as a family, not just for the kids. Our children are well used to that and enjoy visiting temples, strolling through a park, playing in the river as long as they have regular breaks, a nice lunch, a swimming pool at the hotel and a treat here or there. For some reason they always find something interesting or something they're mesmerized by. At the Green Park Boutique Hotel the bar staff spent hours teaching them 12 different ways to fold a napkin ... and big sister photographed every single Buddha statue in Vientiane's tacky Buddha Park.
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| Green Park Boutique Hotel |
Vientiane must be one of the world's smallest capitals with only 350,000 people, it's basically a village. It doesn't have a huge range of places of interest but you can easily spend 1 or 2 days there (I would suggest no more) depending on your pace. We stayed in the Green Park Boutique Hotel (for a review, as always, check My Tripadvisor) with a lovely pool (a must when travelling with children plus March through May is the hottest time of year and temperatures easily reach 40 degrees Celsius, and yes ... it did) a little bit out of town but close enough to walk (if it's not soaring hot) or use their hourly shuttle.
We visited a number of temples (Wat Si Saket, Wat Ho Pra Keo), Pha That Luang, the Cope Visitor Centre, Patuxai Monument and Buddha Park which is a little over 20 km out of town near the Friendship Bridge to Thailand. There is a big night market near the Mekong River, with lots of "Made in China" goods but still OK for a good stroll (we preferred the one in Luang Prabang). Most sights close at 4 pm which is on the early side so keep this in mind. Partly thanks to its French influence Vientiane offers quite a lot of good restaurant options with good quality food from basically everywhere in the world at very affordable prices.
Where did we eat? The first night we had some snacks after arrival in the hotel, nice quality, friendly service but of course at a slight premium. The next day we planned to go to Makphet for lunch but they were still closed due to Lao New Year, when we arrived the next day ... they were "open" but still closed for customers unlike the notice on the door and the reason for coming back. We had a good experience at their Phnom Pehn restaurant so eager to go but it didn't work out. We ended up having our first lunch at Aria Italian Culinary Arts, great air-conditioning (it was super hot and we weren't interested to look around long as many restaurants were actually still closed due to Lao New Year, especially Lao cuisine ones). Great pizza, real Italian owners and home made ice cream. We had dinner at Lao Kitchen, which we'd also highly recommend. Nice food and friendly service. The next day (after going back to Makphet again first), we ended up at Le Banneton, a lovely French bakery with nice bread, sandwiches, salads and desserts. We had dinner at Douang Deuane, nice food (not as nice as Lao Kitchen in my opinion), it was super hot inside (doors wide open but even the fans brought little relief) and big sister wasn't feeling great so we kind of cut the dinner short and skipped desserts. Tripadvisor offers plenty of suggestions and there sure is lots of choice at super affordable prices. I don't think we spent more than US$30-35 for lunch / dinner for 5 including bottles of Beer Lao while dining out.
The hotel arranged our transfer to Vang Vieng (3 hours which turned out to be a little more with our super careful and friendly driver) for US$100 (transfers tend to be more expensive than in Cambodia, may be related to gas / car prices, not sure but it was a general trend). The road is fairly smooth, I'd say better than in Cambodia and overall not a bad transfer at all. We arrived in Vang Vieng at lunch time.
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| Riverside Boutique Resort - Vang Vieng |
Vang Vieng has beautiful surroundings, lime karst mountain ranges, a river flowing through, country side, kids playing in the river after school, the Lao population getting on with their daily lives ... it's stunning. Many outdoor activities like visiting caves, rock climbing, canoeing, rental bicycles, tubing in the river (also for sober people) and basically relaxing. The city of Vang Vieng still has a back packer focus with lots of not too great restaurants (the most frequently heard complaint about Vang Vieng).
We stayed at the Riverside Boutique Hotel (sister of Green Park Boutique Hotel) and this by far your best and highly recommended choice in Vang Vieng. A beautiful setting, lovely pool, nice rooms, very friendly service and extremely affordable for Western standards. Nice restaurant where we had lunch (after arriving from Vientiane) and dinner on the second night after finding out French restaurant Cafe de Paris was closed.
As mentioned, restaurants offers everything, there is a lack of focus and the quality is not fantastic. However, hopefully things will change as the town is still changing and there are some good options available. We had dinner for 2 nights at A.M.D. restaurant, literally 100 meters south of the hotel. Very local, basic, family owned restaurant with great Asian cuisine, highly rated in Tripadvisor. The kids loved it, especially the Banana Fritters! We had lunch at the Organic Farm with decent food and nice shakes but kind of an uninviting, not very service oriented place, only a tuk tuk ride away. We didn't really see the "farm" (not sure where their website pictures were taken) and when we asked nobody really seemed to bothered, a truly missed opportunity in my opinion. Next to the Riverside Boutique Hotel is Le Verandah (a small hotel restaurant) which has some nice options (also for dinner, happy hours, etc.) with a beautiful setting on the river. You can simply walk there through the Riverside Boutique Hotel's garden. We also looked into an apparently great pizza place, Pizza Luka, but found the setting uninviting and it looked fairly "dead" when we were there, but given the reviews the pizzas may be worth trying!
We didn't do much, we basically relaxed, walked around, crossed the bridge next to our hotel (a tiny fee applies), played in the river (very clean and clear as it was dry season and it has a good flow as well) and checked out the country side. We visited Tham Chang, a "cave for beginners" (lit, as most caves aren't so you'll need head lights and guides) about 1 km away from the hotel with a small swimming hole. The climb up (stairs) gives a beautiful view of Vang Vieng. The following day we went to the so-called Blue Lagoon and another cave, Tham Phu Kam. It's quite a hike up (not suitable for very small children, ours did fine but there are no regular stairs so it's truly a "hike") but it only took us 10 minutes. Going down was slightly harder but doable. The cave isn't lit so you need head lights which they rent at the bottom (everybody advises to bring your own though) and you can also get a guide (could be a 10 year old child, so be warned). We weren't interested in getting lost in a huge, dark cave in Laos with 3 kids so we basically went up and took a peek inside to see the little temple (plenty of daylight through the various openings) before descending and have cool down time in the Blue Lagoon. The kids couldn't get enough, we rented tubes for 10,000 Kip and they had a blast. Plenty of shade, snacks and drinks available and nice cool water. If you go in the morning it won't be too busy. The ride over by tuk tuk is seriously dusty in dry season but offers a nice view of the country side and I'd say it's definitely worth going.
The hotel arranged a transfer back which took slightly under 3 hours. We had a much longer lay over in Hanoi this time so it ended up being a long day leaving the hotel at 9 am and arriving back in Hong Kong just before midnight. Vientiane airport isn't huge but offers some restaurants and is overall comfortable given it's size. Hanoi is slightly larger and we basically spent some time sitting at Burger King and surfing the net.
We find that Laos is definitely worth visiting. The people are lovely, the food is nice, there is plenty to see, it's not overtaken by tourists just yet and it's a little bit of an adventure. It still has a little bit more of a back packer focus but newer boutique style hotels are popping up. Medical care however is basic so if something really happens you're off to Thailand (make sure your travel insurance covers this). We unfortunately had a small incident on the first day where big sister split her shin open quite significantly so we ended up at the French clinic, across from the hotel, where they glued things back together which resulted in some special swimming arrangements as she shouldn't get it wet. Another expat girl (who lived there as she was wearing her ballet tutu) was less lucky with her broken arm and was off to Thailand by ambulance (they can cross the Friendship Bridge that is 25 km away).
A possible itinerary that I would recommend for Laos is starting in Vientiane (2 or 3 nights; 1 or 2 full days as flights tend to arrive at the end of the day or early evening), by car to Vang Vieng in about 3 hours, spend 2 or 3 nights (ideally around 2 days) in Vang Vieng and then another (slightly longer) transfer to Luang Prabang (the road is supposedly beautiful!) and stay there for at least 3 nights (3 days). To both Vientiane and Luang Prabang you can fly through Hanoi so it shouldn't be too hard to combine the 2 destinations to cut out some unnecessary travel time (contact a travel agent to help you), and travel over land in between Vientiane and Luang Prabang while visiting Vang Vieng in the "middle".
Most nationals require a visa for Laos. Last time we arranged our visas at the Lao Consulate in Hong Kong for HK$350 per visa (including kids) but due to business travel and Lao New Year we didn't make it this time and had to opt for Visa on Arrival. We made sure we got out of the plane quickly and were basically first in line. Forms were handed out on board of our Lao Airlines flight. The entire process took 10-15 minutes, and we paid US$35 per visa, so for a family of 5 we actually saved quite a bit by doing it in Laos.
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