Lagrée 4 day Mekong riverboat cruise from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang with river village home-stay
Trip Summary:
As you cruise down the Mekong River through an ever changing, mountainous landscape, spend some time reflecting on how complicated your life really is, when all around you happy people live off the land, river, and rain-forest, with no cars, distributed electricity, smart phones or internet, and with only a few material possessions. Their lives are richer by having less…. Jill M. NZ
- Duration ex Chiang Mai: – 4 days, 3 nights
- Total Distance: – ~600+ kms including 300+ kms cruising the Mekong River to Luang Prabang
- Activity Level: – a relaxed, chilled-out and very authentic cultural experience
- Price: – Starts at US$500 pp if sharing a hotel room
Included:
- Drive from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong via the White Temple in Chiang Rai, Golden Triangle and Opium Museum (optional)
- 3 day cruise down the Mekong River on a private 45m riverboat
- All connecting transportation
- 2 night’s hotel accommodation
- 1 night village home-stay with immersive, cultural experience
- All meals, and refreshments
- Professional English-speaking guide(s)
- Porters at Pak Beng and Don Mai to carry your bags
- Pak Ou Caves’ entrance fee
Excluded:
- Alcohol & soft drinks
- Laos Visa fee – depends on nationality but typically US$30-$45
- White Temple & Opium Museum fees
Lagrée 4 day Mekong riverboat cruise
Overview:
Not to be missed, our ultimate explorer cruise adventure!
It’s actually a 4 day tour as it commences in beautiful Chiang Mai and includes road travel to Chiang Khong on the banks of the Mekong River, via the magnificent White Temple or Wat Rong Khun in Chiang Rai, and the Golden Triangle, then 3 days cruising down the languid Mekong in leisurely style to Luang Prabang.
Cruising covers over 300 kms, aboard a 45 meter, private VIP river-boat from Huay Xai in Laos (across the river from Chiang Khong in Northern Thailand) to the UNESCO world heritage city of Luang Prabang.
One night includes a home-stay in Baan Lad Khammune, a typical riverside village with gracious Laos people where you’ll learn about their culture and experience a sincere, Lao baci welcoming ceremony from the village elders. It’s so remote, it’s uncharted, and not on any maps.
Plan to come to Chiang Mai a few days earlier to soak up the sun and charms of this really laid back and chilled out ancient city, with its large moat and defensive ramparts. It’s always voted in the top 10 cities in the world as the best place to live, and in 2019 it climbed the ranks to No 3. The weather is fabulous most of the year and there’s so much to do here.
We’ll cruise for 3 days down the Mekong on a 45m riverboat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang in style and safety with skipper Wandee and his wife the chef Thonglom. Wandee is an experienced boat captain, who has lived his entire life on the river and knows all the navigational hazards that change from day to day depending on the water levels and weather. We’ve been using him now for over 10 years, as he’s a very responsible and safety conscious skipper.
His riverboat No 92, can comfortably seat up to 36 people if necessary, so it’s perfect for families, groups of friends, sports teams, or companies for corporate events and entertainment. It is scrupulously clean as it’s also their home, so please treat it with Asian style respect by removing your shoes when boarding.
This very comfortable river boat is fitted out for private “VIP” cruising, with sunroof, dining table, reclining tour seats with headrests, seats and tables, bar, clean western style bathroom, USB charging for cameras and phones, etc. Wandee and his wife only speak a little English, but your guide can translate any questions you may have. Unlike many of the public river boats, it’s also fully equipped with life jackets and insurance.
Thonglom is renowned for her fabulous Lao cooking and will whip up a delicious 3 course lunch cooked over a fire on the stern. It will be mainly fresh chicken, fish, pork, and eggs, along with plates of fresh vegetables and tropical fruit. Please inform your guide in advance if you have any specific dietary requirements.
Lunch also includes bottled water, coffee, tea and fresh fruit at no charge. Snacks, soft drinks and cold beer are also available and can be bought onboard.
A guide is mandatory on all tourist river boats and ours are all hand-picked professionals, who speak English, are trained in first aid and who can offer any assistance you may need, as well as sharing details on the fauna, flora and the fascinating, and often turbulent history of the region with you.
To avoid a long wait at Lao Immigration, please visit our Laos Immigration page to ensure you can speed through with a minimum of delay.
Along the river, it’s a photographer’s paradise where you’ll see villagers panning for gold, casting their fishing nets in the rapids, tending their crops like corn, tobacco, bananas, mangoes, chilies, or peanuts planted on the river sandbars in the dry season.
As it’s too dangerous for boats to navigate the river at night, you’ll spend the first night at the half-way stop called Pak Beng, arriving just before sunset.
We depart early next morning for Ban Lad Khammune village arriving around midday, where you’ll meet your host family. You can then spend some time exploring the village, have a swim, trek up to the Tadtom waterfall, play Pétanque, talk and play with the children at the school, visit the temple, see how they generate their power, or just chill out on the beach with a beer in the sun.
Following dinner, you’ll be welcomed with a traditional, warm, and authentic Lao Baci ceremony, a national custom complete with the village elders, village ensemble and sharman. Baci (pronounced bicee) is a Lao spiritual ritual to maintain balance and harmony, celebrate important events and occasions like births and marriages, and to welcome strangers and wish them good health and a safe journey.
This ancient ceremony is a very humbling and authentic experience, as the elderly villagers line up to tie cotton threads around your wrists to welcome you.
You may then be entertained by the school dance troupe with graceful, traditional Laos classical dances, who may ask you to join in. They have initiated this cultural entertainment themselves, and are not paid to perform. If they pass the tip box, a US$2 to US$3 donation per person is sufficient.
In the morning we head off for Luang Prabang stopping off at the famous Pak Ou Caves, home of over 1,000 Buddha images nestled deep inside Tham Ting Cave, where we’ll stop for 45 minutes. (Your entry fee is included in the tour price).
Then a picnic lunch on an island in the river at a Buddhist temple with a fascinating history. In the 16th C, the Lao King Setthathirath built the temple and named it Wat Don Khoun, or Good Luck Island Temple.
Then on to Luang Prabang arriving at Ban Don Mai port late afternoon. There porters will carry your bags to a waiting minibus, which will whisk you back to your hotel in Luang Prabang.
Catch this Mekong riverboat cruise from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang with an authentic village home-stay while you can, as several planned dams will soon block the river
If peak season (Dec – Apr) it’s best to book your Luang Prabang accommodation along with your airfare back to Bangkok in advance.
For the Curious:
According to local legend, in the 16th C, the Lao King Setthathirath who ruled the kingdom of Lan Xang built a temple on the island in the Mekong. He was a great warrior, and aged only 21 he led an army that overthrew Chiang Saen in Thailand in 1555. Later in 1546, he also sacked Chiang Mai in Thailand, with a large army of 2,000 war elephants and 300,000 soldiers. On his return to Luang Prabang, he built a temple on the island to say thank you and pay his respects. He named it Wat Don Khoun – Good Luck Island Temple.
Mekong Kayaks 4 day River Cruise from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang
We normally depart on a Tuesday so that we can arrive in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Luang Prabang late afternoon 4 days later on the Friday. If you’d rather depart on another day please let us know.
Itinerary:
It includes the 1 day trip from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong via the magnificent White Temple, and the Golden Triangle, and then the 3 day Mekong cruise. The price includes the private transport from Chiang Mai, 3 day cruise on a 45 m riverboat, plus all connecting transportation, 3 night’s accommodation, all meals and refreshments, tourist permit, professional English-speaking guide, porters’ fees, porters, Pak Ou Caves entrance fee, etc.
Day 1: 0900 departure:
Private minibus will collect you from your Chiang Mai hotel for the drive to Chiang Khong on the Mekong River on the Thai border with Laos. We’ll climb up through the mountains then stop at the beautiful White Temple or Wat Rong Khun (designed and built by famous Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat) in Chiang Rai, for a simple lunch. Then we head off to Chiang Khong to the infamous Golden Triangle where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand all meet on the Mekong, where you can visit the Opium Museum (optional).
It’s a day trip with plenty of stops as it’s the only way to get there, unless by public bus.
We’ll stay the night in Chiang Khong, a small, and charming border town right on the river overlooking Huay Xai in Laos. Dinner at Bamboo Mexican restaurant, a real fun place.
Day 2: 0700:
Early start, hotel breakfast then take a 15 min minibus ride to Thai Immigration, clear Thai Immigration, catch the bus across the new Mekong River bridge into Laos, and get your tourist visa at Laos Immigration. We’ll have all the forms ready for you, to minimise waiting time. Don’t forget your 2 passport sized photos. Your Lao visa on arrival cost is excluded as it depends on your nationality but typically ~US$30. See the end of this itinerary for more details.
You’ll then meet your guide Xangnoi (pronounced Sarng noi, an ex monk with fluent English and guide extraordinaire) who will then organise transport for the 20 minute ride to the port at Huay Xai, where we’ll board our 45 m private cruise boat and meet your hosts, skipper Wandee & his wife Thonglom.
We’ll spend the day cruising ~140km downriver to Pak Beng, with a fabulous 4 course cooked lunch on the boat (with vegetarian options available), along with free fruit, coffee, tea, and bottled water. You can also buy snacks, soft drinks and cold Beer Lao onboard. We’ll arrive in Pak Beng at about 1600 for the night. Porters will carry your bags up to the lodge.
Perched about 40m above the Mekong River, Pak Beng is a small village, about halfway to Luang Prabang, and is the compulsory overnight stopover, as you can’t be on the river at night. There are limited options of good places to stay, apart from guest houses and a couple of “resorts”. It’s a sleepy small town with only recent road access and power, as it only exists for illegal logging, opium growing and to service the tourists who have to stop over for a night.
You can choose between a lodge high above the port with up to 11 rooms, big balconies overlooking the river with fans and mosquito nets with great views watching all the port activity at dusk, or a “resort” within 400 m of the town, with limited river views but with aircon. We prefer the former, as it’s more interesting having an iced gin on the balcony, watching a spectacular sunset or all the riverboats arriving for the night. Dinner at the lodge’s restaurant, which serves simple but delicious food.
You may be offered opium in the street at night. Do NOT touch it (or any other drugs you may be offered), as it may be an undercover police sting.
Day 3: 0730:
Breakfast and then board the boat and cruise for 4 hours through real Heart of Darkness territory; jungle clad, kharst mountains and gorges to Ban Lad Khammune, our host home-stay village. Lunch on the boat. On the way we’ll stop off at a couple of very remote village schools we’ve built, to drop off school supplies, view new building progress, or to assess new projects.
On arriving at our home-stay at Ban Lad Khammune, we’ll have a traditional and authentic baci welcoming ceremony with the village elders to pay their respects and wish you all a safe journey, then dinner, and a walk to the school we have built and a walk around the village.
We’ll have a shower in a clean tributary river. Only a couple of people in the village speak broken English so if you need help, talk to Xangnoi. After dinner school children may invite you to dance with the village ensemble and maybe some drinking games with lao khao, the local home brewed moonshine made from fermented rice. We’ll then sleep under mosquito nets on mats, with married couples and ladies having small private rooms.
Day 4: 0800:
Breakfast then head off to Luang Prabang, with lunch on the boat.
We’ll visit the sacred Pak Ou Caves where Buddhist devotees have placed Buddha statues for over 1,000 years, and then stop for afternoon tea on a small Island in the middle of the Mekong which has an interesting history.
Then on to the UNESCO world heritage city of Luang Prabang. We’ll land at Port Don Mai, where porters will carry your bags to a waiting minibus to take you to your hotel in town about 20 minutes away.
Tour Ends:
Suggest we all meet at Tangor Indochinois Bistro for drinks at 1900 the evening of our arrival. It’s our favourite chill French bistro in Luang Prabang, is reasonably priced with fresh, luscious Lao and French fusion food, and a fabulous Indochine vibe.
Exploring Luang Prabang:
Stay a few days and explore this charming UNESCO World Heritage city. Go to 10 Best Things to do in Luang Prabang to see a few of the things we personally enjoy most while here.
Eating out in Luang Prabang can range from cheap, delicious street food to reasonably expensive upmarket French and Lao restaurants. If high season you’ll need to book at some of the better restaurants. Please advise Xangnoi where you’d like to go and he will organise a reservation for you before we depart Chiang Khong.
What You Need to Know & Bring:
To see what you need to prepare for and bring with you on the cruise go to What You Need to Know & Bring. This covers everything from:
- Lao Immigration visa eligibility, photos, forms, and prices
- Clothing, footwear, and other essentials to bring
- Currency, ATM’s and currency exchanges
- Power requirements
- Mobile & internet
- Shots, prescriptions and meds
- Books for the schools
- Tipping
Please visit our Downloads page to view or download, which will make your Mekong riverboat cruise from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang more immersive and enjoyable.
- Village Etiquette Guide for a happy stay and how to politely behave in a village
- Sustainable Eco & Community Tourism guide
