Great Motor Ride Routes In Laos

For our very last adventure in Laos, and unfortunately also for our entire trip through Asia :-(, we decided to head back into the mountains. If you’ve been following us for a while, then you know that trekking and hiking were one of the major activities we pursued while backpacking from country to country. So there is no more fitting way to finish our journey!

Apparently, the best hiking in Laos is really far north, around Nong Khiaw or even Luang Namtha. We didn’t have enough time to travel up there. But luckily for us, there is tons of hiking and trekking in Luang Prabang and its surrounding hills and mountains! And since Luang Prabang was in any case high on our (and anyone else’s travel bucket list), we seized the opportunity!

Normally, we are big advocates of independent trekking and we have hiked even some of the remotest regions without guides. But for Luang Prabang, we really couldn’t find any information online and there is a real risk of encountering UXO in northern Laos. Plus, we had left all our camping equipment behind in Bangkok and didn’t know if local hill tribes would be ready to host us. So in the end, we opted for a (quite expensive) tour with White Elephant Adventures in Luang Prabang. If you want to do the trek on your own, here are some maps and hints!

All in all, it was awesome! We trekked through some of the most impressive landscapes we have encountered in South East Asia, rolling hills, rice fields and bamboo forests. However, the highlight was certainly the possibility to get a glimpse into the rural life of the remote Khmu and Hmong hill communities. The only real negative point was that the tour was advertised as moderate trekking, with walking time between 5 and 6 hours a day. In reality however, we walked an average of little more than 3, so we were usually already finished at lunch!