Southern Laos

Southern Laos, along the Mekong, has the UNESCO-listed Wat Phou, coffee plantations and waterfalls on the Bolaven Plateau, and the Four Thousand Islands with Khone Phapheng Falls.

This region follows Laos's official definition of the south (Lower Laos), assigned by whole province. It covers four provinces: Salavan, Sekong, Champasak and Attapeu. It borders Cambodia to the south and Vietnam to the east, and faces Thailand's Ubon Ratchathani Province across the Mekong and mountains to the west.

Highlights: in Champasak, Wat Phou and its associated cultural landscape (a World Heritage Site), the ruins of a Khmer Hindu temple older than Angkor; Pakse, the southern gateway city; coffee plantations on the Bolaven Plateau, plus waterfalls such as Tad Fane, Tad Yuang and Tad Lo; Si Phan Don (the Four Thousand Islands: Don Det, Don Khone and Don Khong), where the Mekong splits into countless sandbar islands on the Laos–Cambodia border; Khone Phapheng Falls and Li Phi Falls, among the widest waterfalls in the world by width; and the remote ethnic-minority mountain areas of Attapeu and Sekong.

Classic itinerary: 1–2 days in Pakse and Wat Phou, 2–3 days on the Bolaven Plateau loop and 2–3 days in the Four Thousand Islands, for 5–8 days in total, with the option of continuing overland to Stung Treng in Cambodia.

Getting there: Pakse International Airport has flights to Vientiane and neighboring countries; from Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand, it takes about 3 hours overland to Pakse via the Vang Tao–Chong Mek border crossing; from Pakse to the Four Thousand Islands it is about 3 hours by minibus, then a boat to the islands.

Notes: accommodation and cash withdrawal facilities on the Four Thousand Islands are basic, so bring enough cash; Irrawaddy dolphins have all but disappeared from the Lao stretch of the river, so don't trust claims that they are a "must-see."

Destinations

Itineraries