4 days in Laos - itinery suggestions please

[The Ref]

I have 4 days (Mon morning to Fri morning) in Laos in early March. I have googled away and there is so much to see, but looking for a recomendation of Laos in 4 days. I am a 30 something (cough early 40's cough) Australian male not interested in drugs, raves or "horizontal tourism" travelling alone.

I would like to do Vang Vieng - more so now they have cleaned it up and hoping some of the safer stuff is still there. I know it is a 4 hour bus trip so that takes a fair chunk of my available time.

Royal Palace and Luang Prabang night markets, COPE centre and Great Sacred Stupa are all high on the list.

Suggestions greatly appreciated

[JR8]

That is not a lot of time as I can see you are aware. My suggestion is to pick one town and focus on it. If you have to go via Vientiane do so AQAP as there is relatively little to see there compared to regional towns.

I've only been to Laos once, but it was in 1995 and we had a week. I think we spent 4 days in Luang Prabang (then like the end of the world), and 2+ transiting via LP. Options to travel further were very limited for a time-poor traveler.

Van Vieng looks really nice culturally, but perhaps rather hipster-tripster from a quick read of the Wiki page. 4hrs to Vientiane but 8hrs to LP (or vice versa), that's a real time-stealer as they will likely be daytime buses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang_Vieng

Maybe define what you want and work backwards. i.e. do you want to hang out with a bunch of stoned antipodean kids doing bungee and zip-wire rides?

Happy to field other questions as best I can.
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[The Ref]

but I still have nothing planned after landing in Vientine. Still deciding between Vang Vieng or more likely Luang Prabang. I will decide over the weekend (while in KL) and post back whether it worked out!

[JR8]

Go to Laos, not a Laotian version of disneyland geared for tourists.

That would be my advice, but each to their own, I fully understand.

[Michael X]

Spend as little time in Vientianne as possible. Not a very nice capital city. Given your time constraints head straight to Vang Vieng for some tubing. Great bus ride through the countryside as well.

[the lynx]

I know this is late but I'm just checking if there is any direct flight from Singapore to Laos other than the ones offered by Lao Airline? (Singapore-Vientiane)

[JR8]

I don't think my experience from 20 years ago will be of much help to you, but back then most flights routed via BKK.*

With the best will in the world I don't think SIN would welcome Laotian planes over their airspace. But hey, why not just run a check via Expedia with flexible dates... you never know, if you're lucky silk air or similar...


* SIN > BKK > Saigon > (overland > Da Nang) > Hanoi > Luang Prabang > Vientienne > Bangkok > Singapore...