Laos Tours in Winter

Laos is very beautiful and full of unexpected highlights. In Cambodia we enjoyed the expected highlights! Our tour leader Jackie is one of the very best, and the local guides were also excellent. Just the quality of the accommodation was variable. I had very noisy room allocations for both the first 3 nights and the last 3 nights. The Sala Prabang has a room 101 facing the busy street. The Twitz hostel hotel in Cambodia has a very noisy 4th floor bar with live music and very poor sound insulation. This issue has been raised in the hope that better rooms will be secured for future trips, and anyone put in the same position might want to request a change of room straightaway, the hotel staff are well aware... Otherwise a fantastic trip!

Laos is a superb country to visit before mass tourism negatively impacts it. We saw fantastic waterfalls, the mighty Mekong river, ancient and modern Buddhist and Hindu temples, jungle, ethnic villages plus more. This was a very well organised tour, thanks largely to our fabulous main tour guide Jackie who is a brilliant communicator and a really lovely guy. Luang Prabang is a laid back and charming town. The accommodation was varied, some in resorts with a pool. We never went hungry. Food was cheap, plentiful and fresh. There was a good balance between organised group activities and free time. There was a long day of driving along a rough unmade road but the reward was a stay in a magical jungle resort surrounded by nature. I liked that we had a 2nd local guide in 4 locations.

Fantastic experience. Explore is a very professional company. Contact with staff has always been brilliant. The tour was exceptional. The team that looked after us were also of a very high standard.

A very well organised trip taking in the varied geographical and historical sites of Laos. The cruise on the Mekong, waterfalls and Luang Prabang national museum were highlights for us. We had a young and enthusiastic tour leader Toy who looked after us very well. Pre-tour, Explore kept us informed of the changes and their staff were always very polite and well trained. Extend your stay in Luang Prabang if you have the time as it is a charming old capital city by the Mekong with two-storey Laotian and French buildings.

The general guides in Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos were very good. They were knowledgeable, energetic and spoke understandable English. The local guides were unacceptable. We could understand only about 50% of their English.

Laos was lovely, still not touristy and quite laid back. Luang Prabang is quite charming. There was a good range of places to see and enjoyable boat trips, especially the day on the Mekong, many waterfalls and lush scenery in the North. Very friendly people although not much English spoken and you have to be prepared for some slow and haphazard service in restaurants. Food was generally tasty. The accomodation was very good at times especially compared to many Explore tours although sometimes you didn't have enough time to enjoy the facilities on offer. The roads are generally in a basic state so there were some long days of travel. The tour leader, Tra and our first local guide, AK were excellent. I had been to Cambodia before and would recommend it. The various temples on the Angkor Wat site are excellent. This time I had a tummy bug so wasn't able to enjoy it as much. It would be great if Explore return to offering a two week trip to Cambodia, which is what I did before and started to offer a two week trip to Laos. It can be nice to have the option to see places in a bit more depth.