A country · 67 places · 10 regions

Laos, all of it.

67 curated places across 10 regions — photographed, mapped, and noted with the season each is best in.

Luang Prabang · via Wikimedia Commons

The 4 biggest regions — Vientiane, Champasak Province, Luang Prabang Province and Xiangkhouang Province — read below as chapters, with 6 more waiting past them.

Chapter I · Vientiane · 16 places

Vientiane

The capital and largest city of Laos, Vientiane sits on a bend of the Mekong River facing northeastern Thailand and has a lower-key, more walkable character than most Southeast Asian capitals. The Pha That Luang, a gilded stupa considered the national symbol of Laos, was originally built in the third century BCE and substantially reconstructed in the sixteenth century and again after French archaeological restoration. The Patuxai monument, a concrete victory arch built in the 1960s with American-donated cement originally intended for a new airport runway, offers views over the city's boulevard.

Vientiane

Vientiane, Laos

✦ October to April · $

Pha That Luang

Vientiane, Laos

✦ November, during the That Luang festival · $

Patuxai

Vientiane, Laos

✦ November to February · $

All 16 places in Vientiane →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter II · Champasak Province · 14 places

Champasak Province

The largest city in southern Laos, Pakse occupies the confluence of the Mekong and Se Don rivers and serves as the gateway for the Bolaven Plateau and the Champasak archaeological complex. The city retains a grid of French colonial streets and some remaining villa architecture, and its central market is one of the more authentic in southern Laos. Day and overnight trips from Pakse reach both the Bolaven Plateau's coffee farms and waterfalls and the Wat Phu Champasak mountain temple complex.

✦ October to March · $

Meet Pakse All 14 places in Champasak Province →

Chapter III · Luang Prabang Province · 10 places

Luang Prabang Province

A UNESCO World Heritage city at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers in northern Laos, Luang Prabang is distinguished by a remarkably intact ensemble of traditional Lao wooden architecture interleaved with French colonial buildings on a narrow peninsula. Thirty-three Buddhist monasteries are distributed throughout the town, and the daily alms-giving ceremony — monks in saffron robes collecting rice from residents at dawn — remains an active religious practice rather than a performance. Mount Phousi rises steeply from the town centre and offers panoramic views over the rivers at sunset.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang Province, Laos

✦ October to March · $

Kuang Si Falls

Luang Prabang Province, Laos

✦ July to November · $

Nong Khiaw

Luang Prabang Province, Laos

✦ October to April · $

All 10 places in Luang Prabang Province →

via Wikimedia Commons

Chapter IV · Xiangkhouang Province · 7 places

Xiangkhouang Province

An Iron Age megalithic archaeological landscape on the Xieng Khuang plateau in northeastern Laos, the Plain of Jars contains thousands of large stone containers — ranging in height from about one to three metres — whose original purpose remains debated but may have been funerary. The UNESCO World Heritage Site encompasses multiple jar sites distributed across a rolling plateau at approximately 1,000 metres elevation; the area was among the most heavily bombed in the world during the Vietnam War, and unexploded ordnance still restricts access to much of the surrounding countryside. Site 1 at Phonsavan is the most extensive and accessible.

✦ October to April · $

Meet Plain of Jars All 7 places in Xiangkhouang Province →