2 Days Vang Vieng Itinerary

Vang Vieng was my second destination in Laos. I spent 2 days there (technically 1 and a half day) and explore the town as much as possible. Here is my 2 Days Vang Vieng itinerary – from the bus ride from my previous stay, Vientiane (Check out what I did in Vientiane!), to the famous tubing experience! (I calculated 1 Laotian kip = $0.00012USD)

 

Day 1

8:00 Get up

I stayed at Niny backpackers the previous night. It was a present stay, with clean facilities, hot showers and papers in the toilets (important point)!

 

9:00 Leave for bus station

In order to take a bus to go to Vang Vieng, I went to the bus station next to the Talat Sao market (here). However when I asked a guy who’s selling bus tickets at the station, he said you have to take a bus to go to the bus terminal and take another bus to the Vang Vieng. I walked to the same place where the bus #14 leaves (here), and got on the bus.

 

9:45 Departure for the Northern bus terminal

 I asked some people which bus goes to the Northern Bus Terminal, and found out the picture above was the one I took. Normally there is a electric sign in front of the bus, so you can check the destination there.

 

10:15 Arrival

It was about 30 minute ride, and the fee was 5000kp ($0.62). I followed one of the locals who’s also going to Vang Vieng, and bought a ticket at the booth. It was 40000kp ($4.92).

 

10:40 Departure for Vang Vieng

We took a mini van, and it was almost full. There were locals on the bus, and three tourists including me. The road was so bumpy and shaky all the time. Many parts of the roads looked still under construction. I saw a couple of construction trucks passing us on the way.

 

14:40 Arrive at the bus stop

When I first got off the bus, I couldn’t believe that it was the place, because there was just a road continuing in front of me, small restaurant on my right side, and nothing else around (here). Fortunately I screenshot the map close to my hostel before I arrived (I didn’t pay for any internet in Laos), I could ask local people and managed to get to the hostel at the end. I just needed to cross the old airfield next to this road, and I instantly saw the town.

 

15:00 Arrive at the hostel

I booked a dorm room at Nana Guest House (here) in advance, and it was the cheapest deal I could find on agoda.com. It was about a 5 minutes walk from the main street. Inside the room there were 6 separate single beds, and a bathroom near the door. The room looked a little old, but I was glad I had a bed for myself (normally I don’t like sleeping in bunk bed because it can be really shaky every time someone moves).

 

15:30 Search for the motorbike

After some research about what to do in the town, I left to find a place where I can rent a motorcycle. I checked price at a couple of stores, and 100000kp ($12.31) for 24 hours was the best deal I could find. Among those motorcycle rent shops, I chose the one that had the newest bikes of all, so that I didn’t need to worry about it broken on the road.

 

16:15 Leave for Blue Lagoon

After paying for the bike and leaving my passport for the deposit, I finally left for an adventure. First I headed to the Blue Lagoon, one of the most famous touristic attractions in Vang Vieng. On the way to the place I had to pay 10000kp ($1.23) toll at the bridge.

 

16:45 Arrive at Blue Lagoon

It was about 30 minutes ride by motorcycle, with beautiful mountains and rice fields on my both sides. I paid the entrance fee for 10000kp ($1.23), and parked my motorcycle next to the Blue Lagoon (here). The lagoon was just beside the entrance, and it was smaller than expected. I saw some ropes hanging from a tree and some people swinging into the pool. I heard it was very crowded around noon, but when I went there only around 10 people were dipping in the pool. There was a way to the cave beside the lagoon, but I decided not to explore it, since it was already getting dark.

 

17:15 Start climbing up the mountain

After a quick checkout of the place, I headed to a mountain close to the Blue Lagoon to see sunset, because a guy at the motorcycle shop recommended to me. There was a little sign on the road saying, “view to the mountain” (here), so I turned left and proceeded to the small road. I parked my motorcycle at the entrance and paid 10000kp ($1.23).

The path to the top was harder than I expected. There was barely a trail, just some rocks and roots of the trees, and it was steep all the way to the top. I almost cut myself with sharp rock near the top.

 

17:30 Reached at the top

15 minutes of tough trekking later (I definitely felt it was longer than that!), I reached to the top. The view from the top was beyond my expectation, and it took my breath away – the beautiful rice field all over the ground, surrounded by hefty mountains, and bright sunset up the sky. It was one of the best views I had in my lifetime, with such a short trekking I had.

 

18:00 Start climbing down

After admiring the beautiful sunset for a while and taking a lot of pictures, I decided to climb down, since it was getting dark and there were only a couple of tourists including me. I was afraid to get lost by myself. Unfortunately (like always) I went down to the wrong way (I thought there was a way…), I almost got lost in the forest. Luckily there was a guy still on top of the mountain, so I came back there and asked for the direction.

 

18:15 Leave for the town

By the time I reached back to the entrance, it was getting really dark, so I quickly headed back for the town.

 

18:30 Arrive at the hostel

When I came back to the hostel, it was already dark outside. I dropped my stuff and headed for the food search.

 

19:00 Dinner on the street

After walking around the town, I decided to go for a sandwich, because I saw exact the same sign (in the picture above) everywhere, and I had to try it. I ordered a chicken sandwich with sauce and everything, and it was 10000kp ($1.23). I also ordered a mango shake (5000kp = $0.62). The sandwich was big enough to fill my stomach.

 

19:45 Coming back to the hostel

The dinner completely filled up my stomach, so I was getting sleepy and tired. Since I needed to research for the next day and work for my blog, I decided to come back. On that day I went to the bed pretty early.

 

 

Day 2

8:00 Get up

Next day I got up a little late (for me it’s late!). Skyped with my boyfriend and get some energy for the day, but still hadn’t decided what to do. To be precise I knew I should go for the tubing, but I didn’t have courage to go there by myself (comment down below if you are also shy!). Anyway I had to get out of the hostel, so I started getting ready.

 

10:00 Left the hostel

I left the hostel, and started looking for breakfast. I decided to have a strawberry shake (5000kp = $0.62), and look for a place where I can find a tubing tour.

 

11:00 Arrive at the tubing center

I passed many travel agencies with tubing on their signs when I was searching for the place, but at one place I saw a chunk of tubes in front of the place, so I guessed it was probably the place to be (here). The place looked like a big garage space with a desk and benches. Many locals were chatting when I went in. I told a guy that I wanted to go tubing, and he explained about it. I paid 55000kp ($6.77) to rent a tube, and 60000 ($7.38) for the deposit. He wrote down 5 on my hand, and told me I was the 5^th person on that day. I had to wait for 3 more people to come in order to take a tuktuk to get to the start point, because I didn’t want to pay extra for a tuktuk by myself.

 

11:40 Start tubing

With a Japanese guy, a German guy, a Swedish couple and me, we headed for the starting point by tuktuk. It took about 5 minutes to get to the place, at where the sign said, “Organic Garden” (here). We got off the tuktuk, and I saw the river just down the street. The tuktuk driver didn’t say anything, so we decided to walk to the riverside and just start tubing. We were the only ones at the river when we started.

 

12:00 Arrive at the first bar

After about 10 minutes of floating (and a little bit of crawling – there was almost no tide!), we found a sign saying “Riverside Bar” (here). The guy at the bar threw a rope to me and dragged me to the riverside. The bar looked like a little hut standing at the end of rice field, with many wooden tables more on the riverside. We bought a big can of beer lao (20000kp = $2.46), and sat at the table. Seemed like we were the only ones at the place when we got there. We eventually started drinking and chatting. It was one nice afternoon drinking cold beer, feeling a breeze on my face, and enjoying the conversation with some nice companies. We completely forgot about the time and ended up spending quite some time at this first bar, so we decided to get going.

 

15:00 Arrive at the second bar

After about 10 minutes of floating, we arrived at the second bar (here). I noticed there’s a space where you can play basket ball. Around the area there were many tables with plastic chairs, and some huts where you can sit. Again we bought a beer (20000kp = $2.46), and enjoyed the atmosphere.

 

15:45 Leave for the finish line

Many people were saying it would take about 2 hours to the finish line from the last (second) bar, so we decided to leave in order to be in time, not giving up in the middle and taking a tuktuk to the end. Looked like there were still many people at the place when we decided to leave.

We found a beer place just by the river after started floating for around 10 minutes (here), and bought a big can again, but with cheaper price (15000kp = $1.85!). It was the last beer stand on the river. Make sure to buy one because it will be a 2 hour journey to the goal from there!

 

17:45 Arrive at the goal

After floating and a lot of crawling (we did pretty often), we saw a sign “tubing stop here”. It looked like a bar by the river side (here). I checked on a Google Maps, and it was pretty close to where we rented a tube, so we decided to walk. We were kind of rush to get there, because we wanted 60000kp ($7.38) of the deposit back (it is a big deal!).

 

18:00 Return the tube

We were just right on time. It was 17:57 when we arrive at the tubing center. We got our deposit back, and safe and sound. We saw many people arriving by tuktuk, so I thought we did the right thing leaving the place early. We were almost the first ones who left the bar, and one of a few people who arrived in time without taking a tuktuk!

 

19:30 Leave for diner

I came back to the hostel, took a quick shower, did some research for the next day and left for dinner. I booked a bus to Luang Prabang on the way, and it was 80000kp ($9.85).

 

20:00 Dinner

I decided to have some noodles at the place I found when I was walking around the town the other day (here). The noodle was delicious, and it cost 15000kp ($1.85).

 

20:30 Left for the hostel

I was so tired by the time I came back to the hostel, so I decided to take a time for writing and a good rest. The bus to Luang Prabang was leaving in the morning the next day, so I packed all my stuff and went to bed.

 

Here is my 2 day itinerary on Vang Vieng. It was a short stay for me this time, but 3 full days will be enough to explore the whole town and around, seeing more caves and waterfalls. The tubing was the highlight for this trip, and I would definitely recommend you to try! If you have already visited Vang Vieng, let me know what you did on the trip. I would love to know! 🙂

Thank you so much for reading! Stay tuned for the next Luang Prabang post!