Laos to Thailand via The Mekong Traveller Reviews

A week In Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai communities, 6 days in Laos including 2 day Mekong river boat, with a couple of days in Bangkok before flying back home.

This is our third tour with Experience Travel Group (ETG) and the standard is always excellent.

Our first visit to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. As stated above such a different and wonderful experience in all countries we visited. Very sorry when it came to an end: there is so much to see and experience

Experience Travel Group: excellent itineraries and well organised

We are well travelled and I can honestly say this holiday was one of the best trips we have had. My initial impression of our Tour Operator David was extremely favourable in view of his friendliness, knowledge, experience and listening skills. He didn’t fail to impress and created an itinerary which was perfect for us and his enthusiasm added to our excitement. We had excellent channels of communication either by telephone or e-mail which made planning our ETG holiday a worry free, pleasurable experience. Our guides were friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable ensuring we had a “happy time” and experienced genuine cultures. We met lots of lovely people, joined in activities, including milking and washing a buffalo and enjoying a game of pétanque. We enjoyed lots of different food and Laos beer is highly recommended. All of the Hotels provided excellent service and I would stay in them again. We were especially spoilt at Zazen Boutique Resort a beautifully located hotel in Koh Samui. We took lots of photos and have many happy memories of a wonderful holiday. Thank you so much.

Excellent attention to detail and have already and will continue to recommend.

Enjoyed a wide variety of cultural experiences and learnt a lot about each countries past history that may not have been reported or mentioned in the west. All people very friendly.

Trip planned to meet our requirement and offered flexibility to meet our needs. Great mix of activities, sites and ways of living

We spent a week on the beach in Koh Lanta Thailand followed by a few days in Bangkok. Two us then went for a couple of nights to the River Kwai and the others stayed in Bangkok and did a day trip to Ayuttaya. We then went to Chang Mai on the over night sleeper for a few days. We travelled further by car to Chang Rai where we went on a day trip to the mountains. We then crossed into Laos and took a few days to travel down the Mekong by boat, stopping off at night at some interesting places before arriving at Luang Prabang . Finally we took a plane back to Thailand via Bangkok to a beach resort on Koh Yao for the last week.

Our tour operator followed our brief well and selected hotels and activities that suit us. All the arrangements went smoothly and it was overall an excellent experience.

The Mekong river and the Nam Ou river in Laos meander through the country passing fishermen, villages and forest. There is no other way to see this country, it is so peaceful and beautiful. Our two boats slipped through small rapids passing water buffalo and fishermen waist deep throwing their nets. We stayed at two lodges on the Mekong, both in amazing locations but blend in well so you hardly see them and they make no negative impact. The Nam Ou river is smaller and less known but this is even more spectacular with a backdrop of mountain ranges fading into the distance in pale blues one behind the other. The cliffs come close to the river in places and the river cuts its way around the steeper hills. River trips like this are gems and while they are still such backwaters go before either the dams stop the water flows or tourists flock in bigger numbers.

We visited the offices of The Experience Travel company and were shown on a huge screen some of the places and activities we had been talking about. This made the idea of going to Laos come alive and was a big incentive to get on and book the holiday. All our requests were dealt with quickly and we had no delays or problems with any bookings of hotels or activities. They took on board our request for small boutique hotels and booked excellent ones for us. All the guides and transfers went through without a single hitch. Congratulations to them.