Pakse and Bolaven Plateau

Southern Laos gets a fraction of the visitors the north does, and it has the country’s best coffee, its most impressive waterfalls, and a Khmer temple older than Angkor Wat.

The imbalance makes no sense. It is also, for now, the reason to come.

Pakse

The south’s main town, at the meeting of the Mekong and the Xe Don. Not a destination in itself — it is the base you work from, with the airport, the hotels and the road onto the plateau. One night here at either end of a southern loop is usually right.

The Bolaven Plateau

A volcanic highland an hour east of Pakse, sitting between 1,000 and 1,350 metres. The altitude changes everything: it is five to ten degrees cooler than the lowlands, the soil is volcanic and rich, and it rains more.

Coffee

The French planted here in the 1920s and the plateau now produces most of Laos’s coffee — both arabica at the higher elevations and robusta lower down.

Farm visits here are genuine working operations, not showrooms. Depending on the season you will see picking, washing, drying on patios, and roasting. Harvest runs roughly November to February. Come then and the whole plateau smells like it.

Waterfalls

The plateau’s edge drops sharply, which produces a lot of water falling a long way.

• Tad Fane — twin falls plunging around 120 metres into a forested gorge. The view is from the opposite rim, which is what makes it.
• Tad Yuang — lower, wider, and you can swim at the base. The more pleasant of the two to spend time at.
• Tad Lo — further east, a series of falls with a village attached. Where people stay when they want the plateau slowly.

Villages

The plateau is home to several ethnic groups — Katu, Alak, Laven and others — with distinct traditions, weaving and architecture. Visit these with a guide who knows the community, or not at all. The difference between a welcome and an intrusion is entirely in how it is arranged.

Wat Phou

An hour and a half south of Pakse, a Khmer temple complex at the foot of Phou Kao mountain, listed by UNESCO in 2001.

Parts of it predate Angkor Wat. The site is built up the hillside on terraces along a processional causeway, and the upper sanctuary has a spring that has been considered sacred for well over a thousand years.

It is much smaller than Angkor. It is also nearly empty, and you can walk it in the early morning with almost nobody there — an experience Angkor cannot offer at any price. Go early; there is no shade on the causeway and the climb is steep by mid-morning.

How long to stay

Three days covers Pakse, a plateau loop with two waterfalls and a coffee farm, and Wat Phou. Five days adds Tad Lo, more villages, and a slower pace. A week or more if you are continuing to the 4,000 Islands, which is the natural next step.

When to visit

November to February — coffee harvest, dry roads, comfortable temperatures. The best window, clearly.

March to May — hot in Pakse, noticeably cooler on the plateau. Waterfalls are at their weakest.

June to October — the plateau is wettest here, more than the rest of the country. Waterfalls are spectacular; some village roads become difficult. Everything is intensely green.

Practical notes

• The plateau is cool at night year-round. Bring a layer; most people do not and regret it.
• Roads on the plateau are mixed. A proper vehicle matters in the wet season.
• Coffee bought at the farm is a fraction of the price it is anywhere else, and better.
• Wat Phou has a small museum at the entrance worth the ten minutes before you walk up.
• Flying into Pakse from outside Laos? Confirm your entry route in our Laos visa guide.

“Fantastic tour operator — speaks excellent English, very responsive and communicative. Made everything about our trip easy and streamlined.”

Elizabeth Sutton, Google review