Remote Lands vs Brother Tours: Which Laos Journey Reaches Further?
Remote Lands is the right choice for the traveler who wants Asia at its most extraordinary — private jets, Aman properties, Asian royalty dinners, and twenty years of personal relationships with the most exceptional people on the continent. Brother Tours is the right choice for the traveler who has done all of that and is now asking the question Remote Lands’ own clients ask after Laos: Is there a way to get into those highland communities — not by helicopter, not by chance, but as a real journey? The answer is yes. And it has been yes for fifteen years.
Remote Lands was founded in 2006 by Catherine Heald and the late Jay Tindall — two North Americans who had spent the better part of their lives in Asia and decided that nobody was doing justice to what the continent actually offers its most adventurous visitors. Their pitch was simple and remains true: experiences that are difficult to arrange and require privileged access to important people and exclusive events.
Twenty years later, Remote Lands has made good on that promise in ways that most luxury travel operators could not dream of. Their clients have dined with Asian royalty. They have enjoyed private dinners in the middle of Angkor Wat after hours. They have met celebrities, artists, monks, and political figures across thirty-eight countries in Asia. The 2026 Southeast Asia Aman Jet Expedition — sixteen to eighteen guests, four countries, thirteen nights, starting at $103,888 per person — is the product that results from two decades of that relationship-building. And yet. In Laos, even Remote Lands has faced a specific limitation. A limitation that their own press releases name, with unusual candor.
The Helicopter Moment — And What It Reveals
On a past Remote Lands Aman private jet journey through Southeast Asia, the itinerary included an optional experience described in their own press release as an exclusive helicopter trip to a remote Lao tribal village that virtually no foreigners have set foot anywhere near.
Read that again. Virtually no foreigners have set foot anywhere near.
That is Remote Lands speaking the language of what their clients want most: the thing that has not been done, the community that has not been visited, the experience that the catalog has not yet reached. It is the honest expression of the ultra-luxury traveler’s deepest appetite — not comfort, not service, not even beauty, but access. Genuine, unrepeatable, first-contact access.
And they reached for it with a helicopter because that was the only way available to them at the time. A one-time, optional, extraordinary moment. Not a journey. Not a structured product. A chance encounter made possible by altitude and aircraft.
Brother Tours built the same access into a permanent product fifteen years ago. Not by helicopter. By showing up, season after season, building trust with three communities on the Bolaven Plateau — the Laven, the Alak, and the Ta-Oy — until they said yes to something no community says yes to quickly: a structured journey through their lives for visitors who come with genuine respect.
Remote Lands has been promising their clients exactly what the Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ delivers. The difference is that Brother Tours built it into a journey — not a helicopter add-on.
What Remote Lands Is — And Why Their Twenty Years Matter
Remote Lands’ about page states their mission with a precision that most luxury operators avoid: Our guests encounter facets of Asia unreachable to visitors through any other means. That is a strong claim. Remote Lands has spent twenty years making it true — through Catherine Heald’s personal relationships across the continent, through decades of operating in thirty-eight Asian countries, through the institutional knowledge that accumulates when the same people show up in the same places year after year.
For Laos specifically, Remote Lands offers multiple itinerary frameworks: the Classic Laos (Luang Prabang to Don Khone, 8 days), Ancient Laos (Luang Prabang to Vientiane with Konglor cave and Thakhek, 9 days), Hidden Gems of Northern Laos (Luang Namtha, Muang Sing tribal visits, 5 days), and the Aman jet expedition which includes Luang Prabang at the Amantaka as a three-night stop.
Each itinerary is 100% bespoke — Remote Lands’ phrase, not a marketing claim. Every client’s journey is genuinely constructed around their interests, pace, and travel history. Their Asia specialists have personal knowledge of Laos and design itineraries with the care of people who have been there repeatedly.
Remote Lands In Their Own Words
The company specializes in extraordinary experiences that are difficult to arrange and require privileged access to important people and exclusive events, drawing upon Remote Lands’ relationships with remarkable people around Asia. This is Remote Lands’ own language. It is also, word for word, the description of what the Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ provides — and what no region-wide DMC in Laos can supply.
The Price Context — What $103,888 Buys and What It Doesn’t
Remote Lands · Aman Private Jet SEA $103,888 Per person, 13 nights, 2026. Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand. Private jet between all destinations. Amantaka in Luang Prabang (3 nights). Expert guide, private car, VIP access, Aman service standard throughout.
Brother Tours · Tier 1 Signature Private $320–400
Per person per day, Laos only. Fully private. Maximum 6 guests. Founder hosted. Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ available. 6 departures per year. Every dollar stays in Laos. Includes routes no private jet tour has reached.
These are not competing products at the same price point. They serve genuinely different purposes. Remote Lands’ private jet expedition is a masterwork of regional luxury travel — the accumulation of access relationships across four countries, the seamlessness of private aviation, the Aman standard at every stop. It is worth every dollar to the traveler it is designed for.
Brother Tours’ Tier 1 Signature Journey is something different in category, not just price. It is a private journey through Laos with the person who has spent fifteen years building the access that Remote Lands’ helicopter moment reached for once. The two products answer different questions. Remote Lands answers: what is the most extraordinary way to move through Asia? Brother Tours answers: what is the deepest way to enter Laos?
What Remote Lands Covers in Laos — Honestly
Remote Lands’ Laos product is centered on Luang Prabang — the Amantaka, private breakfast at Kuang Si Falls, the alms ceremony, Pak Ou caves, the Mekong. Their Northern Laos itinerary (Hidden Gems) reaches Luang Namtha and Muang Sing — genuine northwest Laos territory that most operators don’t reach, with Akha and other minority village visits included. Their Ancient Laos itinerary pushes south through Vientiane and into Konglor cave country.
This is better Laos coverage than most luxury operators provide. Remote Lands genuinely tries to go further than the standard. Their Hidden Gems itinerary reaching Muang Sing is real commitment to showing clients something they haven’t seen.
What remains unreached: the Bolaven Plateau and its highland tribal communities. The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ territory — the Laven, Alak, and Ta-Oy peoples of the plateau interior. The communities that Remote Lands reached once, by helicopter, as an optional extraordinary moment. Not as a journey. Not repeatedly. Not with community consent built through fifteen years of return visits.
The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ — What Remote Lands Has Been Reaching For
Brother Tours · Proprietary Permanent Access
The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ — Bolaven Plateau
A structured multi-day private journey through Laven, Alak, and Ta-Oy indigenous communities on the Bolaven Plateau in Southern Laos. Community-sanctioned, ethically designed, and built on fifteen years of continuous relationship — not a chance encounter, not a helicopter add-on, but a permanent product that Brother Tours operates season after season with the same communities who said yes to us, and would not say yes to anyone who had not earned it.
This is the product that Remote Lands’ clients ask about after every Laos itinerary. It is the thing the helicopter was reaching for. It has existed as a walkable, livable, multi-day journey since Brother Tours first took guests into Laven territory — with community consent, with community benefit, without the need for aviation.
Laven Community
Highland plateau people whose animist traditions and agricultural knowledge remain intact in ways that tourism has eroded in Northern Laos communities.
Alak Community
Known for their distinctive funeral jar tradition and scarification practices — a living culture that requires trust to enter and respect to remain in.
Ta-Oy Community
Highland weaving and forest knowledge carried by women across generations — a textile tradition that no luxury operator has integrated into a journey before Brother Tours.
15 Years · No Helicopter
The access was built on foot, by return, by relationship. Maximum 6 guests. Community benefit structured into every departure. Available 6 times per year.
Side-by-Side: Two Very Different Definitions of Unreachable
| Factor | Remote Lands | Brother Tours |
|---|---|---|
| Based where | New York & Bangkok | Vientiane, Laos — in-country |
| Asia coverage | 38 countries across Asia | Laos specialist — every province in depth |
| Laos coverage | Luang Prabang, Northern, Central — well covered | Full country including Bolaven Plateau & tribal highlands |
| Private jet capability | Full private jet expeditions — $103,888+ | Not offered — land journey specialist |
| Aman relationships | Long-term Aman partner — Amantaka and beyond | Premium independent accommodation throughout |
| Indigenous tribal access | Helicopter add-on to remote tribal village on select jet tours | Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ — permanent, structured, community-sanctioned |
| Journey Host access | Not available | Ken FJ Her hosts Tier 1 Signature Journeys — max 6 guests |
| Repeat community access | Episodic — varies by itinerary and logistics | Built on 15 years of continuous relationships — guaranteed |
| Unreachable claim | True — genuinely exceptional access at scale | True — different territory, different method, different permanence |
| Where money goes | NY/Bangkok operations, then to Laos via local partners |
Where Remote Lands Has No Equal
The private jet standard is genuinely transformative
Moving between Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand on a private jet that leaves when you are ready — not when the airline schedules — changes the experience of a region in a way that land-only travel cannot replicate. The absence of airports as obstacles, the ability to land at smaller airfields, the continuity of service from door to door: Remote Lands’ jet expeditions are not a luxury indulgence. They are a fundamentally different way of traveling through a complex multi-country region. For that product, there is no comparison.
Twenty years of Asian royalty and exclusive access
Catherine Heald’s Condé Nast recognition noted her ability to tap personal contacts in the region to create encounters rarely available to the general public. Dinners with Asian royalty. Private Angkor Wat access after hours. Artist studios, research stations, private islands. This is the accumulated result of twenty years of showing up, building relationships, and delivering on commitments. No younger operator replicates this. Remote Lands has genuinely earned it.
The breadth of thirty-eight Asian countries
Remote Lands covers Asia in its entirety — Papua New Guinea, the Maldives, Mongolia, Bhutan, Japan, India — in a way that a Laos specialist cannot. For the traveler whose appetite for Asia is continental rather than country-specific, Remote Lands’ breadth is irreplaceable.
The Remote-Lands-to-Brother-Tours Traveler
This is the most specific traveler profile in this entire comparison series. They have done the Remote Lands Aman jet expedition. They have dined at the Amantaka. They have seen Luang Prabang from the back of a private car at dawn. They came home from Laos with the feeling that the helicopter moment — the optional tribal village visit that Remote Lands offered — was the thing they remembered most. Not the private jet. Not the Aman spa. The moment when the vehicle stopped, and they were somewhere that felt genuinely untouched.
That feeling is what the Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ is designed to sustain for five days instead of five hours. Not as a highlight reel moment. As a journey through communities that exist in full — with their own logic, their own time, their own welcome for visitors who arrive with the patience that fifteen years of relationship-building makes possible.
The Remote Lands traveler who wants that journey does not need to choose between Brother Tours and Remote Lands. They can do both — and many do. The jet expedition for the regional sweep. Brother Tours for the Laos interior that the jet cannot reach on foot.
The private jet gets you to Laos in extraordinary style. Brother Tours takes you into the part of Laos that no jet has ever landed near.
Which Traveler Belongs with Which Operator
Choose Remote Lands if
– Private jet travel between multiple Asian countries is the experience
– Aman properties are central to how you want to sleep in Asia
– You want twenty years of personal Asia relationships behind your itinerary
– Dinners with Asian royalty and exclusive cultural access across the continent
– You are building a multi-country Asian journey, not a Laos immersion
– Catherine Heald’s personal network is what you are paying for
Choose Brother Tours if
– Laos itself is the destination — not a stop on a regional circuit
– The helicopter tribal moment was the part you are still thinking about
– You want that access as a five-day journey, not a five-hour add-on
– The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ is what you have been asking for
– Founder access — the person who built the access, hosting you personally
– You want the permanent, structured version of virtually no foreigners
– Your budget goes entirely into Laos, not into aviation and hotel groups
Looking for the permanent version of the helicopter moment?
Brother Tours works with select ultra-luxury operators who need access in Laos that their current ground partners cannot supply. If the Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ or a founder-hosted Signature Journey would complete your Laos product, we welcome the conversation. Email
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Remote Lands worth it for Laos?
Yes — at the level they operate. Remote Lands delivers genuinely extraordinary experiences in Luang Prabang and Northern Laos, and their private jet expedition provides a seamless multi-country journey at a standard that land-only travel cannot replicate. What Remote Lands has been unable to offer as a permanent product is the highland tribal community access that their clients consistently ask for — access that Brother Tours has built into the Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ over fifteen years.
How much does Remote Lands charge for their Laos private jet tour?
Remote Lands’ 2026 Southeast Asia Exploration Journey with Aman starts at $103,888 per person for 13 nights — covering Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand on a private jet with Aman properties throughout. Individual bespoke Laos itineraries are priced separately. Brother Tours Tier 1 Signature Private runs $320–400 per person per day for a fully private Laos-only journey with founder access.
What does Brother Tours offer that Remote Lands doesn’t in Laos?
The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ — a permanent, structured, community-sanctioned multi-day journey through Laven, Alak, and Ta-Oy communities on the Bolaven Plateau. Remote Lands offered helicopter access to a remote Lao tribal village that virtually no foreigners have set foot near as an optional add-on on a past jet tour. Brother Tours built that access into a permanent product fifteen years ago. No helicopter. No chance encounter. Five days in the highland communities, arriving on foot with the trust that fifteen years of return visits earns.
Can Remote Lands clients book Brother Tours directly for Laos?
Yes. Brother Tours accepts direct bookings from travelers worldwide, including those who have traveled with Remote Lands and want to return to Laos for the specific access their jet expedition reached for once. Contact visit brothertours.com.
Can Brother Tours partner with Remote Lands as a Laos ground operator?
Yes. Brother Tours welcomes partnership conversations with ultra-luxury operators — specifically for the routes and access that require fifteen years of community relationship to produce. The Aboriginal Tribal Loop™ and founder-hosted Signature Journeys are the two products most naturally aligned with Remote Lands’ brand promise of experiences unreachable through any other means. Contact enquiry@brothertours.com.
The Permanent Version of the Helicopter Moment
Ready for the Laos That No Jet Tour Has Landed Near?
Tell us what you have already experienced — and what you were still thinking about on the flight home. We design private journeys into the highland communities that Remote Lands reached for once, by helicopter, and described as virtually no foreigners have set foot anywhere near.Brother Tours calls it Tuesday.
Ultra-luxury operators: ground partnership terms, B2B net rates, and FAM inquiry — enquiry@brothertours.com