Authentic highlights of Thailand and Laos 13-Days

DAY 1 BANGKOK ARRIVAL

Upon arrival at Bangkok airport, after clearing all customs procedures, please proceed to the exit gate and look for your guide who will be waiting at the lobby, holding the signboard with your name on it. Your guide will come to meet you and transfer you to the hotel to check-in and relax. Overnight in Bangkok. 

DAY 2 BANGKOK – CITY EXPLORER BY LOCAL TRANSPORTATION (B,L)

Breakfast at the hotel. Be greeted by your English speaking guide and then start Bangkok City Tour. Today you will experience traveling around Bangkok by local transportations. You will be taken via a few minute's walks to the nearest BTS station and then take 15 minutes to ride Sapan Taksin station. Arrive at Sapan Taksin, experience a funny Chao Phraya Express ferry boat ride to Ratchawong pier. Stroll around the Chinese community and when you are trying to make your way through the hundreds of shops selling everything from toys to chopsticks and from typewriters to car engines. Different sections have different products and your guide leads you from one alley to the next. Next, we will be traveling by MRT, another mass transit to visit the wholesale flower market, Pak Klong Talad. Continue your trip to visit Ban bat Community, see the process of making monk’s bowl, they will do the bowl every day except Sundays. Hopping a ferry boat from the nearby pier to Pratunam pier. On the way back to your hotel, you will be walking through Pratunam Market, a major market in Bangkok selling clothes, shoes, and fashion accessories at wholesale prices. Enter the small alleys and jam-packed small streets and you’ll find yourself in the middle of a clothes-maze. Prices are very cheap, and most shops offer retail prices for single pieces. Arrive at your hotel, rest of the day will be free at leisure.

DAY 3 AYUTHAYA - ANCIENT CAPITAL (B,L)

Pick up from hotel, depart Bangkok to Ayutthaya. Arrive at the Bang Pa-In Summer Palace, built during the Ayutthaya era. The palace is beautifully decorated in both traditional Chinese and European style. Arrive at the Ayutthaya, the Ancient city, learn about a combination of both the ruins and the remaining historical attractions: Wat Maha That, Wat Na Phra Men and Wat Lokayasutharam. Depart Wat Lokayasutharam for boarding White Orchid River Cruise. The cruise leaves the pier and heads downstream toward Bangkok. Buffet Lunch on Board: Delicious Meals served in a full menu of Thai and European cuisines, desserts, season fruits, coffee, and tea. Throughout the journey, you are able to watch the Chao Phraya River banks scenery from the White Orchid Cruise, either on deck in the fresh cool tropical air or from the refreshing air-conditioned passenger room. Arrive in Bangkok and transfer you back to your hotel.

DAY 4 BANGKOK - PHITSALOKE - DAY TRAIN TO SUKHOTHAI (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to Bangkok train station for boarding a Sprinter /day train no.#7 at 08.30 hrs. to Phitsanuloke. Arrive at Phitsanuloke train station, be greeted by your driver and then transfer to your hotel in Sukhothai. Overnight in Sukhothai.

DAY 5 SUKHOTHAI – HALD AY CYCLING TOUR TO SUKHOTHAI HISTORICAL PARK (B,L)

Breakfast at the hotel. You will be picked up from your hotel in the morning. The cycling tour starts from a small village on Sukhothai's outskirts known as Ban Khuai. We take a dirt road passing through endless rice paddies with beautiful views of the Kao Laung Mountain range in Ramkhamhang National Park. Arriving at the Eastern Gate we will explore some of Sukhothai's famous ancient ruins. You will marvel at beautiful Buddhist and Hindu architecture and be exposed to some of the country's most stunning craftsmanship from a period known as Thailand's Golden Era. The tour offers the visitor a guided cultural experience, learning about Sukhothai's history and complex architecture as well as the story of Buddhism in Thailand. Lunch will be served at a local restaurant. Return back to the Hotel.

DAY 6 SUKHOTHAI – PHITSALOKE – DAY TRAIN TO CHIANG MAI (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. 11:30 Am, you will be picked up and transferred by your driver to Phitsanuloke train station for boarding a Sprinter /day train no.#7 at 13.22 hrs. to Chiang Mai. Arrive at Chiang Mai train station, be greeted by your driver and transfer to your hotel in Chiang Mai.

DAY 7 CHIANG MAI - CHARMING CITY (B,L)

Breakfast at the hotel. Be picked up for a visiting Doi Suthep. Wat Prathat Doi Suthep is the most important and famous temple in Chiang Mai. The tour begins with a pleasant wildly driving up 3,500 feet above sea level to the sacred temple of Doi Suthep. You then ascend up the 306 steps to the temple gateway which guarded by two splendid Nagas (serpents). Walk around the grounds of Doi Suthep past golden pillars, six-foot gongs and rows of bells. A five-tiered parasol made of gold sat on display in the inner courtyard. Wat Prathat Doi Suthep was built in 1383, is the symbol of Chiang Mai. It is the most sacred temple in the city and contains the holy relic of the Lord Buddha which is enshrined in the magnificent golden pagoda that can be seen for miles around. A panoramic view of the city and the surrounding countryside can be seen from the temple grounds. Return back to your hotel. Overnight in Chiang Mai. 

DAY 8 CHIANG MAI - LUANG PRABANG BY FLIGHT (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. Free time until transferring to the airport for flight to LAOS. Upon arrival at Luang Prabang airport, after clearing all customs procedures, please proceed to the exit gate and look for your guide who will be waiting at the lobby, holding the signboard with your name on it. Your guide will come to meet you and transfer you to the hotel to check-in and relax. Overnight in Luang Prabang. 

DAY 9 A DAY IN LUANG PRABANG - CITY TOUR (B,L)

After breakfast, we will head off to see some of the highlights of Luang Prabang including a visit to the Royal Palace Museum, which hosts a range of interesting artifacts from the Royal period in Luang Prabang. We are seeing the city’s oldest temples, the magnificent Wat Xiengthong with its roof sweeping low to the ground, representing classical Lao architecture, the impressive stupa of Wat Visoun and the shrine of Wat Aham. Heading to the Mekong River we board our private boat for a pleasant and scenic cruise up on the upstream to the mysterious Pak Ou Caves. These caves are an ancient pilgrimage site and contain thousands of gold lacquered Buddha images left there over hundreds of years. Returning to Luang Prabang we disembark our boat and have the option of taking a short drive to Ban Phanom, a village famous for its hand weaving or returning to the hotel for free time to relax. Your evening is free to treat yourself a spa treatment or massage, do some shopping or relax at your hotel. Overnight in Luang Prabang.

DAY 10 LUANG PRABANG DISCOVERY (B,L)

This morning you have the option and opportunity to rise early and participate in the daily morning ritual of Alms Giving, you will experience saffron-clad monks collecting offerings or ‘Alms’ from faithful local residents. This tradition is unique to Laos, being the only Buddhist nation still preserving the daily procession. After breakfast back at the hotel, we begin our journey to Khouangsi Waterfall stopping along the way to visit the morning Phousi Market, where all locals of Luang Prabang come to do their daily shopping.  You will see a variety of local foodstuffs and products including dried buffalo skin, local tea and saltpeter among the chickens, fish, vegetables, and fruit, everything needed for daily life in Laos. On arrival at the Khouangsi Waterfall, you will have the opportunity to cool off with a refreshing swim in the topaz pools below the falls, walk along the forest trails and visit the Bear Sanctuary. Then we will pay a late afternoon visit to the Arts and Ethnology Centre to learn about Laos’ many ethnic cultures. You can enjoy a coffee at the center’s café if you chose before our climb to the top of Mount Phousi to explore the sacred gilded stupa and to enjoy the panoramic view of the city and the sun setting over the Mekong River. Descanting the mountain you will find yourself in the midst of the famous Luang Prabang Night Market, where you can find a unique selection of handmade textiles and handicrafts locally made by both ethnic Lao and hill tribe people surrounding Luang Prabang. Overnight in Luang Prabang. 

DAY 11 LUANG PRABANG - VIENTIANE BY FLIGHT (B)

Breakfast at hotel. Transfer to airport for fly to Vientiane. You have the option to continue our tour of Vientiane by bicycle, we will ride the capital taking in sites such Wat Ong Tue, Wat Inpeng and Wat Haisok, the main shopping district and Vientiane’s Central Market, Talad Sao. 

DAY 12 VIENTIANE - CULTURE DAY (B,L)

This morning we head out to see the major highlight. You are seeing the major temples of Vientiane including the oldest, Wat Sisaket, with its thousands of miniature Buddha statues, and the former royal temple of Wat Prakeo, which housed the famous Emerald Buddha Image. We also visit the national icon of Laos, That Luang Stupa, stopping along the way to take some pictures of the imposing Patuxay Monument, which is Vientiane’s own Arc de Triumph, from there you visit COPE Center. The COPE was created in response to the need to provide UXO survivors with the care and support they required, namely by way of orthotic and prosthetic devices. This museum was set after in 1997 to help to cover the victim during the Indochina war. 

We drive south from Vientiane city to see the Buddha Park, an enchanting collection of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures set in parkland on the banks of the Mekong close to the Friendship Bridge. Here we find over 200 religious images dating back some 500 years faithfully recreated by a mysterious Buddhist monk. Your evening is free to explore the Night Market and sample some local cuisine (your own expenses) at one of the many restaurants the town has to offer. Overnight in Vientiane. 

DAY 13 VIENTIANE DEPARTURE (B)

Breakfast at the hotel. Free time until transferring to the airport for flight to the next destination / back home. Tour ends. END OF SERVICES!