Tailormade Tours - Laos

A reputable tour operator who can weave together the best bits of Laos - and neighbouring countries - to suit your budget and timing

Travelling around Indochina can be stressful. You want to have the best time possible, see as much of each country as you can, stay in the nicest hotels for your budget and not end up spending the night somewhere miles from the action just because you didn’t read the small print. But sometimes the practicalities of linking it all together – flights, boat trips, transfers, hotel availability, choosing the best itineraries and booking the best guides – can be a headspin. That's where a tailormade tour operator comes in, helping you create the holiday just as you'd like it and then taking on all the boring stuff: making bookings, arranging payments, checking schedules and generally making sure that you don’t find yourself up the Mekong without a paddle.

In Laos, we have partnered with Exotissimo, who have offices in Vientiane, Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City and have been designing and arranging top-end bespoke holidays in the region for over 15 years. You can choose which places you’d like to visit and roughly how many days in each; they'll advise you where to stay and how to travel between them, book tour guides (their own staff) and hotels (based on our selection but not limited to it), and arrange payments (you just need to make one – to them). If you ask nicely, they'll even suggest a few hidden gems you might not have thought of: trying your hand at rice planting and traditional fishing in a rustic village, cycling down the Mekong into Cambodia or embarking on a slow boat in search of the Irraway dolphin!

Why we chose this partner

• They're well established, with 15 years' experience, winning the Vietnamese Tourist organisation's 'Top Tour Operator' 2 years running; they have 14 offices and a good mix of foreign and local management
• They employ their own guides, which means they don't struggle to find freelancers in overstretched places like Siem Reap and Luang Prabang; and they train them well – Unesco courses, 1-day Red Cross training, excellent English – and assess their performance through feedback
• All their vehicles are air-conditioned, and their drivers are careful and punctual. Their bicycles are sturdy Trek 4500 series front-suspension mountain bikes
• They work with local communities to protect the area and foster its people: they have helped build 2 schools in Akha villages in Laos, and have brought Duke University students to work in Cambodian NGOs
• Because they guarantee your tour will cost no more than an identical product through any other channel
• Lastly – the acid test – they helped arrange our own labyrinthine trip to Indochina: a total of 8 guided tours, 20 ground transfers and 7 flights spread over 3 countries, not to mention numerous hotel and restaurants – and all without a hiccough (OK, we once had to wait 5 minutes for our river boat to arrive)