The Bolivan Plateau is the main coffee growing region in southern Laos, it is filled with small villages nestled in the mountains, wonderful people and tons of beautiful waterfalls. Starting from Pakse, you can easily explore this region and see all it has to offer either on a tour or independently. It is a popular tourist route for people visiting Pakse because of all the waterfalls and the cheap rental scooters you can get at just about every hostel or hotel. You can rent automatic or manual scooters but we chose to rent a manual scooter and explore for 3 days on our own and it was one of my favourite experiences in Laos. I will cover the costs to enter and park at all the waterfalls in the subsequent sections.
So many waterfalls on this trip
How to Get There
The loop starts in Pakse and ends there a few days later
Once you arrive in Pakse, either from the north or south, you will see the many hotels and hostels with bike rental signs out front and you can choose for yourself which is best for you. We stayed at The Royal Pakse Hotel (sounds alot more high end than it is) and I checked out their bikes and they were all new and the price was 40,000kip/day for rentals longer than 2 days, this is the average price for Honda win rental.
Day 1 - Pakse to Paksong
The first day we left Pakse and headed east for Paksong, it was a short drive that took us maybe an hour and a half total and we found a guesthouse pretty quickly, it was the Bolivan Guesthouse which was a small wood building with several rooms costing 60,000kip/night that was run by a local family. We dropped our bags and headed a few km back in the direction of Pakse to start seeing the four major waterfalls in the area.
E-Tu Waterfall
These falls were so powerful in low season
There are a lot of stairs on this one
Cost: 5,000kip/person
Parking: Free
This waterfall was the furthest from Paksong so we decided to see it first and work back and it was incredible. I had read online that it was pretty forgettable and weak but we visited all these falls during rainy season and this waterfall was incredibly powerful. If you ever want to see the forests and jungles of southeast Asia at their best, then go during rainy season, the water is high and the trees are green and lush
Thamchampy Waterfall
We tried to get behind these ones but the water was just too high
After I dropped the scooter I was very dirty and wet
Cost: 5,000kip/person
Parking: 2,000kip
We decided to visit this one while sitting at E-Tu and it was both a great idea and terrible one. The waterfall is located about 2km from the highway and the road is composed mainly of clay so it is very slick when wet and we had a few falls on the bike and got very muddy Please be Careful. I got lucky and only did minor damage (broken plastic) to the bike and when we returned to the hostel I told them and they didn't care so I definitely got lucky. When we arrived at the waterfall, I was blown away by the scale of this one. If you go during dry season you can walk behind the falls, however we couldn’t quite find a route during the low season without getting our feet too wet.
Tad Fane Waterfall
These falls had to be at least 200M from the viewpoint, but still awesome
Cost: 10,000kip/person
Parking: 5,000kip
Tad Fane waterfalls are the tallest in Laos and are incredibly beautiful to see, although the viewpoint is actually quite far away. When you arrive at the gate, you are essentially entering a resort and the viewpoint is right outside the cafe, definitely worth a look. On a side note you can also zipline around this one for $40USD and the cafe serves all 100% local coffee that is phenomenal, we bought several bags to bring home.
Tad Yuang
These falls were incredibly powerful, it was intense
Cost: 10,000kip/person
Parking: 5,000kip
This one was an unforgettable one for me, I got absolutely soaked to the bone here and briefly broke my phone. When you view this one you walk down to an area directly in front of the falls and you can view them in all their glory. However, during rain season the water levels are very high and the spray off the waterfalls is downright torrential and I ventured to the bottom and definitely paid for it. The sound coming off these falls was completely deafening, it was like standing in a jet engine and I will not soon forget it.
After all these waterfalls we headed back to Paksong exhausted and hungry and found a place to eat some local chow and promptly went back to the guesthouse for some much needed sleep.
Day 2 - Paksong to Tad Lo
We planned to leave early this morning but we were delayed until around 11am because of the rain, we headed out and made it to Tad Lo in just under 2 hours. When we arrived we went looking for a guesthouse and settled on Sipaserth Guesthouse. This is by far one of my favorite places to stay in Laos, a double room with hot water/wifi/mosquito net and a balcony with view of the waterfall for only 60,000kip! I highly recommend this place to anyone visiting, I saw it on a blog before we left and really couldn't believe the value.
The 2 waterfalls in Tad Lo are both free of charge and right outside the village after you cross the bridge, The are both really nice but I personally prefer the second set because you can get much closer and feel the power up close. Also, you can watch the elephants bathing in the river upstream from the waterfalls everyday at 4:30pm, it’s quite amazing and free of charge.
The first set of falls, they were nice but pale in comparison to the second
The second set had a washed out little bridge to get to them
It was intimidating to cross
Elephants bathing in between the waterfalls
Day 3 - Tad Lo to Pakse
This was the last day of our tour so we took our time, we spent the morning on the balcony drinking coffee and enjoying the view. At around 11am we left Tad Lo and headed for Tad Phasuam waterfalls, it’s about an hour away from Tad Lo and is worth a visit.
Tad Phasuam Waterfalls
Really nice falls at this one, it was very peaceful
Cost: 10,000kip/person
Parking: 2,000kip
These waterfalls are really quite beautiful and the area around them is well designed. There is a suspension bridge that you cross to get tot the restaurant and several small villages and the whole place is very serene. I could have stayed here for hours but unfortunately we were on a bit of a timeline because the rain seemed to never end and driving down some of those stretches of road was just plain not safe.
After we left the last set of waterfalls we headed back to Pakse and go there in the evening to return the bike and spend the night before heading to Vientiane the next day. I highly recommend this trip for anyone passing through Pakse on your way north or on you way south to Cambodia, it really shouldn't be missed.