Laos · Bolaven Plateau
Pakse
The base camp of southern Laos - coffee country, waterfalls and Wat Phou all within a day of one small river town.
Pakse is the provincial capital of southern Laos, a grid of French-era streets at the point where the Xe Don runs into the Mekong. Few people come for the town itself: it is the base for the Bolaven Plateau, the high coffee country east of here whose waterfalls and farm villages make up the loop most visitors ride, and the jumping-off point for the Khmer temple at Wat Phou downriver. What it offers is everything a trip through the south needs, inside a few walkable blocks.
Suggested stay
2–4 days
Language
Lao
Currency
LAK
Timezone
UTC+7
Why you'll love Pakse
The plateau Pakse is the door to the Bolaven, where coffee farms, Katu and Alak villages and a run of big waterfalls sit on land about a kilometre above the river plain.
Coffee the beans that made southern Laos known abroad grow a short ride away, and here you drink them at the source rather than the export end.
The rivers the town sits where the Xe Don empties into the Mekong, and the gilded Buddha on the hill opposite hands you the whole confluence at the end of the day.
Low-key a working provincial capital rather than a traveller town, which keeps it unhurried, inexpensive and easy to leave from in any direction.
Best time to visit
Nov-Feb
Cool & dry · 32-33° days
15.120° N, 105.804° E
UTC+7 · Asia/Vientiane
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Weather & when to go to Pakse
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Nov-Feb
Conditions Jan Cool & dry · Feb Dry season · Mar Hot & dry · Apr Extreme heat · May Monsoon starts · Jun-Jul Monsoon · Aug Peak rain · Sep Heavy rain · Oct Rains easing · Nov Dry returns · Dec Cool season
Watch for Feb-Apr haze risk · Apr-May extreme heat risk · Jun-Sep monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by verified verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Pakse
April and May are the hardest months down on the river, hot enough that you plan the day around the middle of it, and the June-September monsoon turns the plateau's side tracks to mud - which is also what has the waterfalls running at their loudest.
Top things to do in Pakse
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Bolaven Plateau loop - ride out to the waterfalls and coffee farms
adventure nature wildlife ⭐ Highly recommendedThe circuit east of town is why most people stop in Pakse: arabica and robusta farms around Paksong, Katu and Alak villages along the back roads, and falls like Tad Fane dropping in twin ribbons into a forested gorge. The short loop takes two days and the long one three or four; agencies in the centre hire out the bikes and hold your luggage while you ride.
-
Wat Phou Salao - climb to the golden Buddha above the Mekong
scenic culture arts 👍 PopularA large gilded Buddha sits on the hill across the river from town, reached by a long stairway or a short ride up the back road. It is the one spot that shows you Pakse whole - the confluence, the bridge and the rim of the plateau behind it - and it is worth timing for the last hour of light.
-
Daoheuang Market - plateau coffee, river fish and noodle stalls
food shopping 👍 PopularOne of the largest markets in southern Laos, out towards the Mekong bridge: sacks of coffee and tea down from Paksong, herbs and river fish, textiles, and a food section where the noodle sellers are going well before the rest of it wakes up. Mornings are when the trade is at full tilt.
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Bolaven coffee - drink the plateau's beans where they are grown
food ⭐ Highly recommendedRed basalt soil and altitude give the Bolaven the best-known coffee in Laos, arabica on the high ground around Paksong and robusta further down. Cafes in the centre roast and pour it, and most loop stops include a farm where you can watch the cherries picked, dried and sorted; the harvest falls in the cool dry stretch of the year.
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Wat Luang - Pakse's largest monastery, on the Xe Don
culture artsThe city's main temple and monastic school stands by the Xe Don, its ornate sim and gilded stupas holding the ashes of local notables. Novices study here, so the surrounding lanes get the alms round at first light.
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Champasak Palace - Prince Boun Oum's unfinished residence over the river
historyThe last prince of the Champasak line began an enormous palace on the rise above the Mekong and never finished it; the state took it over after 1975 and it has been a hotel ever since. The draw is the terrace view along the river bend and the sheer oddity of the building.
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Champasak Historical Heritage Museum - Khmer lintels and plateau cultures
history culture artsA small provincial museum on the main road, best used as the hour before you go to Wat Phou: pre-Angkorian sandstone carvings and lintels, bronze drums, and rooms on the Katu, Alak and other peoples of the plateau.
Best areas to stay in Pakse
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Central Pakse
Loop riders $Compact grid of guesthouses and cafes
Explore hotels in Central Pakse →
Mekong riverfront
River views $$Wide river views and bigger hotels
Explore hotels in Mekong riverfront →
Daoheuang Market end
Early departures $Workaday, busy, built around trade
Explore hotels in Daoheuang Market end →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Pakse
Getting to & around Pakse
Getting there
Fly into Pakse (PKZ) on the edge of town, or come overland on Route 13 or by cross-border bus from Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand.
Flight
Pakse International Airport (PKZ)
The airport sits a few kilometres northwest of the centre, so getting in is a short tuk-tuk or hotel-van ride rather than a journey of its own; domestic flights from Vientiane are the mainstay, with regional routes that come and go.
Coach
Northern bus terminal
Sleeper and VIP buses run down Route 13 from Vientiane overnight, with shorter daytime hops from Thakhek and Savannakhet.
Coach
Central Pakse
Cross-border buses from Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand take roughly three hours over the Vang Tao-Chong Mek crossing, the usual way in from the Thai rail network.
Coach
Southern bus terminal
Minivans come up from Nakasang and the 4000 Islands, and long-haul buses arrive from Cambodia over the border south of the islands.
Getting around
Tuk-tuk (jumbo)
The default hop across town or out to the market and the bus terminals; agree the ride before you get in, and shared jumbos work the main roads.
TBC
Motorbike hire
Semi-automatics and small trail bikes from agencies in the centre, most of which will store your bag while you are out on the loop.
TBC
On foot
The core between the Xe Don and the Mekong is small enough to walk across in about twenty minutes.
Free
Bicycle hire
Fine for the flat centre and the riverfront; useless for the climb to the plateau.
TBC
Day trips from Pakse
Wat Phou
Full dayKhmer temple ruins
A hillside sanctuary below a mountain the Khmer took for sacred, begun as a pre-Angkorian shrine and rebuilt in stone under the Angkor kings. You climb from twin quadrangles past frangipani and broken naga balustrades to the top terrace and its spring - a UNESCO site, and the single best reason to keep a day free here.
Getting there
car | tour | bus
About 1 hr south by minivan, hired car or day tour
Bolaven waterfalls
Full dayWaterfalls and coffee
The near cluster on the plateau covers Tad Fane's twin drop into the gorge, Tad Yuang's swimmable pool and short forest walk, and a coffee farm or two around Paksong. It gives you the best of the loop without committing to the loop; the falls are heaviest at the tail of the rains.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1-1.5 hr east by motorbike, hired car or day tour
Tad Lo
1-2 daysRiverside falls village
A set of falls on the Xe Set with a handful of riverside guesthouses, walks out to Katu and Ngae villages, and a slower rhythm than anywhere else on the loop. Most people mean to stay one night and end up staying two.
Getting there
bus | car
About 2 hr northeast by bus or motorbike to the plateau's northern edge
Si Phan Don (4000 Islands)
1-2 daysMekong river islands
The Mekong braids into a maze of islands before the Cambodian border: hammocks and bicycles on Don Det, French-era railway relics and the Li Phi rapids on Don Khon, and a deep pool where Irrawaddy dolphins were long the draw, though very few are left. It works as the onward stop rather than a there-and-back day.
Getting there
bus | ferry
About 3 hr south by minivan to Nakasang, then a longtail boat across to Don Det or Don Khon
A little history of Pakse
Pakse is young by Lao standards. The French laid it out in 1905 at the mouth of the Xe Don, wanting an administrative and trading post on the Mekong within reach of the older royal seat downriver at Champasak, and the grid of wide streets and shuttered shophouses between the two rivers is what that plan left behind.
The deeper history belongs to the land around it. Champasak was a kingdom in its own right from 1713, when Lan Xang broke into three, and long before that the hill temple at Wat Phou anchored a Khmer and pre-Khmer settlement on the plain to the south. The last prince of that line, Boun Oum na Champasak, gave up the throne to a unified Lao kingdom after the Second World War and left Pakse an unfinished palace above the river; the revolution of 1975 handed it to the state.
A pre-Angkorian settlement grows on the plain below the sacred mountain at Wat Phou, south of present-day Pakse.
Khmer builders rebuild Wat Phou in stone, in the terraced form that survives.
Lan Xang splits in three and the Kingdom of Champasak is founded, seated at Champasak town.
The French establish Pakse at the confluence of the Xe Don and the Mekong as a colonial administrative post.
French planters introduce coffee to the Bolaven Plateau, the crop the region still lives on.
Prince Boun Oum na Champasak renounces the Champasak throne in favour of a unified Kingdom of Laos.
The Pathet Lao take power; the prince's unfinished riverside palace passes to the state and later reopens as a hotel.
Wat Phou is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Limited
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type A / B / C
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+856
Haze risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
Mobile network & SIM card
Get an eSIM before you fly
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FAQs about Pakse
▸ How long should you stay in Pakse?
One night covers the town itself - the market, Wat Luang and the golden Buddha across the river fill a day. The reason to stay longer is the Bolaven: two to three nights if you ride the short loop, more for the long one or a stop at Tad Lo.
▸ Is Pakse worth stopping in, or should you head straight for the 4000 Islands?
Treat it as a base rather than a destination. Nowhere else in the south puts bike hire, onward tickets, banks and a decent night's sleep within walking distance of each other, and both Wat Phou and the plateau are day trips from here. The islands are the natural next stop, not an alternative to it.
▸ Can you see the Bolaven Plateau without riding a motorbike?
Yes. Day tours and hired cars with drivers cover the near falls around Paksong comfortably, and public buses reach Tad Lo. Riding is what gets you the villages and coffee farms in between, which is the part people remember.
▸ Is it cooler up on the Bolaven Plateau than in Pakse?
Yes, and it is a matter of height rather than a different season - the plateau sits roughly a kilometre above the river, so an evening at Paksong can want a jacket while the town below does not. Both are living through the same weather at the same time.
▸ When is the best time to visit Pakse?
The cool dry stretch from November to February is the easy window, in town and on the plateau alike. March turns hot, April and May are the hottest of the year down on the river, and the monsoon runs from roughly June to September, which is heavy going for a loop even though it leaves the waterfalls at their most spectacular afterwards. Field burning can also put haze in the air from February into April.
More in Laos
4000 Islands (Don Det)
The stretch where the Mekong stops being a highway and becomes an archipelago, hiding the widest waterfall on earth and the only railway Laos ever built.
✓ best Nov-FebLuang Namtha
Laos' original community-run trekking, still walked with the villages that manage the forest.
✓ best Oct-MarLuang Prabang
The most graceful small town in Southeast Asia - a royal capital of gilded temples and colonial shophouses, wedged between two rivers and ringed by green hills.
✓ best Nov-Feb