Laos Motorbike Tour

You reserve your spot for free and pay nothing to join, and reservations close 7 days before departure. Once enough travellers have signed on, usually around 10, we confirm the departure and email you a confirmation with an invoice for the full trip price. You pay it by card or bank transfer within 7 days, in US dollars, pounds, euros, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, New Zealand dollars or Indian rupees, and the price shown for each date is what you pay.

Solo travellers aged 18 to 40. Most people come on their own, and some come with a friend. The maximum for each departure is shown with its dates, and it's never more than 16.

The Trip Host travels with the group for all 6 days, sorts out every transfer and check-in, and is the person you go to if anything goes wrong. On activities that need them, including the riding days, a local guide or rider leads the way. You can skip any activity. Just tell the Trip Host so nobody waits for you.

No. You ride pillion behind a local driver. To ride legally in Laos you need a motorbike licence from home plus an International Driving Permit, and most travel insurance only pays out on a motorbike accident if the rider holds both. Few of our guests do, so nobody rides alone on this trip. You wear a helmet whenever you're on the bike. Check that your own insurance covers you as a motorbike passenger. We don't suggest renting a scooter on the free day for the same insurance reason. If you'd rather not ride at all, tell the Trip Host and we'll see what we can arrange for that leg.

It starts at our guesthouse in Pakse in the late afternoon of Day 1, and we send the address when you book. It ends in Pakse after breakfast on Day 6. Fly into Pakse International Airport (PKZ), usually via Vientiane, Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City, and book your flight home for any time from late morning on Day 6.

November to February is the best time, and early in the season the waterfalls are still running full. It's dry, and the plateau's dirt side-roads to the falls are at their easiest. We don't run this trip from March, when the south starts to heat up, or in the rainy season from about May to October. The falls are at their biggest then, but rain, mud and landslides make the roads up onto the plateau harder and riskier on a motorbike.

Most passports need a visa for Laos: either the US$50 eVisa, bought before you go from the official site laoevisa.gov.la, or a visa on arrival at Pakse airport, paid in cash in US dollars. You also fill in the free Lao Digital Immigration Form online in the 3 days before you arrive. Rules change, so read our Laos visa guide before you book flights.

Not on this itinerary, since Pakse is also the gateway to the 4,000 Islands and we don't want to rush either place. Our Laos Adventure: Thakhek Loop & 4000 Islands trip covers the islands properly if you want both regions on one visit to southern Laos.

Simple guesthouses in Pakse, Tad Lo and Paksong. Paksong and Tad Lo are both cooler and quieter than Pakse, with basic but comfortable rooms. You share a twin room with travellers of the same gender. If you're vegetarian, vegan or have allergies, tell us when you book: Lao food is easy to adapt, and the included lunches and dinners can be arranged around most diets.

A soft bag or backpack rather than a suitcase, since it's easier to move between stops. Bring closed shoes for riding, a light jacket or fleece for cool evenings in Paksong (it's noticeably colder up on the plateau), a swimsuit for Tad Lo, a rain jacket, a refillable water bottle and a dry bag for the waterfall stops. Your passport needs at least six months' validity and two blank pages.

Insurance is a condition of joining. It must cover you as a motorbike passenger, and it must cover medical treatment and evacuation, since serious cases in southern Laos are usually moved to hospitals in Thailand or Vientiane. You need to be averagely fit: you don't need riding experience to go pillion, but two days on the back of a motorbike, some of it on unpaved side-roads, is tiring, and the walks down to Tad Yuang and around Tad Fane cross uneven, sometimes muddy ground. You need to be comfortable in the water to swim at Tad Lo. The US CDC recommends antimalarial tablets for Champasak and Salavan provinces, which cover this route, so see a travel clinic at least eight weeks before you go. The UK's TravelHealthPro and the US CDC both publish up-to-date advice for Laos.

No. Unexploded ordnance from the Indochina wars is still in the ground across southern Laos, including the provinces this loop passes through, and it still injures and kills people most years. Stay on the road and on marked paths at the waterfalls, and never pick up old metal objects.