This is one little town whose laid back pace of life and stunning mountain backdrop will stick in your mind as a mini Shangri-La for the rest of your life. It’s the type of place where you could easily spend time swaying in your hammock looking out at the view and letting the days roll by. Vang Vieng is a quaint little town whose people seem to have a way of life preserved from a time before westernization. The back country offers plenty of daytime activity – you can cycle through it’s little villages, bathe in secluded lagoons and explore gigantic caverns. The nightlife is also quite unique, as spontaneous “secret” parties seem to erupt every night on the little islands that are only a bamboo bridge away from town.

This small town has become quite popular with backpackers in the last few years because of one particular experience that it offers – tubing. This isn’t like any tubing you have ever tried. Every few hundred meters along the river there are little bamboo bars selling Beer Lao (delicious!) and Lao Lao moonshine (dangerous!). Once you’ve been tempted to stop and taste one of their tasty beverages, they have a few things to tempt you to stay like crazy high zip lines and swings that hurl your body out into the sky and down into the river. It could possibly be the most fun you will ever have. Not to mention that the river is surrounded by steep, lush green mountains that will blow your mind with their beauty.