I will be arriving in PakBeng from Burma and departing from Vientiane a week later. I'd like to see the area around PakBeng, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane. Give me suggestions: How to travel between these places? Are there day tour operators in each place? Do you have hotel suggestions for a medium priced place? Let me know your favorites.

you can fly or take a bus from PP to LP....i would spend 3-4 days in LP and the rest in PP

Bob I think the poster doesn't mean PP - its PakBeng which is halfway between Chiang Rai and LP.

So you can take a boat down to LP for a few days - great place then either fly down to Vientiane (missing Vang Vieng) or take the bus either local(pretty rough) orcthe vip bus (minibus) from LP to VV and then another bus down to Vientiane.

There are day tour operators in each place but really you can easily get around on your own - they are small, easy, laid back places.

I've stayed a couple of times at the 3 Nagas in LP but thats now getting fairly expensive - use to be very reasonable but there are too many tourists now and everywhere is very booked up - lots of posts on the forum about LP

I'm going back to Vientiane in July (3rd time) and will stay at Sala Inpeng - I've stayed at Villa Manoly which is quite nice - only about $30 and Mali Namphu which is cheap - both were fine - I didn't want a really flash place there. Sorry don't know about VV but look on trip advisor if there is nothing on this forum as its a bit more of a back packer place. Same goes for Pakbeng.

i meant vientiane, not PP sorry

If it were me (and it isn't), I'd take one of the slow boats from PakBeng to LP (you stay overnight in a village along the way). There is an expensive slow boat and a cheap slow boat to choose from. I'd spend perhaps 3 or 4 days in LP, then go overland (bus) to Vientiane if I wanted to see more countryside, or fly LP to Vientiane and spend several days in that area.

Pakbeng is the half way point - overnight stop for the slow boat - so just the one day trip down to LP I'm sure you can get on the cheap slow boats from Pakbeng and doubtless the Luang Say (which is the nice boat run by Asian Oasis) as its not often completely full up. Only problem with the Luang Say is it only goes down river 3 times a week (2 times in low season) so you'd have to maybe wait for it. See their site http://www.asian-oasis.com/2-day-Mek...orth-Laos.html

I contacted Asian-Oasis and they are fully booked for the whole month of November. I guess we will try to catch the cheap boat. Any hints on doing that? Are you boats generally packed full?