Vang Vieng has so many different activities to offer and so many things to do. Vang Vieng blue lagoon is one of the hot spots. You can easily spend 4 days here or even more, depending on how you like to spend your days in nature…
Besides the numerous caves and limestone cliffs that remind me of Hpa-An in Myanmar, as well as Ninh Binh in Vietnam, Vang Vieng has many places where you can go for a swim. The most known is the Vang Vieng blue lagoon and there are 3 major ones. Blue Lagoon 1 is the most known and most crowded one. It is the nearest to Vang Vieng town. There are also Blue Lagoon 2 and Blue Lagoon 3 but I have only been to Blue Lagoons 1 and 3.
Vang Vieng Blue Lagoon 1 and Tham Phu Kham Cave
As everywhere else in Vang Vieng, you need to pay an entrance fee to this lagoon. The lagoon has great facilities inside. Toilets, restaurants, sunshades and loungers, everything you might need to spend a full day here. This place is very crowded. The water is clear blue, you can see the fish swimming. There is a swing and some spots to jump in the water. This blue lagoon was too crowded for me, so I didn’t stay long.
I have also visited the cave that is inside the complex of the lagoon. You can rent some torches that will be needed if you want to explore deeper in the cave cause there are no artificial lights. For that reason, I didn’t go much further in this cave, but the initial part is very beautiful. It is a beautiful cave, but not worth going if only to see it.
Vang Vieng Blue Lagoon 3
The access to blue lagoon 3 is not that good. I would actually say it is pretty bad. Here is a similar point to Myanmar.
The street is not only dusty but also rocky so even if you want, you can’t go much faster than 20km/h. That makes the journey to reach it super slow on a motorbike and very tiring although not being so far from Blue Lagoon 1. The street conditions make it look much further, but at least the earth is flat. We cross many villages on the way and wonderful sceneries with rice paddies insight and the limestone cliffs that follow us all the time.
This lagoon also requires an entrance fee of 10.000 kips. We reached it already very late as we weren’t expecting to take so long to reach it. I could only see foreigners here. Blue Lagoon 3 is smaller than Blue Lagoon 1 but more beautiful, I would say. It has a restaurant, kayaks, and several fun ways to jump into the water. There is also a cave nearby that we didn’t have time to visit and some viewpoints too. I wished I arrived at this lagoon a bit earlier to explore the beautiful scenery around.
On the way back, already after sunset, we decided to go back through a different street that turned out to be a bit better than the previous one. It is the street that connects Blue Lagoon 3 and 2 that I ended up not having time to visit.
I feel like I have explored ⅓ of everything that Vang Vieng has to offer. There is a huge number of things to see here and I’m sure that there are some hidden treasures that only locals know about.
Exploring Vang Vieng riverside
A walk along the riverside in Vang Vieng is a very pleasant activity. The river is surrounded by amazing views and photogenic sceneries. I went a little further than the city center to the point where the tubing finishes, I guess. The place is surrounded by a wonderful landscape and there is a restaurant/bar that I’m sure it might be a great place to watch the sunset.
Dining at the local dining area
To end that day we went for dinner in a part of the city where foreigners don’t go to eat but is incredibly just a few minutes’ walk away from where everybody is. This is clearly the area where locals eat, with several food stalls and typical Asian looking restaurants. I’m glad I came here. It is a big area filled with food options but there were actually not many people in there- Not sure if because this was already the COVID era… One thing is sure, the menu is not in English and they will not understand anything you say. My luck is that I was with this local guy that ordered some awesome meal that we ate with our hands, just like Lao people do. It was a delicious meal and the place was actually very cozy with some cute little blankets so we can sit on the floor.
I enjoyed Vang Vieng very much and it is undoubtedly a natural wonder, as well as Vang Vieng blue lagoon. My next and last destination in Laos is Luang Prabang.
