#How to Visit Kong Lor Cave in Laos

Imagine a small village lost in a sleepy valley with huge limestone mountains surrounding it. This village lies next to a beautiful river with amazing fluvial beaches. It’s called Kong Lor village and it’s more than 50 km from the main road, which in “Laos time” means at least 2 hours. This would be another lost village in the middle of Laos, visited by no one. However, next to Kong Lor village there is a pitch-black cave that rips the karst mountains. This is the Kong Lor Cave, one other the geological wonders of South East Asia.

Kong Lor Cave (Sometimes also written Konglor cave) is 7 km long and has two main entrances. If we think about it, it looks more like a huge natural tunnel than a cave. At times the Cave is 100 meters wide and almost as high… One fantastic thing about it is the river that flows from one entrance to the other. The other is that this river is navigable by longtail boat! You can’t get better than this… we had to go there and include it in our Laos Itinerary.

Before heading to Laos check our 50 things you need to know before traveling to Laos!

visiting Kong Lor Cave

Let’s take this out of our chest and be very clear from the beginning: Kong Lor Cave was easily our favorite thing in Laos! Heck, it was one of the best (if not the best) activities we did in South East Asia!

Going to the Cave is simple and straightforward. You have to walk down the road into the river close to the village. It’s very close, it should take you about 10/15 minutes walking calmly. You’ll then reach the park where you enter and then you have to hire one of the guides (more info on that below). You cannot go inside without a guide!

When we reached the river we were amazed by its color and beauty. Then our guide took us inside the cave by foot and afterward into the boat. As we start snaking through the river we begin to realize how big Kong Lor Cave is. We can divide the cave tour into 5 steps: the entrance, the walking, the long ride, the break on the other side, and the return.

Tip: take flip-flops or sneakers that you don’t mind to soak. You’ll probably get wet because you will need to walk on water a few times. Walking barefoot is not an option.

The entrance of the Kong Lor Cave

The first step was to enter the boat and navigate into the fully dark cave! There aren’t many activities that leave us awestruck and speechless but that’s what happened in Kong Lor Cave for at least 15 minutes. Navigating through a thick black cave with just a flashlight in our heads was a first and something to remember for a long time!

Walking in Kong Lor Cave

After a good 15 minutes of riding through the cave, we reach a point where the guide docks the boat and leaves us in a colored lighted trail through limestone formations, full of stalagmites and stalactites. The contrast of the blue, red and green lighting with the darkest black makes a beautiful environment.

The long ride to the other side of the Kong Lor Cave

At the end of the trail, we return to the boat and start a long 6 KM ride through the night. This time it’s more obvious that we going upstream and that the river is sometimes a bit rafty. In some sections the river is really shallow, two times we need to get out of the boat and push it through the shallow water. The other time we stopped because there was quite a big raft, impossible to go through in the boat. We got out, the guides took the boats upstream, and then return to the boat. After a few more minutes we exited the cave.

The break outside Kong Lor Cave

As we left the Cave and our eyes adapt to the bright light again, we enjoyed the scenery for a few more minutes before stopping for a break. The guide stops close to a village where a few women sell snacks and drinks. We enjoyed the surroundings and a rest before heading back, however it is possible to visit the village close by.

The Return to Kong Lor village

The return is made the same way, but this time we are going downstream so the trip is a bit faster. We also don’t need to disembark and wade because the flow helps going down the river. Anyway, even without stopping and doing the walking trail, it still takes 45 minutes to return to the start of the tunnel.

In the end, we went to the river to swim and play by the water for the rest of the day. We found the river oddly warm and the very relaxed vibe of Kong Lor made it a good place to rest before the huge journey of return to modern civilization.

Useful information on Kong Lor Cave

Price to Kong Lor Cave

• 2 000 Kip per person to enter the National Park.
• 100 000 Kip to hire a boat. The boat has a capacity of 3 visitors (plus guide).
• 10 000 per person to visit the cave.

In our opinion, this is extremely cheap for the time it takes and for the experience it is. We ended up tipping the guide because we felt we paid too little for what we got!

Time required to visit Kong Lor Cave

The guided tour to Kong Lor cave should take at least 3 hours! However, you will probably stay in the village the whole day, so no worries there 🙂 On the other hand, the whole thing will take you about 3 days because of the traveling time between Kong Lor and any other place…

So, you need: one day to get to Kong Lor, one day to visit the cave, and another day to get out of Kong Lor.

How to go to Kong Lor

Kong Lor Cave is 1 km from Kong Lor Village, near… well nothing! It’s far away from everything. 6 to 7 hours or 315 km from Vientiane; 300 km from Savannakhet… 515 km from Paksè… Laos is a remote country, Kong Lor is remote within Laos.

There’s only one bus from Vientiane and the same bus returns the next day to Vientiane. As far as we could discover this is all the connection they have through public transportation. If you want to go to other places, you have to get that bus to the main road (N13) and then get another bus… but don’t let this prevent you from going there… In Laos, the journey is always half of the fun!

Where to stay in Kong Lor

You will almost surely want to sleep in Kong Lor! And this is the one time we tell you to book in advance! Kong Lor is very very small and in the middle of nowhere, you don’t want to risk not having where to sleep.

Is it worth it to go to Kong Lor?

Traveldrafts fun factor:10/10 – How many times have you navigated through a 7-km river cave? so yes, it’s worth to go to Kong Lor. You only need to make sure you have 3 days for it because if you don’t, you won’t pull it off.

Kong Lor is a perfect destination for anyone traveling between the north and south of Laos. You can break the huge trip, make it much more comfortable and explore a fantastic place!

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