Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls

Seeing the Kuang Si Falls for the first time makes you feel that you have gone back to when the  Earth was new and walked straight into the Garden of Eden.  A series of clear waterfalls cascade into shallow turquoise pools, the falls get more and more impressive as you walk up beside them, until right at the top is a very scenic and photogenic long drop waterfall plunging down from the cliffs above.

Being Laos, and not the West, you can strip off and swim in the pools, a delightful thing to do on a hot sticky day, and swimming in the cool water makes it feel even more Edenic.  

Just a word of caution, there are fish in the water who do like to nip your feet, if you stay still for too long.  It doesn’t hurt, but it is a bit a shock when it first happens! Mind you a few years ago people used to pay good money for a fish pedicure !

The Tat Kuang Is Waterfalls are a 30 km, one hour, drive from Luang Prabang, click here to book a half day excisions to Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls and don’t forget your swimming kit!

Once you get out of Luang Prabang the ride along the small roads through wooded hillsides is glorious.  The waterfalls are located in their own park, when you arrive it costs 20,000 kip to get in ( around £2).  When you enter the park the first thing you come to is the Kuang Si Rescue Centre which houses rescued Sun Bears or Asian Black Bears.  These small cute bears have been rescued from horrendous conditions, they were kept in small cages and their bile was harvested for use in traditional Chinese medicine.  It is lovely seeing the bears in their large new enclosures enjoying playing in the sunlight.

The falls themselves are a series of beautiful small waterfalls, with shallow pools.  Do keep walking right up to the top pool where there is an impressive long drop, which makes an excellent photo, but alas is not safe to swim in.  In fact it’s probably a good idea to walk all the way up first as there are a series of pools, which get better and better. When we were there most visitors were swimming in the first pool, whereas some of the higher pools were even more beautiful and less crowded.

If you only have time for one trip I would recommend going to the Tat Kuang Si Waterfall.  Don’t forget to take your swimming things with you!

We can offer you the following trips;