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 could be another lost village in the middle of Laos, visited by no one. However, next to the Kong Lor village, there is a pitch-black cave that rips the karst mountains. This is the Kong Lor Cave, one other the natural 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 large natural tunnel than a cave. At times the Cave is 100 meters wide and almost as high…
One of the remarkable things about it is the river that flows from one entrance to the other. Another is that this river is navigable by a 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 the 50 things you need to know before traveling to Laos!
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Visiting the 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 to walk there. You’ll then reach the park where you enter, and then you have to hire one of the guides (more info on that is 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 on foot and afterward into the boat. As we start snaking through the river, we 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.
TOP TIP
Take flip-flops or sneakers that you don’t mind soaking. 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 on 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 trail’s end, we return to the boat and start a long 6 km ride through the night. This time it’s more evident that we going upstream and that the river is sometimes a bit rafty.
In some sections, the river is really shallow; two times, we needed 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 returned 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 adapted to the bright light again, we enjoyed the scenery for a few more minutes before stopping for a break.
The guide stopped close to a village where a few women sell snacks and drinks. We enjoyed the surroundings and a rest before heading back. Although we didn’t, it is possible to visit the village close by.
The Return to Kong Lor village
The return is made the same way, but we are going downstream this time, 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 walking the short trail, it still takes 45 minutes to return to the start of the tunnel.
After the Kong Lor cave tour, 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 an excellent place to rest before the huge journey of returning 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 a guide).
- 10 000 per person to visit the cave.
In our opinion, this is incredibly cheap for the time it takes and for the experience it is. We tipped 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. It’s 6 to 7 hours (or 315 km) from Vientiane, 300 km from Savannakhet… 515 km from Paksè… Laos is a remote country, and the Kong Lor cave 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, 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.
Booking.comIs it worth it to go to Kong Lor?
How many times have you navigated through a 7-km river cave? So yes, it’s worth going to Kong Lor. You only need to ensure you have 3 days for it because you probably won’t pull it off if you don’t.
Laos vs Cambodia, where to go in Southeast Asia?
Kong Lor is a perfect destination for anyone traveling between the north and south of Laos. You can break the enormous trip, make it much more comfortable, and explore a fantastic place!
I still get freaked out by caves but I just went to one in Belize & definitely enjoyed it more than last time! I’ll add this to my list for Laos though 😀
I love caves but haven’t heard of this one – I like that you can go out there on your own, you don’t need a tour right?
No, you have to use the tour. But I don’t think you also wouldn’t want to be there by yourself 🙂
You made me laugh with that “Laos time”. 😀 So amazing that parts of the world have “their” time. I remember when they told me to be at the meeting point at 8am, “Cuban time”. It turned out to be nine and a half! 😀
Love the cave, by the way. What a great day you’ve had, so worth it! 🙂
What a great write up. This looks like quite the adventure. Caves are fun to explore and I like how different this one seems to be.
Caves are great for exploring but this on looks unique. Enjoyed reading about your experience there; you described it well. I’ll bet the dark part was a little scary but those colors made for awesome shots. Nice post.
Thanks for the Great write up.. Paul and Karen Vogel, in Phnom Penh… may take your advice and try this out before the end of 2017. Looks great.
🙂 thank you. We strongly advise you to do it! This was one of our favorite activities in South East Asia! Not only the caves, but the whole process of getting there, staying in the village and then going to Pakse…