Pak Ou Caves: Plan a Visit to Tham Ting
Contents
Pak Ou Caves is the name travellers use for Tham Ting, two separate caverns in a cliff above the Mekong, close to Pak Ou village.[1] Thousands of Buddha statues fill the lower cave, left there over the centuries by local people as acts of merit, and it makes a striking sight.[1] You can build a day around the two caves or make them one stop on a Mekong trip.
Choose a boat or road approach
The boat from Luang Prabang takes about 1.5 hours upstream, and the ride along the river is half the pleasure.[1] The slow boat leaves daily at 08:00 from the office in Vat Nong village, takes 3.5 hours for the round trip and costs 80,000 kip per person.[2] You can also take a tuk-tuk or motorbike to Pak Ou village and cross the Mekong in a small boat.[3] Most tour boats stop at Ban Xang Hai, a village on the way where locals cook sticky rice over open fires and make lao-lao rice whiskey.[3] Opposite the caves, ask your boat driver for a short cruise up the Nam Ou, where burnt-orange cliffs drop straight into the river.[3]
Things to Do
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Compare the lower and upper caves
The lower cave is the most popular and widely photographed of the two. It is less a cave than a small opening in the cliff-face, and visitors treat the Buddha images inside as religious offerings, not display pieces.[1]
A staircase to the left of the lower cave leads through the forest to the upper cave. There is little to see inside, but the doorway with its ornate metalwork is worth the climb.[1] At Pi Mai, the Lao New Year, the royal family used to come here with monks and devotees to pour water over a sacred Buddha statue.[1] Allow time and energy for the stairs if you want to see both caves.
Hours and admission
The caves are open daily from 08:00 to 17:00. Tickets cost 15,000 kip for Lao visitors and 30,000 kip for foreign visitors, and you pay at the site.[1]
For more ideas for planning around Luang Prabang and Laos, see our Laos travel guides.
Sources and background
Numbers in the text such as [1] refer to these sources.
- [1] Tourism Luang Prabang visitor-information page: Pak Ou Cave (Tham Ting) - Official Website for Tourism Luang Prabang. Retrieved October 22, 2026.
- [2] Tourism Luang Prabang, Luang Prabang provincial tourism office: Slow Boat & River Cruise. Retrieved October 22, 2026.
- [3] Tourism Luang Prabang, Luang Prabang provincial tourism office: River Journeys: Pak Ou Day Trip. Retrieved October 22, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Two separate caverns, locally called Tham Ting: a lower cave and an upper cave reached by a staircase through the forest.
About 1.5 hours upstream. The slow boat leaves daily at 08:00 from the office in Vat Nong village and takes 3.5 hours for the round trip.
Yes, most of the way. Take a tuk-tuk or motorbike to Pak Ou village and cross the Mekong in a small boat.
The lower cave is the most popular and holds the Buddha statues that local people place there as an act of merit. Stairs through the forest lead to the upper cave, which has little inside but a striking doorway with ornate metalwork.
There are thousands of Buddha statues in the lower cave.
The caves are open daily from 08:00 to 17:00. Tickets cost 15,000 kip for Lao visitors and 30,000 kip for foreign visitors, paid at the site.
The slow boat leaves daily at 08:00 from the office in Vat Nong village and costs 80,000 kip per person. Tour operators also run daily trips on the Mekong.
Yes. Most boats that run tours from Luang Prabang to Pak Ou stop at Ban Xang Hai, the whiskey village, where you can watch lao-lao being made.
