Hiking Nong Khiaw

There’s really only one way to take in the beautiful town of Nong Khiaw in northern Laos: by booting up and hiking. With 6 viewpoints to choose from, all overlooking the dramatic river and mountain landscape, it’s hard to know where to start with hiking Nong Khiaw. Especially if you’re short on time (or good knees!)

Luckily, no matter which Nong Khiaw trekking route you choose, you’re guaranteed great views to snap your insta photos or to sit back and soak it up. They vary in length, price, difficulty, and vantage point. Some are better for sunset whilst others are great at any time of day.

We hiked all the trails in Nong Khiaw over 3 days so we can give you some directions for getting the best from this stunning town. Or help you pick the route that best suits your fitness levels and time constraints. Let’s go!

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What to expect from the 6 Nong Khiaw viewpoints

For context when we rate the difficulty, it’s based on being in our 30s with dodgy knees. We’re not “let’s go running for fun” kind of fitness but we do also walk more than 20,000 steps on a regular day.

Nong Khiaw Viewpoint

This is the most popular hike in Nong Khiaw, and arguably has the best view.

You’ll find the entrance across the river from the main town, on your left, around 500m from the bridge. There’s a little wooden shelter with blue signs stating the entrance fee is 40k kip (under $2) and warning you not to go off the trail. Scattered across the Laos countryside there are unexploded ordinates, so always stick to the paths.

Thankfully, the path is well maintained with stairs cut into the steeper parts. And the hike is mostly a combo of these stairs and a hard packed dirt path.

It took us around 1 hour to reach the top. But we met a young, much fitter, lad who bounded up in around 40 minutes.

At the top there’s a relatively large area to walk around and find that perfect angle for your photos. There’s also a hut with some benches to hide from the sun/rain depending on the season. Lots of people were more prepped than us and brought a picnic or beers to enjoy at the top.

Honestly, we think this is the best viewpoint. Partly becomes it’s relatively easy and quick to get to. But also because it offers 360° views across the town, mountains, and further upstream too.

Sunset is absolutely gorgeous from up here. But beware that climbing back down in the dark is tricky and you’re not allowed to camp.

It took us 45 minutes to get down, our knees need protecting, so most people will be faster. Overall 2.5-3 hours is plenty for this hike and we’d definitely prioritise it in your Nong Khiaw itinerary.

(You don’t need to but if you use AllTrails, the route is called Pha Daeng Peak.)

Som Nang Viewpoint

For hiking Nong Khiaw on easy mode, this is the trail. It’s the easiest in the area and the most popular for stunning sunset views.

The Som Nang hike starts from just over the bridge from Nong Khiaw town, past the first road on your left. Don’t confuse the trailhead with the one for the Nong Khiaw viewpoint. The start points aren’t far from each other but the trails go to very different parts of the same mountain.

Entrance costs 30k Kip (around $1.30) and the trail is very well maintained with stairs and hard packed dirt. We had a little dog take us the whole way as an unofficial, yet very cute, tour guide.

Only 30 minutes hiking up will get you to the large concrete platform with stools and benches that looks like it should be part of a hilltop bar. The high number of people drinking beer here would also lead you to believe there is a bar. But there is not. If you want some drinks or snacks with sunset, make sure to come prepared.

As a lower version of the Nong Khiaw viewpoint, you still get incredible sunset views, though it gets crowded. The downside is that it’s not high enough to give you the 360° view across the countryside. If you go for sunset, remember you’ll have to walk down in the dark too.

Overall, this is the easiest hike and has a nice view. So it’s a good choice if you really don’t want to have to hike for long to get some awesome shots.

Pha Kao Viewpoint

You have 2 options for hiking to Pha Kao Viewpoint. You can go it alone (it’s on AllTrails as the ‘Phar Khew Trail’) or as a camping tour.

Depending on the weather, it *can* be the best viewpoint in Nong Khiaw despite being the longest hike. From the peak, you can see both sunrise and sunset and it’s possible to be standing in a “sea of clouds” if the weather’s on your side. It wasn’t for us during a rather grey and wet January.

If you want to camp you MUST take a guide and book in advance (the day before is usually fine). You’ll see it advertised around town as the “Sunrise and Sunset Camping”. Booking stops the top from becoming overcrowded and ensures you have tent. Just be prepared for a rustic experience – there’s no toilets (so the top smells really strongly of pee if it hasn’t rained) and you’ll be sleeping on the rocks.

The hike takes a good 2-3 hours to get to the top so it’s the longest trek here. It’s mostly in the shade from the trees but it’s gonna get hot. We were dripping by the time we made it! So bring plenty of water and some snacks.

There are 2 separate routes labelled as going to Pha Kao Viewpoint. We’ve put the trailhead of the one we did in our map at the end of this guide. The other one is part of the same hike to Pha Noi – the path branches then becomes a serious scramble to the top.

The hike

The trail starts just over 1km from the bridge away from the main town. If you follow the road down, you’ll see the signs for it on the right hand side.

Entrance costs 40k Kip and you need to be prepared from some sections that are less well maintained. There are wooden ladders to get up rocks too.

Once you cross the stream you head away from the main river until you see a farmhouse on your right, turn up beside the farmhouse to start climbing the mountain. We missed the turn and had to double back so keep your eyes peeled.

The first section is the hardest by far. Towards the top, it flattens out a little so don’t be discouraged. We took around 2 hours to make it to the top at a steady pace with minimal breaks so you need at least half a day for this hike.

The top has concrete and bamboo huts so you can get the best views of the surrounding area. We met someone who dropped an AirPod through the cracks in the bamboo so take care of your belongings!

Unless you get the incredible cloud formations, the view probably isn’t as good as the 1 hour hike on the other side. They’re still incredible, don’t just us wrong. But if you’re torn and don’t have time for them both, we’d recommend taking the shorter, easier one.

It took us almost another 2 hours to get down – thanks knees! So you’re looking at 5, maybe 6 hours total depending on fitness, knee health, and how long you want to stay at the top.

Pha Noy Viewpoint

This is a lesser visited trail leading to Pha Noy Viewpoint – the much lower part of the same mountain as Pha Kao. It’s a much shorter hike and still offers a nice view across the river and town of Nong Khiaw.

To get to the start of the trail you need to walk about 400m away from the river (not on the town side) then head down a side street to the right. As you walk down this little road you’ll see a booth with a sign for the viewpoint but probably no one in it. The lady lives at the house opposite and may or may not see you. So try and find her to pay the 30k Kip entrance fee.

The start goes over a fairly wobbly bridge then up into the rocks. After that, most of the path is the hard packed dirt just like the other Nong Khiaw hiking routes.

This is a short hike, only 30 mins or so to get to the first viewpoint, which is nice if not as spectacular as the others. The viewing platform was VERY rickety when we visited and gave Katie the jelly legs but it might have been rebuilt since then.

It’s possible to hike a further 2.5km up to Pha Kao. We didn’t do it as locals told us it’s not the best route and we would have run out of light too.

We did this the afternoon we arrived in Nong Khiaw from Luang Prabang. So it was a little warm up hike, and very quiet compared to the others on this side of the river. We didn’t meet anyone else on the trail.

Sleeping Lady Peak Viewpoints 1 & 2 (Nang None Viewpoint)

Most of the Nong Khiaw hiking trails are on the opposite side of the river from the main town. This is the exception.

The Sleeping Lady Peak is one trail that leads to two different viewpoints. It goes up the mountain that towers over Nong Khiaw town and costs just 30k kip to enter.

We found this to be the most awkward path to hike up and down with some scrambling over very craggy rocks. There are some ropes strung up between trees at some of the steeper sections and they’re 100% needed to get up and down. I was low-key terrified that I would trip and land on one of the particularly jaggy rocks and Katie would have to drag me back down!

Fear aside, you do get incredible views back towards the mountains on the other side of the river. So I still think it’s worth it.

The lower viewpoint is only 20 minutes from the entrance and well worth it even if you don’t go another 40 – 60 mins up the trail to the top. Though obviously not quite as spectacular.

The very top has a few structures you can stand on, some of which didn’t instil the greatest confidence. But then I do have a fear of heights or, more specifically, a fear of falling off things.

This is a much quieter trail than on the other side of the river so you can have a peaceful time at the top watching the boats chug up and down the river. Just be ready for some steep and rocky sections that may take a little time to navigate.

Map of the hiking trailheads

One of the hardest parts about hiking Nong Khiaw is working out the names of each of the trails. They don’t really have standardised names and they certainly don’t have standardised spellings in English since they’ve been translated from Lao.

So use this map to find the trailheads and viewpoints of each of the 6 trails we’ve mentioned in this guide.

Final Thoughts

Depending on how long you want to spend hiking Nong Khiaw, there are plenty of options to choose from. We did all of these hikes in 3 days but, if you’re fitter than us and dedicated, you could easily do them in 2 days. Or go much slower if you’d rather.

Nong Khiaw is a stunning town and well worth taking at least a couple of nights to visit if only to hike to these awesome viewpoints (and have a Beer Lao at the top). There’s not a huge amount to do in the town itself. It’s also the jumping off point for hiking further into the Laos jungle with many tour companies offering overnight camping trips in the wilderness.