01/09/2023
Many Vientiane residents and visitors have bemoaned the lack of walkable streets and grittiness of the Laotian capital’s urban environment. However, in a city so unrenowned for its green spaces, Vientiane delights with its large number of beautiful and diverse hidden nature paths. The best part is: you don’t even need to leave the city to walk them.
The purpose of this page is to catalogue nature trails in Vientiane Capital with the hopes that others will walk them and gain a richer experience of the city by enjoying its underrated nature tucked away off the beaten path. For each trail, I will provide start locations, trail maps, photo highlights, and .KML route files that can be loaded into apps like MapsMe and Google Earth - all free.
Most trails pass through undeveloped neighborhoods on dirt tracks with features like ancient trees, rice fields, ponds & canals, fruit and vegetable plantations and houses forgotten in time.
I am a long term Vientiane resident and in a younger life, was a long distance hiker, having completed the full lengths of the Appalachian Trail, Camino de Santiago, GR11 Pyrenees Range traverse (twice) and the Florida Trail. I spent over a year of my life hiking in nature. Now I’m excited to embark on this project as it helps me get back in shape and enjoy nature without traveling far, and hopefully help others experience a mostly unappreciated and unknown side of Vientiane.
