This journey’s cost is $6499 USD, with a private room supplement of $599 (that is, if you are not sharing a room with another pilgrim). 

A $1000 deposit holds your space.  The second installment of $3000 is due by January 15, and the balance is due by March 1, 2026.  

If you prefer to have your own room, the private room supplement ($599) will be added to your last payment. (Click here to understand why this supplement is necessary). Please note that we cannot guarantee you a roommate for this trip, and if you room alone, you will be responsible for the single supplement. Your entire supplement goes to cover the other half of the hotel rooms that a roommate would be covering. 

Please see the next orange box for the Luang Prabang, Laos extension pricing.

Pilgrimage Price Includes

• All accommodation in Thailand, from the night of June 30 to July 11
• All meals in Thailand, from dinner on June 30 until breakfast on July 12
• All ground transportation within Thailand, starting on July 1 and ending on July 11
• Flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai
• All site entrance fees
• All tips at hotels and restaurants
• All tips to local expert guide
• All tips to drivers
• Double carbon offsets for your entire journey (door to door)

Price Does Not Include

• Flight into Bangkok
• Flight out of Chiang Mai 
• Airport transfers
• Travel insurance (required)
• Laundry services
• Alcohol

Please read below for the Luang Prabang Itinerary, Price, and Inclusions.

Luang Prabang, Laos Itinerary

Luang Prabang is the crown jewel of Laos, a city so unique it earned a coveted spot on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its remarkably preserved blend of traditional Lao wooden houses, colonial French architecture, and Buddhist temples (there are over 30 in the old town alone).

Historically, it was the royal capital of Laos for centuries, sitting at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, a setting that’s both strategic and breathtaking. The city is often described as the “best-preserved city in Southeast Asia”, and it’s famous for its morning alms-giving ritual, where monks silently collect offerings at dawn.

Beyond the temples, Luang Prabang is surrounded by lush mountains, waterfalls like Kuang Si, and river life that feels unchanged for generations. Its pace is unhurried, its history palpable, and its atmosphere–equal parts sacred and serene–makes it a natural extension for travelers seeking culture, history, and a softer rhythm of life after more bustling Asian cities.

July 12th

We will fly as a group from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, with a stopover in Bangkok. Upon arrival in Luang Prabang, we will head to our hotel, Victoria Xiengthong Palace along the Mekong River. Our location is convenient to many temples, the Night Market, and lots of great restaurants. This will be our home base for our entire stay in Luang Prabang.

July 13th

An early start gives us the fantastic opportunity to witness the daily morning rituals of saffron-clad monks collecting offerings of alms (typically sticky rice) from the faithful residents and curious tourists. This procession called “Tak Baat” is very unique in Laos, being one of the few Buddhist nations still preserving the tradition .

We’ll continue on to a small morning market. This is the Laotian “supermarket” where they come to buy their fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat.

The rest of our day will be filled with temples and museums in the immediate area. We’ll explore some of Luang Prabang’s most iconic landmarks, beginning with Wat Mai, one of the city’s largest and most lavishly decorated temples, glittering with lacquer and gold leaf. We’ll then step into the Royal Palace Museum, once the king’s residence and now a showcase of Lao history and culture, complete with the revered Hor Phra Bang chapel. At Wat Visounnalath, founded in the early 1500s, we’ll see ancient relics and the distinctive “watermelon stupa.” We’ll finish at Wat Xieng Thong, a masterpiece of Lao architecture on the banks of the Mekong and one of the few royal temples spared from the destruction of 1887.

July 14th

After breakfast, we’ll journey by vehicle and then boat across the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves, a sacred limestone cliffside filled with thousands of Buddha images, incense, and sweeping river views. After exploring the lower cavern and, for those who wish, climbing the stairs to the upper cave with its ancient statues, we’ll return by boat.

In the evening, we’ll take part in a traditional Baci ceremony in a local home. This is an intimate Lao ritual used to celebrate life’s milestones, from homecomings to farewells. Based on the ancient belief that each person is protected by 32 guardian spirits (kwan), the ceremony calls these spirits back to the body to restore balance and well-being.

A respected elder will chant invocations as white cotton threads are tied around your wrists, binding the blessings of health, peace, and good fortune to you. The experience concludes with traditional music and dance, offering both a warm welcome and a heartfelt send-off.

July 15th

This morning, we’ll be welcomed into the home of a member of the former royal court for an intimate cooking experience. Over two hours, he’ll demonstrate how to prepare several traditional Lao dishes, along with the art of shaping banana leaves and other natural materials into intricate decorations. Together, we’ll carry the finished dishes to a nearby temple, where you’ll have the chance to present the food to the monks in a deeply meaningful act of generosity. In return, they will offer their blessings before you return to the house to share in the very dishes you helped prepare.

In the afternoon, we’ll set out for the stunning Kuang Si Waterfall, the largest and most dramatic in the region, where three cascades tumble into luminous turquoise pools shaded by jungle canopy. The site is as beloved by locals as it is by visitors, and for those who wish, the lower pools make for an invigorating swim.

We’ll also visit the on-site Bear Rescue Center, a sanctuary for Asiatic black bears rescued from bile farms and the illegal pet trade. Here, you’ll see the bears enjoying their second chance at life—swinging in hammocks, climbing trees, and foraging freely in their forested enclosures.

July 16th

This morning marks the end of our time in Luang Prabang. Your flight back to Bangkok is included in this journey.  Are you ready to go home yet–or are you hungry to explore the area more? We can advise on further independent exploration!

Laos Extension Price

This extension is $1999 per person, with a private room supplement of $299.

A deposit of $450 holds your spot and the balance is due on March 1, with the pilgrimage balance.

There is a minimum of 4 guests and a maximum of 12 guests for this extension.

Extension Price Includes

• Flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang on July 12th
• Flight from Luang Prabang to Bangkok on July 16th
• All accommodation in Luang Prabang from July 12th to the morning of the 16th
• All breakfasts and lunches
• Welcome dinner
• All site entrance fees
• All tips to guides and drivers
• Double carbon offsets

Extension Price Does Not Include

• Laos visa ($50 USD)
• Travel insurance (required)
• Laundry
• Alcohol
• 3 dinners
• Additional local tours beyond the itinerary above
• Hotel room in Bangkok if required on July 16th

Please refer to the Price box for specific information about price & what is included in your journey.

The non-refundable $1000 deposit guarantees your space. The 2nd installment of $3000 is due on January 15, 2026 and the balance on March 1, 2026. The private room supplement ($599) will be added to the final balance.

For our American guests, we accept payments via check, credit, or debit card (via PayPal), Zelle, or Venmo. Lauren will send you these details after receiving your registration form.

For our guests outside the U.S., Lauren will connect with you about the best ways to transfer money.

Cancellation by our guests

The cancellation charges are as follows unless otherwise indicated on the detailed itinerary for each trip. All cancellations must be received via e-mail or US mail.

• Cancellations prior to 150 days to departure, money will be refunded minus the non-refundable deposit.
• Cancellations received 75-149 days prior to departure are subject to a penalty of 50% of the total cost of the trip.
• Cancellations received 75 days or fewer prior to trip departure will forfeit the entire cost of the trip.

If a trip is canceled by RetreaTours

When a tour is canceled in the case of force majeure, the Tour Participant will receive a refund minus any funds that we are unable to recover from any supplier.

You can see the full cancellation policy in our contract here. 

Expected Temperatures

We can expect temperatures between 75-95°F (24–35°C) on this journey, with chances of showers in the afternoon.

If you have any questions about the temperature or weather on this journey, please drop us a line!

Packing List

We will provide a suggested packing list in Spring 2026.

Suggested Fitness Requirements

• Guests will want to feel comfortable walking 2 miles at a time at a moderate pace
• Guests will want to comfortably climb 2 flights of stairs at a time at many temple sites.

Sitting on the Ground

There will be opportunities to sit for discussion and/or meditation at many of these sites, although it will most often be on the ground. You may wish to bring an inflatable meditation cushion for meditation opportunities. We will provide meditation rugs, but if you need any height at all, please consider an inflatable travel pillow or cushion. Although there are sometimes chairs available in the back of temples for guests with mobility issues, we cannot guarantee them.

Vehicles

In Chiang Mai we’ll often travel by songthaew, the ubiquitous local red truck with bench seating in the back. Guests should be comfortable stepping up into the vehicle, ducking to enter, and riding without seatbelts on side benches. We will have private songthaews. 

Required Coverage

RetreaTours requires that each guest carries travel insurance that covers emergency medical treatment and emergency evacuation and repatriation.

Please take a moment to visit https://www.retreatours.com/travel-insurance/ to see all of our requirements and our recommendations. 

Your passport MUST be valid at least 6 months beyond the end date of the trip, and you’ll need three empty pages in the Visas section of your passport (make sure they are in the Visa section, not the Amendment or Endorsement section). 

Most people are eligible for a 30-day visa-free stay in Thailand. You can check your eligibility here. Guests must complete a Thailand Digital Arrival Card (TDAC) online no more than 72 hours before their arrival in Thailand.

For guests continuing on to Laos, the visa fee is $50. We will walk you through the online application process. 

Vaccines

None are required to enter Thailand, but we suggest you work with your physician or your area’s travel health expert to decide what options are best for you.  You can read the CDC’s recommendations here and the UK NHS recommendations here.

It is good general practice to be up to date on your flu shot and tetanus shot; please discuss with your physician if this is right for you.

Malaria

Here is an NHS malaria map for Thailand, and you can find the CDC’s advice here (“Rare to few cases in other parts of Thailand, including the cities of Bangkok (the capital), Chiang Mai”). You’ll see on the maps that the areas we will be visiting are in the “low to no risk” areas. 

You can see the CDC’s recommedations for Laos here; no malaria is present in Luang Prabang. 

Mosquito Bite Prevention

You’ll want to bring mosquito repellent to protect yourself in case of mosquitos, for other mosquito-borne illnesses (such as dengue, Chikungunya, etc). Wearing long sleeves and pants at dusk and dawn will also be useful to protect against mosquito bites. In our packing list we’ll make recommendations for repellents.

Staying Healthy on Tour

Please visit our comprehensive article, “How to Stay Healthy While Traveling…Naturally,” which addresses all of the most common travel ailments.

We have carefully chosen each hotel based on comfort, location, and safety. We can say with confidence that these are the very best hotels in each of these locations; each of our hotels will have a private ensuite bathroom, air conditioning, and WiFi access. If you wish to check out their websites, you can find them here:

Bangkok: Riva Arun

Chiang Mai: Away Chiang Mai

Wifi

The internet is accessible at hotels throughout this journey. If you wish to stay connected while away from the hotel, you may wish to consdier an international plan with your phone carrier or an eSIM. 

Electrical Outlets and Adaptors

You’ll need an electrical adaptor for Thailand as you may encounter Type C (European) and Type A (American) outlets on this trip.

We highly recommend a Universal Adaptor such as this  which also has USB and USB-C outlets so you can charge multiple devices at once. 

Communication

We rely on WhatsApp to communicate the schedule 24-48 hours in advance, as well as to give updates and share important news. You’ll be expected to connect at every hotel to make sure you are seeing these messages.

How much do I need?

All of your meals, transportation, fees, and tips are covered once you arrive at our hotel in Bangkok, so you just have to gauge how much you want to spend on extras (laundry, souvenirs, and alcohol when available). Please see the “Price and Inclusions” tab on this page for more specifics.

We can advise more on specifics (tipping your airport driver, etc) closer to the trip.

How do I get the local currency?

You can either exchange cash in Thailand or use a local ATM (which we personally prefer). Our hotels will take credit cards for any extras, but most smaller shops will not take credit cards.

We are happy to help exchange money on the road for you; we’d ask that you either PayPal or Venmo us the money OR, if you wish to exchange cash, that it be in high denominations with no ink marks, stains, or tears.

We are more than happy to recommend international flights, but ultimately you will make the purchase yourself directly through the airline website or through a 3rd party site like Expedia or Kayak. (We recommend going directly through the airline when possible, as it makes any needed changes easier.)

Route

Depending on your plans after the pilgrimage ends on July 12, you may wish to consider a multidestination ticket–that is, flying into Bangkok and departing from Chiang Mai. Or, you may simply wish to purchase a return ticket to Bangkok so that you can buy a round-trip ticket to and from Bangkok. 

You may wish to join our post-pilgrimage journey to Laos, in which case we will advise on departing internationally from Laos. 

As soon as we reach our trip minimum, we can assist you and offer flight suggestions.

Timing

You’ll want to arrive in Bangkok by the evening of June 30th. 

Although your hotel night of July 11th is included, you can make your departure flight (from Chiang Mai) for any time from the night of July 11th on. 

Living Theravada: Demystifying the People, Places, and Practices of a Buddhist Tradition

Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand: Encounters with Buddhist Monks

Brooke’s articles in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

“Karma and Wish-Making in Buddhist Thailand: Fifteen Thai Buddhists on the present-day practice of requesting blessings”

“Bringing Life to Statues: How images of the Buddha are consecrated in northern Thailand”

“COVID Inside the Monastery: Thai monks recount their experience during the pandemic”

“The Business of Buddhist Temples: The merging of the merit and tourist economy in Chiang Mai’s city temples offers a way forward in the modern world—and an unexpected contrast between the stances of senior and junior monks”

“The Buddhist Traveler in Chiang Mai: Temples abound in Thailand’s ‘Rose of the North.'”

BJ Graf and Lauren Rathvon have traveled the globe year-round since January 2013, researching, designing, and leading impactful journeys. We are deeply grateful for the trust that our guests place in us to save them time and resources while they enjoy a memorable journey.

We have been designing and escorting Tricycle‘s Buddhist pilgrimages since 2017, and it is a great joy to walk this path along with our guests.

We are committed not only to our guests but to the local communities in our destinations and the planet. We engage with local businesses and guides to keep money within the community, and we double carbon-offset each of our tours.

We invite you to visit our Testimonials page to see what other people have to say about us!

Established in 1990 as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization, The Tricycle Foundation is dedicated to making Buddhist teachings and practices broadly available. In 1991 the Foundation launched Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, the first magazine intended to present Buddhist perspectives to a Western readership. Tricycle soon became the leading independent journal of Buddhism in the West, where it continues to be the most inclusive and widely read vehicle for the dissemination of Buddhist views and values.

Our readership includes longtime practitioners, those who are curious about Buddhism or meditation, and those who do not identify as Buddhist but value the teachings of wisdom and compassion that Buddhism has to offer. By remaining unaffiliated with any particular teacher, sect or lineage, Tricycle provides a unique and independent public forum for exploring Buddhism, establishing a dialogue between Buddhism and the broader culture, and introducing Buddhist thinking to Western disciplines. This approach has enabled Tricycle to successfully attract readers from all walks of life, many of whom desire to enrich their lives through a deeper knowledge of Buddhist traditions.

Tricycle has been recognized with the prestigious Folio Award for Best Spiritual Magazine three times, and has twice garnered the Utne Media Award, most recently in 2013. As part of our commitment to our readers who are seeking to implement or sustain Buddhist values and practices, Tricycle accepts advertising only from teachers, programs, centers, and businesses whose offerings we believe will support those aims. Because of this selective policy, we depend on donations to support ever-rising printing and production costs, content updates to our website, and life-enriching programs. The Foundation also hosts occasional pilgrimages that provide opportunities for new and experienced practitioners to explore sites of importance to Buddhist history and practice.

Mission Statement

The mission of The Tricycle Foundation is to create forums for exploring contemporary and historic Buddhist activity, examine the impact of its new context in the democratic traditions of the West, and introduce fresh views and attainable methods for enlightened living to the culture at large. At the core of the Foundation’s mission is the alleviation of suffering that Buddhist teachings are meant bring about. Tricycle is an independent foundation unaffiliated with any one lineage or sect.

Why “Tricycle?”

A three-wheeled vehicle aptly evokes the fundamental components of Buddhist philosophy. Buddhism itself is often referred to as the “vehicle to enlightenment,” and the tricycle’s three wheels allude to the three treasures: The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, or the enlightened teacher, the teachings, and the community. The wheels also relate to the turning of the wheel of dharma, or skillfully using the teachings of the Buddha to face the challenges that the circle of life presents.

James Shaheen is editor of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, an international quarterly magazine devoted to making Buddhist teachings and practices accessible to the general public. James joined Tricycle in 1996 and in recent years has focused on developing new programs to bring Buddhist teachings to a Western audience. James also currently serves as executive director of the Tricycle Foundation, the not-for-profit that publishes Tricycle.

Please write to Lauren for any questions you may have about this journey. If you have not received a reply within 48 hours, please do check your spam folder.

Please visit our Carbon Negative page to learn more about what we are doing to mitigate the impact of our collective journey, including a double carbon offset credit to cover not only your time in India and Nepal, but travel to and from your home.

* * * 

We purchase double carbon offsets for your travels with us—that’s from your home, through the entire tour, and back to your home again, times two! 

You may have heard the term “carbon neutral,” which means that a company offsets as much carbon as it produces. With this 200% offset, RetreaTours is actually offsetting more carbon than we produce each year, making us “carbon negative” (or “climate positive,” which has a nicer ring to it!)

Since 2012 we’ve focused on making travel safe and easy for our guests; with our double carbon offset tours, we’re pleased to make our trips as sustainable as they are memorable.