River Tubing in Vang Vieng: Everything You Need To Know

Doesn’t sitting on an inflatable tube as it flows gently down a river sound wonderful?

Well, Vang Vieng, a lively town in rural Laos, takes river tubing to a whole new level. Almost two decades ago, Vang Vieng started to gain popularity amongst backpackers in Southeast Asia for its stunning natural scenery. Limestone mountains, lagoons and, of course, the meandering Nam Song River.

“Tubing” began to take-off as a backpacker pastime, after word-of-mouth spread about how the river in Vang Vieng was the perfect location to float around in a rubber tube.

The tubing scene exploded about 10 years ago, and was seen as a must-do activity for all backpackers travelling in the region. Bars were set up along the river banks, drawing in tubers with throbbing music and the promise of cheap booze. Rope swings, zip lines and water slides were set up along the river, too, providing a whole new level to the water-related fun.

As you would imagine, alcohol and water isn’t a good combo… Sadly, in 2011, 27 tourist deaths were reported due to drowning or jumping into too-shallow water. As a result, the Lao government shut it down. The bars were forced to close, the rope swings and zip lines were removed and tubing in Vang Vieng ceased.

What tubing in Vang Vieng is like now

A few years after tubing was initially shut down, the activity was reopened on the river under strict regulations. Only 4 bars are allowed to be open at any given time, there’s been a huge crack-down on drug dealing, and zip lines and slides are forbidden from being installed along the river.

These days, tubing in Vang Vieng is much more relaxed. While some say “it’s not what it used to be,” I would argue that this is a good thing.

As you float down the Nam Song river, bar staff will throw plastic bottles attached to ropes for you to catch, and will then pull you towards the bank. From here, you can clamber – rather ungracefully – out of your tube and up to the bar.

Drugs are no longer sold in these bars, but you can purchase entire buckets of whisky for as little as $2. The local Lao whisky, known as Lao-Lao, is incredibly cheap and incredibly potent at 45%. I have to say, I truly felt like a trashy backpacker when I bought a bucket of whisky at 11am.

It’s still very much a party, or rather, an all-day bender, but without the drugs and dangerous water slides.

How to rent tubes in Vang Vieng

There are only a handful of places in Vang Vieng from which you can rent tubes. There is supposedly only one “official” tubing office, though. The office doesn’t have a location on Google Maps, but is located right across the street from Hallys Coffee, which does have a Google Maps location.

Once at the tubing office, you’ll be asked to sign a waiver and provide your passport number. I suggest memorising the number, or writing it down, as I do not recommend bringing your passport tubing with you. Once this is all done, you’ll be loaded into a tuk-tuk. Once the tuk-tuk is full, it will escort you and your fellow tubers to the starting point.

The tubing office said that it would take about 2.5 hours to float down the river (not including stops at bars). It really depends how much drinking at the bars you’ll want to be doing. Many people were buying buckets of alcohol from a bar and then taking it down the river with them. I was out tubing for about 5 hours personally, although I did spend a lot of that time playing drinking games and dancing at bars.

How much does it cost to go tubing in Vang Vieng?

The cost of tube rental is as follows:

• The tube itself: 60,000 kip (7.20 USD)
• Deposit: 60,000 kip (7.20 USD). This will be refunded, provided you return the tube before 8pm.
• Tuk-tuk: When you rent a tube, the tubing office will drive you to the starting point for free. If, however, there are fewer than 4 of you in the tuk-tuk, and you don’t want to wait for it to fill up, you can pay to go at 20,000 kip (2.30 USD).

What to bring tubing in Vang Vieng

I would suggest that you don’t bring anything. However, you’ll need money to buy drinks and for a tuk-tuk at the end of the route. You may also want to bring your phone and camera, and I definitely recommend you bring sunscreen.

I personally bought a dry sack. This is a small, waterproof bag that you can carry easily. You can purchase these in Vang Vieng town itself, although these are of pretty questionable quality – one guy had one that leaked and ruined his phone. I recommend buying a dry bag. I used my dry bag a lot during my time in Southeast Asia, such as when going kayaking or to the beach.

My experience tubing in Vang Vieng

I was travelling through Laos with two Canadian girls called Jill and Brooke. They didn’t want to go tubing, so I ended up going by myself. I was pretty nervous about doing so – it kind of felt like rocking up to a bar by myself. However, the second I got into the tuk-tuk at the tubing office, it turned out that there were a fair few solo travellers and so everyone got talking.

We floated down the river in a group to the first bar. Here, I bought a bucket of whisky and coke, and drinking games were quickly initiated. Beer pong, flip cup and kings cup were played as we all got to know each other and got more and more drunk.

After a couple of hours at this first bar, we got back into our tubes and floated down to the second bar. Staff threw plastic bottles attached to rope at us, pulled us up to the bank and helped us clamber off our tubes. This bar was already packed full of people dancing, so we joined in.

After we left the third bar, it had begun to get dark. It was actually pretty cold getting back into the water, but the alcohol made it bearable. Anyway, we got very lost and had definitely gone past the tubing endpoint. We ended up climbing out of the river by some guy’s house. It seemed as though this was a common occurrence for him, as he pointed us in the direction of town. We hastily walked barefoot, dripping wet, and carrying our tubes in the ultimate walk of shame back to town.

It was an absolute blast, and I’d highly recommend going tubing in Vang Vieng if you’re looking to have some uncultured, drunk, fun.

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