The Gibbon Experience is an eco-friendly tour company offering over night stays in canopy height tree-houses and exhilarating zip-line rides over dense forest. Lucky visitors may get to see wild gibbons although most will only get to hear the distinctive call of these elusive moneys in the early morning from their elevated overnight accommodation.
About The Gibbon Experience
The Gibbon Experience operates out of an administrative base in the border town of Huay Xai in the north west of Laos. Hua Xai is easily accessible by road from Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand as well as by local bus from Luang Prabang. The tours themselves take place in the Nam Kan National Park, which covers an area of 1,360 square kilometres with scattered small settlements within what is largely pristine natural mixed forest. The Gibbon Experience offers three tour programmes, all of which include overnight stays in tree-houses which the company has constructed over the course of the last 25 years:
- Classic Gibbon Experience: 2 nights and 3 days with a small amount of walking and a lot of zip-line rides.
- Waterfall Gibbon Experience: 2 night and 3 days with several hours walking along the river each day, a visit to a waterfall, and some zip-line rides.
- Gibbon Express: This is the shortest trip, lasting 2 days and 1 night, and the most physically demanding trip involving an initial uphill hike and lots of time on zip-lines.
One of the tree houses built by The Gibbon ExperienceTours with the Gibbon Experience are not cheap by local standards, with the Classic Gibbon Experience costing the equivalent of approximately $325 USD per person. However, the facilities offered by this tour company are excellent. The tree houses are well constructed and located high up in tall trees. The Gibbon Experience has installed about 15 km of zip-lines stretching high above the jungle floor, and they also feed customers very well. Part of the profits from the company are reinvested into local conversation projects and the company employs around 120 local people, offering them a way to make a living that doesn’t involve using up local resources.
- For more information see the Gibbon Experience website.
Location of The Gibbon Experience
The Gibbon Experience has a booking office in Hua Xai town.
