Camino Women and Khiri Travel introduce new hill trek route in Laos

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Laotian agency Khiri Travel and Australia’s Camino Women have teamed up for a new community based hill trekking route in northern Laos that is based on the principles of responsible tourism.

The inaugural four-day trek will commence on 16 February and six Australian women will be the initial participants.

The trek is part of a 12-day northern Laos journey which includes a slow boat ride on the Mekong river, a train ride, visits to Buddhist caves and an elephant park, walks in paddy fields, meetings with various ethnic group villagers, and experiencing the UNESCO world heritage township of Luang Prabang.

After the inaugural trip in February, Camino Women and Khiri Travel aim to bring five hiking groups to the Soum-son Trail in 2025, followed by two per month in the next high season, November 2025 to February 2026.

Each trip will have the same local guide from the villages and Khiri Travel’s own highly experienced Laotian community guide.

What makes this trek unique?

What makes this particular trek different from others lies in the inclusion, support, and training for villagers in three remote mountain hamlets on the new Soum-son Trail that the trip organisers believe is a positive example of responsible travel.

In preparation to receive the women hikers in mid-February, 26 residents from the three remote villages trained up for three days in Luang Prabang in December.

Camino Women and Khiri Travel’s charitable arm, Khiri Reach, paid for the aforementioned training.

The villagers learned about community based tourism, safety standards, housekeeping service, waste management, food preparation and customer service. 

There were hands-on practical sessions, and training was carried out by four community tourism experts from the Lao government which seeks to boost the quality of life for the villagers.

Learning from each other

Khiri Travel’s country manager in Laos Julie Beaufrère said: “Our approach is to treat tourism as a supplementary source of income for the villagers who are rice farmers. [But] we don’t want overdependency on tourism, and the cultural learning process is also very much both ways between villagers and the women hikers.”

Camino Women’s lead trip designer Lisa O’Donnell, who surveyed the trail with Beaufrère last year, is glad to see the preparation, training and hard work paying off.

She said: “We’re very positive with our partnership with the wonderful villagers and the proactive support from the Lao authorities and Khiri Travel. I believe our Camino women hikers are really going to enjoy their immersion in Laotian village life for four days.”

Khiri Travel founder Willem Niemeijer said: “The Soum-son Trail and the full 10-day greater Laos experience is a terrific example of close cooperation between Leatherback Travel and Khiri. We aim to develop more responsible and regenerative travel experiences with Leatherback Travel across Southeast Asia in the months ahead.”

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