Flying Through the Trees Like a Monkey at the Gibbon Experience

The Gibbon Experience in northern Laos is like a childhood fantasy come true. This unique project within the Nam Ka National Park lets you stay overnight in tree huts up to 40m above the ground — and then soar above the jungle canopy using a combined 15km (!) of zip lines.

It’s a thrill to glide from one side of a valley to the next while getting a drone’s eye view of the canopy below. But I thought it was equally delightful just to wake up in one of the tallest treehouses in the world and see a glorious vista of a misty rainforest.

Since the Gibbon Experience is a long-running project, I’m far from the first blogger to write about it. Rather than giving a blow-by-blow account of the experience, let me just share some general impressions with you to help you decide if it’s worth it. (I did the 3-Day Classic Experience.)

What to expect

The Nam Kan National Park is home to many gibbon species, though the Gibbon Experience is less about the ‘gibbons’ and more about the ‘experience’.

This is just something to expect. The idea of being high up in the trees is that you can see the forest from a gibbon’s point of view rather than it being some kind of gibbon safari where you’re guaranteed to see these small apes up close.

Since you’ll be with a group of around 8 people and since the ziplines obviously make noise, the conditions for seeing wildlife are not always ideal.

But if you’re lucky, the elusive gibbons will be singing their songs in the early morning. Since it had rained during my stay, the gibbons were a little shy, so I wasn’t so lucky myself. But I’ve heard those cheerful rising calls of gibbons before, and it definitely makes you feel like you’re in a wildlife documentary!

However, the real purpose of the Gibbon Experience is to see the jungle from a different perspective. You know that expression about not seeing the forest for the trees? Well, that also applies quite literally to forests and trees. It’s often difficult to see much of the jungle when you’re smack in the middle of it. But when you’re high above the canopy, you can appreciate it so much more.

The zip-lining — at least for me — was more of a serotonin thing than an adrenaline thing. If you have a severe fear of heights, then maybe I wouldn’t recommend it. Otherwise, it’s just a lot of solid good fun. Soaring from one tree hut to another over jungled valleys is an amazing sensation.

There is a shorter 1-day Gibbon experience focused exclusively on the ziplining, but I felt that staying the night in the tree huts during the 3-day track made it a lot more special.

Thankfully, there’s no internet, so there’s not much to do at night but chat with your fellow travelers and play some card games. Meals are delivered by the cook via zipline and are family-style at a shared table. In the morning, you’ll wake up to stunning vistas of the rainforest, with morning mist forming layered silhouettes.

By the way, maybe this is an odd detail, but I had quite possibly the best shower of my life at the Gibbon Experience.

The bathroom is on a platform just one level down from the living area. There’s a curtain behind you but ahead of you it’s fully open, so you’re just standing naked 30 meters above the ground in front of a glorious 180-degree vista of a rainforest. Below you is just a slatted platform, and then nothing below but some distant foliage. You can trace the water drops with your eyes as they go down through the platform and then alllll the way down to the jungle floor.

I took my shower just as the sun was setting, seeing the golden glow while tropical birds zipped past from left and right. It felt like taking a shower in the Garden of Eden.

I give the shower: five stars.

Is it worth it?

This is easily the number one question I get whenever I mention the Gibbon Experience to anyone. My answer is simply this: if you can afford it, it’s worth it.

305 Euros (approx. $330 USD) for a 3-day tour is maybe not so cheap by local standards. A frugal backpacker could use the same amount of money to travel around Laos for two weeks.

Then again, having travelled all over the world I haven’t found an experience quite like this one. The ziplines were some of the longest and highest I’ve done and the views were spectacular.

One essential thing to keep in mind when considering the price is that this is an ecotourism project! At least half of the revenues go to reforestation and aid projects, ranger operations, wildlife conservation, and the generous salaries for the guides that help support many local communities. I think that easily makes it among the most worthwhile things you could be spending money on as a tourist in Laos.

From what I could tell, the project has been successful at protecting the forests from poaching, illegal logging, and other threats. Locals I spoke to who were not associated with the project all spoke very highly of it.

The guides and staff all come from the local villages — in fact, I didn’t see a single Westerner on staff. One of my guides used to be a logger, but now his work helps to protect the forests instead. It can’t think of anything more poetic than that.

The ecotourism element here doesn’t seem to be just a convenient marketing hook. As far as I could tell, it’s genuinely set up as a project with a mission, which is quite different from other ziplining businesses in Southeast Asia that also have “gibbon” in their names (such as several in Thailand). These other parks don’t include any treehouse accommodation nor do they claim to spend a significant portion of their funds on sustainable development and conservation.

If you’re on a shoestring budget, I might not immediately recommend the Gibbon Experience. In that case, perhaps a multi-day trek in Laos (perhaps starting from Luang Namtha or Nong Khiaw) would be a cool jungle experience at a lower cost. However, if you’re not too intimidated by the price, then I think the Gibbon Experience is highly worth it.

Practical details

What: The Gibbon Experience, Classic 3-Day Tour

Where: The office is located in Huay Xai. Pre-booking on their website is highly advised.

Why: You’ll fly through the forest and stay in amazing treehouses! The guides probably won’t tell you in great depth about flora and fauna (at least, mine didn’t really), so consider The Gibbon Experience to be mostly about having a unique immersive jungle adventure.

Who: It’s popular with backpackers but seems family-friendly as well. The minimum age requirement for the Classic experience is 8 years. While I was there, a woman in another group was 67, and she was loving it. However, you should be reasonably fit and there is a weight limit for the ziplines.

Pro Tip: If you’re coming from Huay Xai, you can leave your bags at the park entrance. After the 3-day tour, you can pick them up again and flag down any bus heading to Luang Namtha. This saves you from having to backtrack to Huay Xai.

Our jeeps got stuck in the mud, as even their 4×4 drives couldn’t handle some of the slippery roads.

Waiting for our jeep to become unstuck, we took shelter underneath a farmer’s hut and had lunch around a campfire…

Bananabrella.

The first day involves an hour or two of hiking to reach the first tree hut. 

A little volleyball session with the guides on our way back.