Gibbon Experience Review: Is It Worth It?

The Gibbon Experience in northern Laos is like a childhood fantasy come true. This unique project within the Nam Kan 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 nearly 12km (!) 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. So rather than giving a blow-by-blow narrative 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.)

3 different experiences

There are several variations of the Gibbon Experience with different durations and group sizes. So before I continue, let me explain:

The Classic Tour is what I did and what I describe in this post. It takes 3 days and includes 2 nights spent sleeping in treehouses. It’s a bit more relaxed in terms of hiking than the Giant Loop as it covers less distance per day. More chance of hearing or spotting gibbons. Max group size: 8.

The Giant Loop is a 2-day tour in a different part of Nam Kan with one night spent in a treehouse. It takes you across the western mountain range of the park on one of the longest ziplining loops in the world. Gibbon sightings are rare compared to the Classic Tour, but since it’s 2 days it may be easier to fit into your Laos itinerary. Max group size: 12.

Honeymoon is a 3 days/2 night experience with a maximum group size of 24. Just kidding, it’s just the two of you! In 2025, the new Nest house was introduced, so there are now two private honeymoon treehuts to choose from.

What to expect

The Nam Kan National Park is home to several monkey species, including the critically endangered Black Crested Gibbon and the endangered Indochinese Gray langur. However, 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 at least around 8 people and since the ziplines obviously make some 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. When you’re high above the canopy, you can appreciate it so much more.

The cook arriving with our lunch

The zip-lining — at least for me — was more of a serotonin 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 simply an amazing sensation.

What makes the experience all the more special is the chance to stay the night in a tree hut. (There once used to be a 1-day tour focused just on ziplining, but now all the Gibbon Experience options include an overnight stay.)

There’s thankfully 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.

340 Euros (approx. $368 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.

2025 Update: Since I did this experience, a new 2-day option was added, which costs EUR 215 (approx. $232 USD). The prices will be slightly lower during low season.

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 salaries for the guides that help support 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 helping to protect the forests from poaching, illegal logging, and other threats. Locals I spoke to who were not associated with the project spoke 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 travelling on a shoestring budget, the Gibbon Experience may be a little pricey. In that case, a multi-day trek in Laos (perhaps starting from Luang Namtha or Nong Khiaw) would still 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.

I woke up to this view

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 as it tends to be booked out weeks in advance.

Why: You’ll fly through the forest and stay in amazing treehouses! It’s a unique immersive jungle adventure, with the potential to see some wildlife as well. (My guide didn’t always tell me in great depth about the flora and fauna, but this may differ from guide to guide.)

Who: It’s popular with backpackers but seems rather 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.