Huai Krating Reservoir - Blissed out in Loei

If you ever find yourself if Loei Province and you want to find some fun and Issan culture, we have the place for you. Huai Krating Reservoir (ห้วยกระทิง) is an awesome place to spend a day. You just turn up, order your food and drinks, hop onto your personal raft house, and then you’re towed out into the middle of the lake. Once there, you can spend the day eating, drinking, swimming, and just chilling out. This is a seriously fun place to go, especially with a group of good friends.

Getting to Huay Krating

You will need your own car or motorbike to get to Huai Krating. It is a one hour drive from Loei city, and an hour and a half from Chiang Khan. The roads are in good condition the whole way, just head to this Google Maps location.

There are a number of different restaurants which each have their own rafts. Once you are close, you will see turnoffs for the different restaurants. It’s up to you which one to choose, but it’s likely that all have good food and similar pricing. We went to a place which is oddly called Pat Riley Butler Lakes in Google Maps and got great food.

Huai Krating price and hours

Our raft cost 350 Baht for the day and would have sat at least 8 people comfortably. That was our impression of the space, not a passenger limit; check the permitted load with your operator. The photographed menu listed a larger raft for 600 Baht, som tum from 35 Baht and Beer Chang at 65 Baht. We found the food prices very reasonable, typical for a Thai restaurant. These are trip prices, not a current quote. Confirm the raft hire, food prices, opening hours and latest return time with your chosen restaurant, and ask about booking ahead for weekends.

Say hi to the friendly dogs and buffalo on your way down to the raft

How it works

When you arrive and park, you go and order your food from a menu. The menu where we went was all in Thai so you might need them to help you order. If you could get the dishes you want to order written before you go that would be helpful. The food tends more toward Issan dishes and made to order Thai food. The photo below is the menu so you could get a Thai speaker to help you make your order from this if you go to where we went. Treat it as a snapshot from our trip, not today's prices or availability.

The menu

Once you’ve ordered, they tell you your raft number and you head down. You’ll sit there waiting for 10-15 minutes while they cook your food, then they’ll bring it to you and a boat will arrive to tow you out into the middle of the reservoir. Once you’re out there, you need to call them if you want more food, beer, ice, need the toilet, or are ready to call it a day.

These friendly boatmen tow you in and out and resupply you with food and booze. Throw them a tip!

Then you just need to bliss out. This is one of our favorite ways to spend a day in Loei Province.

Pro tip: Bring your swimsuit, but check with your operator whether swimming is allowed and appropriate for the day's conditions. CDC drowning-prevention guidance recommends wearing a lifejacket for boating and avoiding alcohol before or during swimming, boating or other water activities. An inner tube is not a substitute for a lifejacket. Check the forecast, follow local warnings, and confirm suitable lifejackets are available before heading out.