Laos

Entry is straightforward but has two steps. Most nationalities take a visa-on-arrival (~US$30–45, paid in cash US dollars with a passport photo, 30 days) at the main airports and borders, or lock in the cost with an eVisa at laoevisa.gov.la (~US$50 all-in — the better bet for remote land crossings). Passport valid six months.

Since 1 September 2025 there’s also a free digital arrival card (the LDIF) at immigration.gov.la — complete it a few days before travelling for the QR code shown at the border. It was still rolling out to all crossings through 2026.

Carry clean US-dollar cash for the visa-on-arrival (and a spare passport photo), since the counter won’t take cards. Fill in the LDIF online a few days before you travel; if your crossing isn’t yet covered by the digital system, you may still meet a paper card — it’s mid-rollout.

The single biggest change to travelling Laos is the Laos-China Railway: the mountainous Vientiane–Luang Prabang slog that used to eat a whole day on a bus is now a comfortable two-hour train, with Vang Vieng in between. Fares are low, the trains modern.

Two practicalities decide whether it goes smoothly: book ahead (the fast trains sell out, with a seven-day advance window from 2026), and plan for the out-of-town stations, which need a tuk-tuk or shuttle at both ends.

Buy railway tickets as early as the window allows (via the LCR Ticket app, a station counter or an agent) — the fast C/D trains routinely sell out, especially around weekends and holidays. And factor the station transfers: Luang Prabang’s station is a good 15 minutes’ drive from the old town, so arrival isn’t quite as quick as the two-hour headline.

Luang Prabang is the reason many people come — a UNESCO World Heritage town of gilded temples and French-colonial shophouses on a Mekong peninsula, moving at a gentle pace. Climb Mount Phousi for the sunset, browse the evening night market, admire Wat Xieng Thong, and tuk-tuk out to the turquoise Kuang Si Falls.

The dawn tak bat — monks collecting alms through the streets — is the signature sight, and also an over-tourism flashpoint: it’s a solemn ritual, not a photo op.

If you watch the tak bat alms-giving, do it respectfully: stay back and low, keep silent, no flash, don’t thrust a camera in a monk’s face or block the procession, and dress modestly. If you join in, buy the sticky rice from a shop, not a tout. Better still, many locals would rather you simply observe quietly from a distance.

Vang Vieng, between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, trades on dramatic karst limestone scenery over the Nam Song — its backpacker-party reputation long since tamed into kayaking, caves, lagoons and dawn hot-air ballooning. For the journey itself, the classic is the two-day Mekong slow boat from the Thai-border town of Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, overnighting at Pak Beng.

Far to the south, where the Mekong braids into channels near Cambodia, Si Phan Don (the 4,000 Islands) is the country’s hammock-and-slow-travel end, with rare Irrawaddy dolphins in the deep pools.

• Karst scenery and a bit of adventureSkipthe old party-tubing imageGoVang Vieng — kayaking, caves and a dawn balloon
• The classic slow journey inSkipthe overland bus from ThailandGothe two-day Mekong slow boat from Huay Xai
• Deep-south hammock timeSkiprushing back northGoSi Phan Don, the 4,000 Islands

The two-day slow boat is scenic but genuinely slow and basic — bring a cushion, snacks and a book, and don’t confuse it with the dangerous, discredited speedboats on the same route. Vang Vieng today is family-friendly, not the old lawless party town; the ballooning at dawn over the karst is the highlight.

Vientiane is one of Asia’s sleepiest capitals — a riverside town of the golden Pha That Luang stupa, the Patuxai victory arch, and the quietly devastating COPE visitor centre on UXO survivors. East, around Phonsavan, lies the Plain of Jars: thousands of mysterious Iron Age stone jars scattered across the hills, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019.

The jars and the capital both carry the shadow of the secret war (next section) — the Plain of Jars is among the most heavily bombed, UXO-contaminated areas in the country.

At the Plain of Jars, stick rigidly to the cleared, marked paths — the area is among the most UXO-contaminated in Laos, and the safe routes are flagged for a reason. Pair it with the free COPE centre in Vientiane, which explains the UXO legacy and funds survivors’ prosthetics — the context that makes the jar sites land.

To understand Laos you have to know the secret war: between 1964 and 1973 it became the most heavily bombed country per capita in history, as the US targeted the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The scale is staggering — two million tonnes of ordnance, 270 million cluster bomblets, up to 80 million of them unexploded and still lethal decades on.

For visitors this is both a moving history (see it at COPE in Vientiane) and a practical rule: in affected regions, never leave the cleared paths and never touch a metal object in the ground.

The UXO danger is real, not historical colour: thousands have been killed or maimed since the war ended, and bomblets still surface in fields and forests. Stay on marked, cleared paths in the north and east, don’t pick up or kick metal debris, and support the clearance and survivor charities (MAG, COPE) rather than treating it as a curiosity.

Come in the cool, dry window of November to February — comfortable and clear. The dry season runs on to April, but March–April is burning season, when agricultural fires blanket the north (Luang Prabang especially) in hazardous smoke that ruins both the views and the air. The May–October monsoon is lush but turns back roads to mud.

Getting around, the railway is the fast spine; elsewhere it’s slow buses, scenic boats, or a Lao Airlines hop for the far-flung south and the Plain of Jars.

Laos is cheap — among the most affordable countries in the region — and a cash economy: pay for daily life in kip (weak and sliding, around 22,500 to the dollar), with US dollars and Thai baht accepted in tourist settings and near the Thai border. Cards work only at upscale hotels, and ATMs are stingy, so carry cash.

Culturally it’s devoutly Theravada Buddhist — cover shoulders and knees at temples, remove shoes, don’t touch monks — and famously unhurried, captured in the phrase “bor pen nyang” (“no worries”). It slots naturally into a wider Indochina trip with Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia.

Carry enough cash (kip plus some US dollars/baht) for several days, especially off the main towns where ATMs are scarce and card payment rare. Embrace the “bor pen nyang” pace — Laos rewards slow travel over tight schedules, and the laid-back rhythm is much of its charm.