Laos

Laos is is an incredibly beautiful country and not very saturated with tourists, which is nice for a change compared to other destinations in South East Asia. We spent just over 1 week travelling around Laos and it's an easy enough country to travel using busses and mini-vans. Here is a good website you can use to book these in advance.

If you love nature and waterfalls then Laos is the perfect destination for you to visit, in my opinion, it's home to some of the most beautiful waterfalls in he world, you can go tubing down the river and visit natural blue lagoons. It's seriously gorgeous.

Below are my recommendations for Laos to help you when planning your own travels.

Things to know before you go

1) Visa

We applied for our visa on arrival, as we crossed the land border from Cambodia. It cost $40 USD pp. One thing to note when crossing land borders is the officers will try and charge you extra for things like stamps etc. We didn't pay this, it seemed like a scam and was something we had previously be warned of from other travellers. Instead we said no, we don't have any extra money and they just made us wait a few minutes to process it.

2) Bank Card

We used the brand 'Wise' which is amazing, I use it for all my overseas travel. It holds lots of different currencies & has a very smart safety feature where you need to approve all online transactions via the app before anything is processed.

3) First Aid

Don't drink the water & use bottled water to brush your teeth. It's not a bad idea to take some vomiting and diarrhoea pills with you just incase you were to get a bit sick.

4) Sim Card

We purchased a data SIM at the border for $5 USD for unlimited data. You can purchase these pretty much anywhere & I highly recommend. It's cheap & so much easier having data to navigate maps and google translate if needed.

5) Apps and websites

  • Google Translate: This is super handy to read menus & communicate to people in general who may not speak english well

  • Xe: Currency converter

  • Google Maps: Apple maps doesn't work very well here

Websites:

My top 2 cities

1) Vang Vieng

This is a main backpacker location & party hub, we stayed here for 3 days at Nana Backpackers Hostel, it was awesome I highly recommend.They have a swimming pool, bar area, gym and pool table and overall the vibe was awesome. Don't miss out on tubing down Nam Song River. We booked this through the hostel and it's so much fun, it cost 100,000 kip per person. You can do hot air balloon rides here, the Nam Xay Viewpoint is a good hike and beautiful view at the top. Another highlight of Vang Vieng is to hire a scooter and ride around the blue lagoons for a day. Our favourites were #2 and #3, both 10,000 kip pp.

2) Luang Parabang

This is one of the most beautiful places in my opinion and is a must visit in Laos. Sunrise Riverside Pol Hostel is a great hostel, there is a pool and a nice chill-out area to meet other travellers, we stayed for 2 nights. Kuang Si waterfall is a must go, it's an absolutely gorgeous natural emerald green waterfall, do not miss this.Entry is 25,000 Kip pp & 2,000 for scooter parking. Phousi mountain is beautiful for sunset, I recommend going early as it can get very busy and is hard to get a seat. There is a night market close by for afterwards too. Bowling is one of the main things to do for backpackers in Luang Prabang & it's lots of fun to go with a group of people from the hostel. Most people get a TukTuk there and back as it's too far to walk & there is usually alcohol involved, so don't drive a scooter!

Expenses Breakdown

A question I commonly get asked is "how much should I budget for my trip?"

To save you the stress, I've taken the time to go through all of our expenses from Laos. I have broken them down into categories for you; accomodation, food, transport, activities, etc. I trust this will give you a rough indication of how much you may need for specific things in Laos in order to help you save and budget for your trip.

Keep in mind the below costs are for 2x people. We spent 1 week & 3 days in Laos, living comfortably as backpackers - not too budget but also not too reckless.

Total spent $1344.13 NZD

  • Visas: $124.26

  • Food/drinks: $494.12 (including things like cocktails & night's out)

  • Accommodation: $195

  • Transport: $249.13 (scooter hire, gas, busses & tuktuk's)

  • Activities: $202.64 (lagoons, massages, waterfalls & golf)

  • Misc. $78.98 (SIM cards, haircuts, washing, toiletries etc.)

Please note, the above is only a guide for you. I trust may be able to help you when budgeting for your own trip. Due to inflation prices vary and people also spend differently.

All above costs are in New Zealand dollars. I converted all costs live at the time of purchase, so the exchange rate was dependant on the rate live at that exact time.

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