Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GETTING THERE
As Laos is often part of a wider trip to the region, many people choose to travel there
overland, with the crossings from Thailand near Vientiane and at Houayxai the most
popular options. There are currently no direct flights to Laos from outside Asia - most
visitors fly via Bangkok, from where it takes just over an hour to reach Vientiane, and
just under two hours to Luang Prabang. Direct flights to Laos are also possible from
Chiang Mai (Thailand), Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (Vietnam), Siem Reap and Ph-
nom Penh (Cambodia), Guangzhou and Kunming (China), Seoul (Korea), Singapore
and Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Because of the lack of direct flights from outside Asia,
itcanbequiteexpensivetoflytoLaos,thoughthisismorethancompensatedforbythe
low cost of living and travelling once in the country.
The
highseason
for flights to Southeast Asia is from the beginning of July through to the end
of August and also includes most of December and early January, during which period fares
can be significantly higher than at other times of the year. If Laos is only one stop on a longer
journey, you might want to consider buying a
Round-the-World (RTW) ticket
, which can
be tailored to the destinations you want to visit. Also worth considering if you live in Aus-
tralia, New Zealand or the west coast of North America are
CirclePacific
tickets, which fea-
ture Bangkok as a standard option.
Package tours
to Laos, some of which take in the country as part of a wider Indochina
trawl, are inevitably more expensive and less spontaneous than if you travel independently,
but are worth investigating if you have limited time or a specialist interest. Booking through a
tour
company in Laos will undoubtedly save you money compared to booking in your home
country.
A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
At Rough Guides we are passionately committed to travel. We believe it helps us under-
stand the world we live in and the people we share it with - and of course tourism is vital
to many developing economies. But the scale of modern tourism has also damaged some
places irreparably, and climate change is accelerated by most forms of transport, especially
flying. All Rough Guides' flights are carbon-offset, and every year we donate money to a
variety of environmental charities.
Flights from the UK and Ireland
Most flights from the UK and Ireland to Laos will involve a change of plane at Bangkok; an
alternative route is via Vietnam, though this requires a change of plane in France or Germany
first. In total, flying to Laos from the UK will take at least fifteen hours, though this varies
