2019 travel costs for Laos

I visited Laos for the first and second time this year. I crossed from NE Thailand into Laos at Vientiane in October 2019, and spent three nights in Vientiane, then up to Luang Prabang for 6 nights. Then I visited again spent in November and December 2019, crossing into Southern Laos from Cambodia, and working my way north through the 4000 Islands, Pakse, Savannaket, and Thakhek, to cross back into Thailand at Nakhon Phanom. Here is a brief run-down of my spending on these trips (as a solo flashpacker).

Although not as expensive as Cambodia, Laos is still a bit more expensive than Thailand, with loads of fancy French restaurants and patisseries to tempt you into going over your budget. I spent an average of £40 / $48.50 USD per day (about 1480 THB. By comparison, I spent about 1000 THB a day in northern and NE Thailand).

Accommodation often hovers around the $20-22 USD mark for standard, decent places with AC. Exchange rates vary a lot from place to place, so these are all approx.

• Vientiane – $22 (210,000 kip)
• Luang Prabang  – $20 (180,000 kip)
• Don Khone (part of the 4000 Islands) – $33 (300,000 kip). There were loads of cheaper, more backpackery places available on the islands, especially on the more touristy Don Dhet, but I decided I wanted to splurge a little on a nice place in a quieter part of the islands. 
• Pakse – $29 (260,000 kip)
• Savannaket – $22 (205,000 kip)
• Thakhek – $22 (200,000 kip) 

Food and drink: average $17.23 USD (£13.13) per day in the north (a lot of tourist-oriented restaurants, a lot of fancy pastries and croissants, and a few high end meals at expensive restaurants) and $9.90 USD (£7.54) in the south. Sample costs might be:

• $3.37 (30,000 kip) for a croissant or pastry, and coffee or tea
• $7-7.50 (60,000-68,000 kip) for a baguette and juice or coffee
• $14.50 (130,000 kip) for a three-course lunch in a nice French restaurant
• $5-6.60 (45,000-53,000 kip) for a curry, rice, and water at a tourist-oriented small restaurant
• $2.25 (20,000 kip) for a plate of local food in a small (non-touristy) restaurant
• $1.15 (10,000 kip) for noodles at the market
• $0.50 (5000 kip) for a large bottle of water in a touristy area

Sightseeing: average $5.85 USD (£4.50) per day.  Sample costs include 10,000 kip ($1.12) donation at a small temple, 20,000-50,000 kip ($2.25-$5.60) entry to museums or tourist sites, 85,000 kip ($9.55) for a half-day boat trip out of Luang Prabang, and 200,000 kip ($22.50) for a full day kayak trip out of 4000 Islands. Remember to budget for souvenirs (all those beautiful hand-woven textiles are sure to catch your eye....)

Transport: average $4.90 USD (£3.80) per day. Coaches or minibuses between towns typically cost around $3.50-$11 per trip, depending on the distance, and tuktuks and taxis around town tend to charge tourist prices, so expect to pay $3 for a short trip, and $6-7 for a longer one (such as from Luang Prabang or Vientane town centre to the airport). Arriving in Luang Prabang, the airport taxis even put me and another tourist in the same taxi, and charged us both full fare!

So, that gives you a rough idea how much you might spend, assuming you travel as a solo flashpacker, and like your French pastries as much as I do.

Failure to trek but tummy successfully stuffed: Thakhek

Another sleepy Mekong-side town (this one across the river from Nakhon Phanom, and near the 3rd Thai Laos Friendship Bridge), Thakhek (or Tha Khaek) sees a regular trickle of Western tourists who come here to ride the multi-day "Thakhek loop" with its national parks and cave complexes. 

Despite the motorbike-riding adventurers, Ubud this is not. The town centre is compact, with only a few Western-oriented hotels, guesthouses and cafes in the central area. The attractions are also a bit thin on the ground for those who aren't renting their own wheels. The town centre is attractive, but did feel a bit blink-and-you'll-miss-it.

Thakhek riverside

Town centre near the riverside

Old Thakhek

Modern Thakhek

I went to the tourist information centre to find out if there were any organised upcoming tours to any of the region's scenic attractions that I could join (Travelfish mentions that the tourist info centre had information on several affordable tours). However I was assured by the nice man at the tourist information centre that there were none -- I'm assuming there simply aren't enough tourists these days to offer group trips, and although they were willing to put me in touch with private guides and drivers,  the prices quoted were rather prohibitive for me.

So renting your own wheels, or hiring a guide and driver if you're flush, seem to be the only options. I can't drive, so the scenic attractions remained unseen.

Despite my failure to find a trek or tour to join, I did eat some great food by the riverbank (Ping Kai Napong restaurant), so I can't really complain.

Wandering through 100 years of history: Savannakhet

Across the Mekong from Mukdahan (which we will visit later on this trip), and conveniently near the 2nd Laos Thailand Friendship Bridge, Savannakhet became a prosperous commercial centre under the French in the first half of the 20th century. It's now a fairly sleepy, mid-size provincial capital where few tourists go, apart from those doing visa runs.

The town centre is an attractive mix of old wooden shophouses, crumbling mid-century architecture, modern houses, and trendy cafes. Add in decent night markets, and friendly locals (and local cats) and you have a pleasant place to wander for a day. 

There are few sites for tourists; there is a dinosaur museum showcasing paleontological finds from the area, but it was inexplicably closed when I visited (so I have no idea if it's any good or not, although Travelfish describes it as "comically dull"). 

But dull dinosaurs notwithstanding, I did enjoy exploring the town centre for a day.

A cat says hello (and demands pets)

A day trip to Wat Phou

The area around Pakse offers a range of day trips and multi-day motorbike routes, but being that I can't drive a motorbike, I decided to spend a day at one of the more easily accessible sites: Wat Phou (sometimes spelled Wat Phu)

Your hotel or guesthouse can book you onto a day trip to Wat Phou; the one I took was a small group (just a handful of tourists), picked up at our respective hotels by a minivan. (As an alternative, you could stay in Champasak, the small town nearest Wat Phou. I didn't stay there, but we drove through on the way to the site, and it looked quite nice).

Almost there

The main reason to visit the area is, of course, the Angkor-era temple complex of Wat Phou. Built into the side of the hill, the site is spectacular, and not particularly crowded. 

Once a site of huge significance to the Khmer empire, a temple was apparently built here by the 5th or 6th century. The current buildings date from the 11th to 13th century, with most of it dated to the early Angkor period. The entire complex once covered quite a lot of ground, from the mountain (with its, ahem, vaguely phallic shape, and sacred spring) to the riverbank 10km away, and although the current site is not as extensive, it is still quite a large complex.

From the parking lot, first you will find the visitor centre area (featuring cafes and a museum explaining the history of the site). You can walk from the visitor centre to the base of the hill, or take a free shuttle, past 2 large reservoirs, surrounded by grazing cows.

The main sanctuaries

Carvings on one of the main sanctuaries, illuminated by a sunbeam through a well-placed window

The main sanctuary consists of two large temple buildings sit at the base of the hill. Behind them stone steps lined with frangipane lead up the hill, to where the sacred spring still runs today (I saw several pilgrims drinking from it when I visited). Up the hill you will also find a number of smaller sanctuaries (including one still in use for Buddhist ceremonies) and a number of large carved rocks.

The start of the path up the hill

The view from up the hill, looking back over the main sanctuaries and the reservoirs

The modern side of Southern Laos: Pakse

Pakse is a fairly modern city at the junction of the Mekong and Xe Don (or Sedone) rivers. Founded only a little over a hundred years ago, it has a few colonial-era buildings, a lot of new construction, and a forward-looking feel. 

It's a city for business, rather than tourism and, although the town centre is a pleasant enough place for a wander, the riverfronts are largely undeveloped and there are few sites of interest for tourists in the town itself. That said, they were doing construction on the Mekong riverfront when I visited, so in the future you will hopefully find waterside parks and promenades replacing the construction.

There are a number of new, good value hotels and guesthouses in town, raising the quality of accommodation (I stayed at one on the Mekong with a rooftop pool). Add in decent food and plentiful transport links, and Pakse becomes a good base for exploring some of the scenery and sites of Southern Laos (one of which I'll explore in the next post).

View of sunset over the Mekong (and more new construction) from my hotel's rooftop pool

Typical street scene in the "tourist centre" old town area

One of the old-style buildings in the old town area

Sunset over the Mekong

Ramshackle old building on one of the side streets

4000 islands, 1 middle-aged tourist: Don Khon

The two most commonly visited islands in the 4000 Islands are Don Det, and Don Khon. Don Det is the popular one, a smaller island filled with backpacker-oriented guesthouses, cafes, and restaurants. Connected by a stone bridge is the larger Don Khon, which is more geared to flashpacker and mid-range or older tourists.

Being a curmudgeonly 40-something, I went for the quieter Don Khon.

Views from Don Khon

The area near the bridge is developed with accommodation and restaurants, but walk away from the bridge and within a little while you're into countryside, with more cows, goats and chickens around you than tourists.

One of the cross-island roads

It's a very attractive island, and a great place to put on some comfortable shoes and go for a wander.

There are a number of well-maintained dirt roads that criss-cross the island, coupled with a few low-key sites to aim for. On the NW side, the Liphi waterfalls are a pleasant spot to spend a couple of hours (it is fenced off, with an entrance free of a few dollars, but the site has some amenities on site like a restaurant and toilets).

Temple I stumbled across on the way to the Liphi waterfalls

On the eastern side of the island, about halfway down, there is another scenic waterfall, but it's reached via a suspension bridge (Khone Pa Soy bridge) which was closed for renovations when I visited, so I had to skip that one.

The reason I didn't get to that other waterfall....

There are plenty of tour organisers offering kayak trips and other outings from the islands. I did a full day trip that included several hours kayaking around bits of the river, and a visit to the big waterfalls at Khon Phapheng. It was a great day out.

The impressive Khonephapheng waterfalls

A daytrip to Kuang Si

My third day trip outside of Luang Prabang was to Kuang Si, to visit the waterfalls as well as the nearby butterfly park.

The easiest way for solo travellers to get there is join a shared minibus tour, which will give you several hours at the falls - sufficient time to go for a swim and get some food, or visit the falls and then pop down the road to the butterfly park.

At the falls, if you do decide to swim, you'll notice plenty of signs telling you where it is okay or not okay to do that. You'll also notice plenty of tourists ignoring those signs, and swimming or wading wherever they want. The signs are there for a reason — some of the pools are considered sacred. Don't be that type of tourist.

One of the big drops at the top of the falls

A gentle cascade at the base of the falls

We're gonna need a bigger boat: Chomphet district, across the river from Luang Prabang

Across the Mekong from the centre of Luang Prabang is Chomphet district, a three minute ferry trip and about 100 years back in time. 

Here, there are no boutique hotels and high end restaurants. Instead, you have quiet villages, small atmospheric temples, and very few other tourists. First climb up the hill to visit Wat Chomphet for the views back over Luang Prabang, then follow the riverside path upriver for several more temples.

It's a lovely way to spend a half day away from the tourists.

Looking back over Luang Prabang from outside Wat Chomphet

A couple of chedi at Wat Chomphet

One of the amazing murals at Wat Long Khoun

Inside the cave temples at Wat Tham Sackkalin

I'm on a boat: trip to the Pak Ou Caves

One of the most popular attractions out of town is a boat trip to the Pak Ou Caves, typically also stopping at one of the handicraft villages (we stopped at the whiskey-making village when I went, but other craft-making-for-the-tourists villages are available). You can charter your own boat and boatman for the trip, or join one of the daily group departures by walking down to the ticket booth at the dock (opposite Saffron Café).

The caves and handicraft villages are very touristy, but the couple of hours lazily travelling up and down the river is a lovely way to spend half a day.

A lazy trip up the river, passing underneath the new Chinese-Laos railway.

Boat landing outside the Pak Ou Caves

Eating around Luang Prabang

You won't go hungry in Luang Prabang (although you might have trouble sticking to your food budget).

The morning market offers plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and small vendors selling breakfast (like cheung fun - fresh rice noodle rolls - and bahm mi-style baguettes).

All over the town you'll find bakeries and cafés selling croissants, patisserie, baguette sandwiches, and hot and cold drinks, sometimes with a pretty garden settling.

Well-deserved break at The Teahouse

You have a large choice of small restaurants, selling everything from khao soi (Laos noodle soup) to international cuisine.

Bun cha at Phonheuang Café

Bibimbap at Big Tree Café

Plus you have a large handful of high-end restaurants offering French or Laos food, an affordable small indulgence (often with tasting menus at about $10-15USD).

High-end Laos food at Bamboo

It's probably a good thing I only stayed in town a week, not a month, or I'd have come back at least a stone heavier....

I absolutely adore Luang Prabang

 Yes, it's touristy.

But the old town is beautiful and walkable. The scenery around the town is lovely and easily accessible. The food is amazing. There's plenty of history and culture to explore. The novice monks are often happy to chat (a lot of young men from the Laos countryside come into the monasteries in Luang Prabang for schooling, and are often interested in practicing their English). And the whole town just has a great vibe. Add in plenty to do including worthwhile day trips, and you've got a great place to spend a week. Or a month.

I absolutely want to go back.

Typical house along the Mekong riverside

Another shot of the Mekong

Part of Wat Xiengthong

Some details of one of the buildings at Wat Xiengthong

Wat Mai

Haw Pha Bang, the temple in the grounds of the Royal Palace Museum

View from Phousi Hill

The teak bridge, rebuilt every year. For those of us who are a) scared of heights
and b) heavy, walking across this bridge is a tad nerve-wracking....