Asia Unseen · Laos
Laos
The country where you slow down. Little infrastructure, few people, and since the high-speed railway opened, a transformed accessibility. Worth doing before that accessibility changes everything.
Who it suits: Travellers without a plan, people drawn to rivers and mountains, long stays.
- Entry
- Visa required
- Best months
- Jan · Feb · Oct · Nov · Dec
- Budget
- from €25 / day
- Rules checked
- September 2026
Vientiane · Kip (LAK) · UTC+7
Can you enter, and for how long
Ordinary passports, tourism. Each rule below comes from the traveller's own government, with the month it was read — not from another guide.
By passport
Visa required
Tourist visa obtained on arrival or online — a simple formality.
Taken in September 2026 · France Diplomatie — Laos, entrée et séjour ↗
Visa required
Visa required. 30-day tourist visa; single-entry e-visa, to be applied for at least 5 days ahead.
Taken in September 2026 · GOV.UK — conseils aux voyageurs, conditions d'entrée ↗
Visa required
Visa required. Application possible within 60 days of your entry date.
Taken in September 2026 · Gouvernement du Canada — conseils aux voyageurs ↗
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the US portal refuses automated reading — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the Australian portal refuses the connection — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
We have not taken this rule from an official source
the New Zealand portal does not publish entry rules — so we cannot check it the way we check the others. Rather than transpose the rule from another passport, which gets paid for at a border, we would rather send you to the source.
When to go
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
November to February: dry and cool, this is the window. March and April: the slash-and-burn season drowns the north in thick haze — Luang Prabang loses much of its point. May to October: rain, but also fluorescent green rice terraces and full waterfalls.
What not to do
- Relying on cash machines outside the cities — they are rare and often empty
- Leaving marked paths without asking first: some rural areas remain contaminated by unexploded ordnance
- Planning journeys by the kilometre: 200 km of mountain road is seven hours
Booking your trip
The links below are affiliate links: they change nothing about what you pay, and they fund the writing of these pages. We only put here what we actually use.
Accommodation
The best coverage of small family-run hotels, and free cancellation almost everywhere.
Find a hotel (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Trains, buses and ferries
The only reliable aggregator for overland transport in Southeast Asia, with real timetables and named operators.
See the routes (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)Activities and guides
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, verified reviews, and someone to talk to when a boat does not sail.
See what is on (affiliate link, opens in a new tab)The French version of this page also lists a travel insurer. It is not here on purpose: that insurer sells to French residents, and a policy you cannot buy is not a recommendation.
Sources and data
Entry rules for Laos are read on these official pages, and re-read every night. When one changes, the page changes and the correction is published in the corrections log, next to what we used to say.
Some source names below are in French, and stay that way on purpose: they are the titles of French government pages. Renaming them in English would make them harder to find, and finding them is the point. The rule for your own passport is read at your own government's portal, named alongside it above.
- France Diplomatie — Laos, entrée et séjour
- Portail e-visa officiel du Laos
- France Diplomatie — Conseils aux voyageurs
The data behind this page is open: laos.json, CC BY 4.0.