There is no easy way to get from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. The bus ride takes around 24 hours, tickets might be oversold so one can end up sitting on the corridor for 24 hours. Therefore we decided to take a flight with Lao Airlines.
The ticket cost was 3.335.000 Dong per person which is about €125/person. The taxi ride to the airport was arranged by our hotel. The cost was $15 and we were driven by a private car. No hassles or overcharging. The flight time was just over one hour which is definitely better than 24 hours on a bus…
As we didn’t have a visa we were applying for visa on arrival in Luang Prabang Airport. This has different costs for every nationality for some weird reason. For us it was $30 each the most expensive it is for Canadians for $42.
As Luang Prabang airport is very small there is no reason to get a visa in advance as the total waiting time was just around 15 minutes. You will surely pay more for it if you get it arranged in Vietnam. The entire visa on arrival procedure took around 15 minutes this includes queuing 🙂 It is very important though that you have cash on you when you arrive to Laos even though there is an ATM at the airport it is not always working so just exchange US Dollars before you arrive.
There are many taxis ( minivans ) at the airport. The ride to town costs $6 dollars each and it is a fixed price. There is one guy collecting the money at the exit and assigns the driver to you.
The following nationalities CAN’T have a visa on arrival for Laos:
Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Sri Lanka, Nauru, Tonga, Surinam.
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