What To Do in Vientiane

I can’t give you a whole lot of information about Vientiane unfortunately as I only spent a night there. I had intended to stay for longer but a friend I met on my travels, who’d been to Laos a number of times, told me it wasn’t that nice and I was much better off spending more time in Vang Vieng. 

I can tell you where I stayed though as that was lovely and seemed like it would be a really fun hostel. Plus apparently there are actually a lot of really fun things to do in Vientiane.

I have since learnt that there are actually some pretty cool things to do here as you can see at the bottom of this backpacking Laos post.

Where to stay in Vientiane

I stayed at Vientiane Backpackers Hostel. It was easy to find from where the bus drops you off when coming from Vang Vieng and didn’t take me more than 5 minutes or so to walk there.

The hostel is really socialable with a nice common area/bar downstairs. I’d happily stay there again if I do one day decide to explore Vientiane.

Also if I’d had more time I absolutely should have headed down to Don Det afterwards, also known as the 4000 islands. It’s one of the places in Laos people say is the most beautiful but unfortuantely I didn’t make it myself.

How to get from Vientiane to Southern Thailand

You can do this route by bus but it will be a REALLY long journey. You’ll need to get a bus to Bangkok and then head on down to the south. Bear in mind it’s about 12 hours from Bangkok to the islands in Southern Thailand, assuming the journey runs to time. Let alone the time it will take you to get to Bangkok first. You’re likely to be on busses and boats for about 24 hours, if not more, if you chose to take this route.

I thought about it a lot but decided to fly in the end since the cost difference wasn’t actually that much, and to save myself a day or two of my life sat on transport it seemed worth it.

I flew with Thai Airways and they were wonderful. They even give you free access to a lounge no matter what class you’re traveling in ?.

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