How far is Vientiane from others city in Laos??

When you are in a country like Laos, you better be ready physically & mentally as their transportation system is still very much unreliable. In most case problem always occurred when you travel in the countryside of Laos. For instance when you would like to travel from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang....the total distance by bus is approximatively 414 kilometers.....but highway is non exist in Laos! The journey will probably set you back to about 14-16 hours by bus with condition the bus do not break down!


Therefore it would be wise to plan your journey in advance, take into consideration of the poor road condition, bus condition & traffic. Sometimes your bus will stuck behind a truck for hours.....or even worse your bus might only be able to travel at less than 40 kilometers in most of the journey! Reason......most of the road is winding, hilly and narrow! I calculate the time needed against distance with my own formula

100 km distance = 2 to 2.5 hours
let's say if you are traveling from Vientiane to Luang Prabang by normal express bus that would be: 400 km/100km x 2 to 2.5 = approximately  8 to 10 hours


Distance chart for Laos

Tips: Always ask & search around for the best option and mode of transportation available! In my case instead of taking bus all the way from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai and then Chiang Mai....we opted to fly to Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang. It cost us 4500 bath  for one way flight through Lao Airlines. In return we skip the 14-16 hours plus bus ride and probably more by the end of the day! Nevertheless if you travel by bus, you would probably need less than 1000 bath all in till u reach Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang! We don't have the luxury of time so we need to burn some money on this final league of our successful TransIndochina 2010 trip!