Vientiane
Vientiane is the quietest capital in Southeast Asia, a low-rise city on a bend of the Mekong facing Thailand with a golden stupa, a victory arch built from runway concrete and a bridge that makes it the country's exit. One night, the promenade at sunset, the free centre on the bombing, and the train north the next morning.
Vientiane in a nutshell
Vientiane: what to expect
We read 102,000+ planned stops in Laos on Stippl to see how Vientiane really gets planned.
One night in Vientiane, two with Buddha Park, and the city is walked rather than toured. Pha That Luang is the golden national stupa and the country's most sacred monument, Patuxai is the victory arch built with concrete donated for an airport runway and climbable for the view down the boulevard, Buddha Park is a concrete sculpture garden of two hundred figures twenty-five kilometres south, Wat Si Saket is the oldest temple in the city, the Mekong promenade faces Thailand at sunset, and the COPE centre on the bombing legacy is free. Most travellers give Vientiane 1 night on Stippl.
Vientiane gets the shortest stay in Laos, and it is more often the way out than the way in. 46.7% of stops here run a single night, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, and the city closes 6.67% of the trips it appears on against opening 4.58%, because the Friendship Bridge to Thailand is here and the train to the north starts here.
Sleep by the Mekong for the promenade and the night market, walk the temple district in the morning, take the tuk-tuk to Buddha Park after breakfast, and book the train north the moment the tickets open. Skip March to May, since April is the hottest month and the northern burning season reaches the capital, and skip the riverside with a bag on your shoulder at night, because the motorbike snatch is the one crime anyone mentions.
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Thailand-bound travellers
The Friendship Bridge crossing is here, and Vientiane closes 6.67% of the Stippl trips it appears on against opening 4.58%.
One-night travellers
Which is what 46.7% of Stippl stops here are, the capital being the shortest stay in the country.
Temple travellers in transit
Pha That Luang, Wat Si Saket and Haw Phra Kaew are within a small area, and a morning covers all three on foot.
Budget travellers
Laos is the cheapest country in our expense data, and the capital's night market feeds a traveller for a couple of euros.
Walkers who like a capital
The core is small and flat between the riverfront and the arch, with no metro, no skyline and little traffic by regional standards.
History travellers
The COPE centre on unexploded ordnance and the temples that survived the Siamese sack of the city carry more than the low-rise streets suggest.
Maybe not for you: March to May visitors, since April is the hottest month of the year and the northern burning season reaches the capital; and anyone expecting a capital with nightlife, because the city is quiet by regional standards and that is its character rather than a shortcoming.
The best time to visit Vientiane
The cool dry season
November to February
December and January are effectively rainless, the promenade is at its best at sunset, and the busiest month here on Stippl is January.
The hot season
March to May
April is the hottest month of the year at thirty-five and the northern burning season reaches the capital, so the temple walk happens at eight.
The wet season
June to October
August takes the most rain of the year in afternoon storms, the river rises to the promenade and the city keeps working around it.
The festival week
November full moon
Boun That Luang at the great stupa, with mass alms-giving, wax-castle offerings and a candlelight procession, and the one week the capital is a destination.
- Most travellers give Vientiane 1 night on Stippl, and 46.7% of stops are exactly that. The temples and the promenade on one day, and Buddha Park only with a second.
- The busiest month here on Stippl is January, and July is the quietest. The cool season is when people pass through, and the peak-to-trough gap is more than sixfold.
- Boun That Luang fills the capital in November. The national festival on the full moon, several days at the stupa with the alms-giving and the procession, and the one week the rooms go.
- Pi Mai Lao runs three days in mid-April. The Lao New Year with the Buddha images washed and the streets wet, in the hottest week of the year, and the country's buses full.
- Most travellers plan Vientiane about eleven weeks ahead on Stippl, and 27.0% more than six months out. The train north is the one thing that sells out, four days before departure.
- Only 0.33% of Vientiane trips on Stippl stop nowhere else in Laos. The capital is the door out rather than the trip, and the north is where the nights go.
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Things to do in Vientiane
Photo by Rounaq Nayak via Unsplash
Photo by Swapnil kulkarni via UnsplashPha That Luang
The golden national stupa and the country's most sacred monument, on a Khmer base and rebuilt in the sixteenth century, at the end of the ceremonial avenue.
Patuxai
The victory arch built with concrete donated for an airport runway, climbable, with a view over the boulevard and the city from the top.
Buddha Park
A concrete sculpture garden of two hundred Buddhist and Hindu figures twenty-five kilometres south by tuk-tuk or bus, with a pumpkin you climb inside.
Wat Si Saket
The oldest surviving temple in the city, with thousands of small Buddha images in the wall niches of the cloister, and Haw Phra Kaew across the road.
The Mekong promenade at sunset
The riverside walk and night market looking across the water at Thailand, and the city's evening.
The COPE Visitor Centre
On the country's unexploded-ordnance legacy and the people who live with it, free, and the hour that explains the bombed provinces.
The neighbourhoods of Vientiane
The Mekong riverside
The promenade
The riverfront walk and the night market, with the sunset over Thailand and most of the hotels and guesthouses a block back. For first visits.
The promenade and the market at the door, but the bag-snatch strip after dark.
The temple district
The older streets
Wat Si Saket, Haw Phra Kaew and the older lanes between them, walkable in a morning from the river. For history.
The temples on foot from the river, though little to eat after the market closes.
The fountain quarter
The dining square
Restaurants and bars around the old Nam Phu fountain, the closest thing the capital has to an evening scene. For dinner.
The best restaurants in one square, and a quiet night by ten.
That Luang and Patuxai
The monumental axis
The golden stupa and the arch on one axis north-east of the centre, visited rather than slept in. For the sights.
The two monuments on one walk, and nothing else out there.
Ban Anou
The local market
A night market of local food stalls away from the riverfront, priced for residents, with the grills lit from late afternoon. For eating cheaply.
Local food at local prices, though a tuk-tuk from the river hotels.
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Where to stay in Vientiane
The Mekong waterfront is where the guides put people, for the promenade and the sunset, and the guesthouses a block back from it are within a walk of the temples and the night market. Most travellers give Vientiane 1 night on Stippl, and the rooms are among the cheapest in any capital.
The Mekong riverside
Hostels, guesthouses and riverside hotels, €6 to €80 a night.
The temple district
Guesthouses and small hotels in the older lanes, €10 to €50 a night.
The fountain quarter
Boutique hotels and colonial conversions, €30 to €120 a night.
That Luang and Patuxai
Business hotels on the avenue, €25 to €70 a night.
Ban Anou
Budget guesthouses near the market, €8 to €25 a night.
What to eat in Vientiane
A colonial survival, baguettes and patisserie
The Lao baguette sandwich
Stalls along the Mekong promenade
Lao green papaya salad, hotter than the Thai version
A local rather than tourist market
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Vientiane customs and what not to do
Quiet is the character
Vientiane is quiet by regional standards, raised voices carry, and the guides note it as what the city is rather than what it lacks.
Shoulders and knees at the wats
As everywhere in Laos, with the shoes off at the door, and the stupa is the country's most sacred site.
Feet point away
From Buddha images and from people, in the temples and at the sculpture park alike.
The nop is the greeting
Palms together and a slight bow, and returning it is appreciated rather than expected of visitors.
The bombing is not history
The COPE centre is about people living with unexploded ordnance now, and the provinces it describes are still being cleared.
Do
- Walk the promenade at sunset and eat at the night market
- Do the temple district in the morning, before the heat
- Book the train north the moment the tickets open, four days ahead
- Return the nop when it is offered
Don't
- Carry a bag on the road side of the riverside at night
- Drink spirits of unknown origin; the country-wide warning applies here
- Plan the capital as the trip; it is the door
What a Vientiane trip costs
Budget
€20
A guesthouse bed, the night market, a bicycle and the free centre.
Mid-range
€35–55
A riverside hotel, restaurant dinners on the fountain square and a tuk-tuk to Buddha Park.
High-end
€90+
A colonial boutique hotel, a guide for the temples and the first-class train north.
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Fun facts about Vientiane
Patuxai in Vientiane was built with concrete donated by the United States for a runway. Which is why it is sometimes called the vertical runway, and the arch was never quite finished.
Pha That Luang stands on a Khmer base and was rebuilt in 1566. When the capital moved here from Luang Prabang, and it has been gilded and restored many times since.
December and January in Vientiane are effectively rainless. Five and seven millimetres against more than three hundred in August, the driest capital winter in the region.
Vientiane is the shortest stay in Laos, typically one night. Against three nights in both Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, because the bridge and the train make it the door.
Vientiane holds the only publishable money figure in Laos, and it is a flight price. Every other Lao spending cell sits below the floor, because the country runs on cash nobody logs.
Vientiane closes 6.67% of the Stippl trips it appears on. More than it opens, because the Friendship Bridge to Thailand starts here.
Local tips for Vientiane
The railway starts here
Vientiane to Luang Prabang fell from about ten hours by road to roughly two, and the station is fourteen kilometres out with a shuttle from the centre.
The bridge is the exit
The Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai is the main land crossing into Thailand, and the clearest reason the city reads as an exit more often than an entrance.
A low-crime capital
No pattern of crime aimed at visitors, and the guides describe the quietest capital in the region.
The riverside snatch
Opportunistic bag-snatching from motorbikes is the one crime anyone mentions, along the riverside at night, so the bag goes on the pavement side.
Tickets sell out on peak dates
The train releases seats four days ahead and they are hard to buy from abroad, so the in-town office or an agent does it on arrival.
One night, and out
46.7% of Stippl stops here are a single night and 6.67% of trips end here, because the bridge and the airport are the way home.
Vientiane questions, answered
Because the door is the job: most travellers give Vientiane 1 night on Stippl and 46.7% of stops are exactly one, a sixth of Vang Vieng's four-night rate. The temples and the promenade fill a day, and Buddha Park is the reason for a second.
People do stop, briefly and usually on the way out: the city closes 6.67% of the trips it appears on, of everyone who plans it on Stippl, and a traveller who reaches the Friendship Bridge has usually spent one night by the river first. The stupa, the arch and the free centre earn it.
December and January, which are effectively rainless, against August with the most rain of the year, and the busiest month here on Stippl is January. March to May is the heat and the northern haze, and the temple walk moves to eight in the morning.
About two hours in a clean modern carriage, replacing a road journey of about ten, with the station fourteen kilometres out of town and tickets released four days ahead that are hard to buy from abroad. Put the train into Stippl as the first booking on arrival, then ask people in subreddits like r/laos which agent sold them a seat.
A couple of euros for foreigners against a fraction of that for Lao nationals, open through the day, and the figure moves because three recent guides give three different ones. The tuk-tuk out and back costs more than the entry, and the local bus from the morning market is the cheap version.
For ordinary crime, yes, it is a notably quiet capital, and opportunistic bag-snatching from motorbikes along the riverside is the one thing the guides mention, so the bag goes on the pavement side. The country-wide warning on spirits of unknown origin applies here as everywhere in Laos.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Plan Vientiane in Stippl
Day-by-day planning, stays and budget in one app, with every place from this guide already on the map.
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