Getting from Hanoi to Luang Prabang
· Updated · BootsnAll
Luang Prabang is the old royal capital of Laos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995, sitting where the Mekong meets the Nam Khan. Gilded temples, French colonial shophouses, and a pace that is the opposite of Hanoi's.
It is around 400 km from Hanoi as the crow flies and a great deal further as the road goes, because the road goes over mountains.
Flying
About an hour and ten direct. Not every day on every carrier, so check the schedule, but it is the obvious choice for most people.
Given what the overland alternative involves, the flight is worth the money unless the journey is the point.
The bus, and what it actually is
The direct sleeper bus takes around 24 hours, sometimes more. It is cheap. It is also one of the more notorious rides in Southeast Asia: mountain roads with long drops, berths sized for smaller frames than most Western travellers have, and a schedule that is aspirational.
People do it and survive and tell the story afterwards. We would not recommend it as a way to save 80 dollars, and we would recommend it even less in the wet season, roughly May to October, when landslides close mountain roads in northern Laos with some regularity.
If you do take it, break the journey. Buses run Hanoi to Vientiane and Vientiane to Luang Prabang separately, and stopping halfway turns one very long day into two ordinary ones.
The railway that changed Laos
Worth knowing even though it does not reach Vietnam. The Laos-China Railway opened in December 2021 and runs from Vientiane north through Luang Prabang to Boten on the Chinese border, doing Vientiane to Luang Prabang in around two hours where the bus took ten or eleven.
That has reshaped travel in Laos. If your route runs Hanoi to Vientiane and then north, the train is now much the best way to cover the second half. There is no rail link across the Vietnam border, so you still need a bus or a flight to get into Laos.
Visas
Laos issues visas on arrival at the main crossings and airports for most nationalities, and there is an e-visa. Carry US dollars and a passport photo.
For Vietnam, the e-visa is open to all nationalities, up to 90 days, 25 or 50 dollars, from evisa.gov.vn. Around thirty nationalities are exempt for 30 or 45 days. If you are re-entering Vietnam overland, make sure the e-visa names the border crossing you will use.
Timing
November to February is the dry, cool season and the best time in northern Laos. March and April bring agricultural burning across the region, and the haze can be thick enough to obscure the hills and to ground light aircraft.