Vietnam and Laos Tour

While they may lie side by side in Indochina, Vietnam and Laos do have very different climates. In Vietnam, the climate can vary from north to south, and the best time to visit depends on where you are in the country, Meanwhile, in Laos, the climate is pretty stable across the whole country, which makes it easier to find the best time to travel. For Laos, the cooler dry season, from October to April, though the latter two months can get very hot.

In Vietnam, the best time for a general tour of the country is usually from December to March or April, when you can find dry weather across the whole country, though it can be hot or cold depending on the region. Overall, when planning a trip to cover both Laos and Vietnam together, the best time to travel would normally be from December to April, to make the most of the dry weather and cooler temperatures of most of the places you can visit.

How long to spend traveling in Vietnam and Laos largely depends on how long you have available for travel.

In general, you do need to think about how long to spend in each place as you travel around, and Vietnam is not a country where you can flit from city to city and see it all properly quickly. You should spend at least a week in Vietnam alone, to make the most of the highlights of this long narrow country. More would give you a better time traveling and allow you to experience more of the culture and the people of this amazing country.

For Laos, a week will never be enough to explore this unique country fully, but it is enough to give you the basics. You can spend a couple of days each in Vientiane and Luang Prabang, and it will give you time to travel further south and be a little more explorative. Overall, at least two weeks should be reserved for a trip like this.

Vietnam shares a long border with Laos, making it simple to travel from one country to the other. You can fly between the various airports in Laos and Vietnam, or you can take the overland routes across the border between Vietnam and Laos, though this is more time-consuming and expensive. Flights run daily between the four international airports in Laos and the major airports in Vietnam at Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). The easiest and cheapest are the flights from Vientiane to Hanoi, which take less than an hour.

There are six border crossing points between Laos and Vietnam, and you can get buses daily that run from Vientiane to the major cities in Vietnam, such as Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An, and HCMC. The buses stop at the border for visa checks, and can take from around 24 hours for the bus between Hanoi and Vientiane, and longer for other routes.

Visas for Vietnam must be applied for in advance of travel, even for their version of the Visa on Arrival. You can make the application at the embassy for a pre-approved visa, or online for the Visa on Arrival (VoA) and E-visa. Both of these are applied for and paid for in advance, but issued at the airports only. They are not available for land border crossing into Vietnam.

The visa for Laos is much easier to obtain, and can be done at the embassy, on your arrival at the airports and land border checkpoints, and even online as a true E-visa. The VoA can be applied at any of the entry points to Laos from Vietnam, while the E-visa is applied for online and sent as a .PDF file to be printed and used as the actual visa.