£357+ Cheap flights to Laos

Laos climate

The climate is tropical – extremely humid during the rainy season (July to October).

Getting around Laos

Lao Airlines flies domestically. Apart from flying there are several ways to get around the country including by ferry, bus (there is a good network throughout Laos), rental car, Songthaew (pick-up trucks with benches) and, of course, tuk tuk (modified motorbikes).

What is good to know if travelling to Laos?

• Luang Prabang is the ancient capital city of the Lan Xang Kingdom and a Unesco World Heritage site, with beautiful temples and gilded palaces on the bank of the Mekong River. Wat Xieng Thong is the most lavish temple with a tiered roof and gilded facades. The National Museum used to be the Royal Palace, built by the French in the 1900s and housing the gold-leaf-covered Phra Bang or “Holy Golden Buddha”. Climb the 300 steps to the summit of Mount Phousito see Wat That Chom Sii and for views of the city. If you visit the city very early in the morning, you can see the local people line up to give alms to the monks.
• The nearby Pak Ou Caves – two caves, Tham Ting and Tham Phun, house Buddha images that have been left by followers over centuries.
• Si Phan Don (or Four Thousand Islands) is a group of islands in the Mekong River in Southern Laos. The largest island is Don Khong.
• In Vientiane, the capital, is the Victory Monument, akin to Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, which can be climbed. That Luang (or Royal Stupa, a Buddhist monument) was built in 1566 and restored in 1935.
• Hundreds of giant stone jars – some more than 3 metres high – are scattered around the Plain of Jars in north-central Laos. More than 60 jar fields have been identified so far and some sites have more than 250 jars. Archeological work is slow – and dangerous – as the area is littered with explosives from recent conflicts, but the jars are thought to be connected to burial rituals.
• Follow the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of secret roads running parallel to the Laos-Vietnam border. This trail was used during the Vietnam War by the North Vietnamese and during the 1950s by the Viet Minh (against the French).