Vang Vieng

Currency

A small town with few changers and unremarkable rates. Change money in Vientiane or Luang Prabang before arriving.

ATMs & cards

A handful of machines on the main street, with low limits and a fee each time. Bring cash — most guesthouses, tubing operators and restaurants take nothing else.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

The town has changed a great deal since the years when tubing and riverside bars killed tourists regularly; the worst of that was shut down after 2012 and it is a calmer place now. It is not risk-free: the river runs hard in the wet season, the caves flood, scooter injuries on gravel are routine, and drink safety at the remaining party spots deserves the same care as anywhere. Medical care is minimal — Vientiane is an hour away and Thailand beyond that.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid
• Tetanus up to date
• Rabies — strongly, as treatment here is hard to obtain
• Japanese encephalitis for rural stays

Getting treated

Be honest with yourself about this before you come: medical care in Laos is poor, including in the capital. Anything serious means evacuation to Thailand — usually Udon Thani or Bangkok — and that flight costs tens of thousands of euros. Travel insurance with evacuation cover is not optional here in the way it is elsewhere in the region.

Malaria is present in the rural south and along the borders — take advice on prophylaxis for those areas. Dengue is countrywide. Unexploded ordnance from the American bombing still contaminates large parts of the country; stay on marked paths and do not pick anything up.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

The riverside restaurants are aimed squarely at visitors. Walk two streets back for Lao food at a third of the price — the market stalls do sticky rice, grilled fish and laap all day.

Getting around

• On foot — the town itself is ten minutes end to end
• Bicycle or scooter — how you reach the lagoons and caves, 20,000-100,000 LAK a day
• Laos-China railway — Vientiane in 1 hour, Luang Prabang in 1 hour
• Tuk-tuk — for the lagoons if you would rather not ride
• Kayak and tube operators run their own transfers to the river

Must-see

Things to do

• Float or kayak the Nam Song
• Swim at the Blue Lagoons
• Climb to the Pha Ngern viewpoint
• Go up in a hot air balloon at dawn
• Explore Tham Chang and the caves
• Ride the loop through the karst villages

Nearby day trips

Religion

Theravada Buddhist

About 65% Buddhist, with animist beliefs widely held alongside it among the highland peoples. Monks are a daily presence rather than an occasional sight, and the dawn alms round in Luang Prabang is a religious obligation, not an attraction — the standing complaint locally is tourists treating it as one.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Return the nop — palms together at the chest — when an older person offers it
• Remove shoes before entering a temple or a home
• Cover shoulders and knees at temples, men included
• Watch the dawn alms procession from across the street, quietly and at a distance, if you watch it at all

Don't

• Do not touch anyone’s head, and do not point your feet at people or at Buddha images
• Do not photograph the alms ceremony up close or with flash — it is a religious act, not a performance, and the behaviour of tourists has become a genuine grievance in Luang Prabang
• Do not touch a monk if you are a woman, or hand anything to one directly
• Do not step off marked paths in rural areas — unexploded bombs from the 1960s and 70s still kill people every year