Backpacking Vientiane
Vientiane does not behave like a capital city. Just under a million people, wide French-laid streets, no traffic to speak of, a riverfront promenade along the Mekong with Thailand on the far bank, and the whole thing goes quiet by ten.
People arrive expecting Bangkok and get a large town. That catches some travellers out and is exactly why others end up liking it. There is a golden national stupa, a victory arch built out of concrete the Americans donated for a runway, and the calmest cafe scene in Laos.
One or two days is right. And one of those days should include COPE, a small free museum about the bombs that are still in the ground in this country, which is the most important hour anyone spends in Laos.
Why Vientiane is popular with backpackers
- The calmest capital city in Southeast Asia, by a distance
- COPE, which explains the war better than anything else in the country
- Pha That Luang, the golden stupa that is on the national seal
- Buddha Park, 25 km out and completely unhinged
- A night market along the Mekong with the sun going down over Thailand
- The easiest border crossing into Thailand, with a night train on the far side
Best time to visit Vientiane
The quietest capital in the region, sitting on the Mekong directly opposite Thailand. The climate is warm and flat, so the difference is mostly rain.
In the dry season the Mekong drops far enough to uncover sandbanks that people walk out onto and picnic on. In the rainy season that same ground is several metres under water, which tells you something about the river.
Backpacker budget: around €18 a day
- €5hostel bed
- €2local meal
- €1beer
- €2tuk-tuk ride
Guide prices from our own days in Vientiane. Add a tour or a night out and it climbs fast.
Best hostels in Vientiane
Stay in the centre, between the river and the Patuxai. Everything worth seeing except Buddha Park is inside a twenty-minute walk of there.
Sailomyen Cafe & Hostel
Half cafe, half hostel, and a favourite with people who are working as well as travelling. Quiet, well run, good coffee, and the highest score of the three.
Barn1920s Hostel
The sociable one: central, modern, with over twelve hundred reviews and a crowd that arrived alone. The easiest place in the city to find someone to eat with.
Petit Espace
Small, relaxed and cheap, near the cafes and restaurants. Its score here is the lowest of the three and the reviews say it is basic rather than badly run, which at this price is the trade.
Best things to do in Vientiane
COPE Visitor Centre
The most important hour in Laos, and it is free. Between 1964 and 1973 more than two million tonnes of ordnance were dropped on this country, a third of which never went off, and it is still in the ground. COPE makes prosthetic limbs for the people who find it, and their centre explains all of it with cluster bomb casings, photographs and the stories of survivors.
It is not a comfortable visit and it recontextualises the whole trip. Go.
The city and Buddha Park with a guide
The efficient way to do this city in half a day: Pha That Luang, the Patuxai, Wat Si Saket and then out to Buddha Park, with somebody explaining what you are looking at. Transport included, which matters for the park, because it is twenty-five kilometres out.
Pha That Luang
The golden stupa, forty-five metres of it, and the national symbol of Laos: it is on the seal, on the money and on every other beer label. Built in 1566 on top of a much older temple, flattened by a Siamese invasion, and rebuilt from a French sketch.
The Patuxai
A victory arch at the end of a wide boulevard, built in the 1960s out of concrete the Americans had supplied to build a runway with, which is why locals sometimes call it the vertical runway. The plaque at the bottom cheerfully describes it as a monster of concrete. Climb it for the view.
Buddha Park
Twenty-five kilometres out towards the Thai border: a riverside field filled with two hundred concrete sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu figures, built from 1958 by a priest-shaman with his own ideas about both. There is a giant pumpkin you climb into through a demon’s mouth and out onto the roof.
The night market on the Mekong
Every evening the riverfront park fills with stalls and the whole city comes out to walk along it, with the sun going down over Thailand on the other bank. Clothes and phone cases mostly, but the food carts behind it are the cheap dinner.
Crossing into Thailand
A lot of people end their Laos trip here. The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai is one of the busiest crossings in the region and it is straightforward: a bus takes you over the bridge, you stamp out and in, and on the Thai side the night train to Bangkok is waiting.
From the centre of Vientiane you take a tuk-tuk, a minivan or the shuttle train out to the bridge. What applies on your own passport is on our visa page, and the length of the Thai stamp changed in September 2026, so check that before you get in the queue.
Best area for backpackers
The centre, between the river and the Patuxai
Everything a backpacker needs is in the few blocks between the Mekong promenade and Lane Xang Avenue: hostels, cafes, the night market, most of the temples and COPE.
The city is flat and there is almost no traffic, so this is one of the few capitals in Asia where a bicycle is genuinely the best way to get about.
Good to know about this area
- Hostels, cafes and restaurants in a few walkable blocks
- The night market and the river promenade are right there
- Pha That Luang and the Patuxai are a short cycle away
- Bicycles for a couple of euros, and the city is flat
- Tuk-tuks quote tourist prices: agree first, or use the LOCA app
- Buddha Park is the one thing that needs a bus
How to plan your days in Vientiane
One day covers it, two if you want Buddha Park as well. Pick how long you have.
Temples and the river. Pha That Luang, the golden national symbol, and Wat Si Saket with its thousands of small Buddha statues. Walk down the boulevard to the Patuxai and climb it for the view.
Tonight: the night market along the Mekong, with the sun going down over Thailand.
COPE and Buddha Park. The COPE centre tells the story of the unexploded bombs still lying in Laos. Free, and the most important hour in the country. Then out to Buddha Park, 25 km away.
Tonight: fast train to Vang Vieng, or over the border into Thailand.
Food and drink in Vientiane
The French left the best bakeries in Laos here, and they sit alongside perfectly good Lao street food. That combination makes Vientiane surprisingly good for a city nobody rates.
In the evening the grills and the papaya salad carts come out along the Mekong. One or two euros gets you a full plate, and you eat it looking at another country.
Getting there and onward
Vientiane is the hub of Laos: the fast train arrives here, the biggest airport is here, and this is where you cross into Thailand.
Getting there. The fast train from Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng stops at a station outside the city. From Bangkok you can take the train to Nong Khai and cross the Friendship Bridge.
Around town. The centre is compact and flat, which makes it ideal for a bicycle. Tuk-tuks ask tourist prices, so agree the fare first or use the LOCA app.
The border. The Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai is 25 km out. A bus runs across it, and on the Thai side the night train to Bangkok connects.
- Fast trainVang Vieng 1 hr · Luang Prabang 2 hrs
- Border busTo Nong Khai over the Friendship Bridge
- Night trainFrom Nong Khai to Bangkok, about 11 hrs
- PlaneBangkok, Hanoi and Chiang Mai direct
- BicycleFrom about €2. Flat city, no traffic
Staying safe in Vientiane
One of the safest capitals in Asia and very quiet after ten at night. The only thing that costs backpackers money here is transport pricing.
- Agree the tuk-tuk fare before you get in, or use the LOCA app instead
- Take cash out here. This is the last easy city for it if you are heading south
- Cover shoulders and knees at Pha That Luang and the temples
- Allow two hours for the border crossing if you have a train to catch
- Expect much to be open after ten. The city genuinely closes
- Change money at the border. The rate is better in town
- Photograph government or military buildings, of which there are several
- Buy drugs. Sentences in Laos are severe and the police do check
Rebels on the Road tip
Rent a bicycle, which is two euros, and ride the riverside path west out of the centre in the late afternoon. Within fifteen minutes the city thins into vegetable plots and wooden houses on stilts, with the Mekong on your left the whole way and Thailand on the other side of it. There is nothing to see and that is the point: it is the only capital city in this region where you can cycle out of the middle of it into farmland and be back in time for dinner.
Frequently asked questions
How many days do you need in Vientiane?
One for the temples, COPE and the river, two if you want Buddha Park as well. It is a stop rather than a destination, and there is no shame in treating it as one.
Is Vientiane worth visiting?
For COPE alone, yes. Beyond that it is a calm, cheap, walkable city with good food and a nice riverfront, and most people who expected nothing end up quite liking it. If you are short of days in Laos, this is the stop to shorten, not Nong Khiaw.
Where should I stay in Vientiane?
The centre, between the Mekong promenade and Lane Xang Avenue. Everything except Buddha Park is within walking or cycling distance from there.
Is Vientiane expensive?
No. €18 a day, which is a little more than the villages and still the cheapest capital city in the region.
How do you cross to Thailand from Vientiane?
Over the Friendship Bridge to Nong Khai, 25 km out. Bus across, stamp out and in, and on the Thai side the night train runs to Bangkok in about eleven hours. Allow two hours for the crossing itself.
Is Buddha Park worth the trip?
It is an hour on a local bus each way to look at two hundred concrete statues in a field, and it is genuinely strange in the best way. Worth it if you have a second day; the first thing to drop if you do not.
When is the best time to visit Vientiane?
November to February, when it is dry and cool enough to cycle. March to May is uncomfortably hot, and June to October brings short heavy showers and a very full river.
