Laos - Luang Prabang Travel Tips

Sa-bai-dee :)

We would like to share some tips about travelling to Luang Prabang, Laos based on our own experience :)

No.1 Kip

Laos is using “kip”, but Thai Baht is commonly being accepted here as well. For Malaysian, you can bring along Thai Baht or USD and exchange at money changer in Laos. The rate we got is 1 USD for 8300 kip and 1 Baht for 246 kip.

Based on our experience, expenses in Laos would be higher than in Thailand, based on price of food and snack.

No.2 Convenient store

There is no 7-eleven at Luang Prabang!!!!!! We not sure whether 7-eleven exists at Vientiane or not, but we cannot find any at Luang Prabang! There are only mini stores around the town and we spotted few pharmacies. Good thing is basic things like drinking water can be purchased easily from the mini stores (5,000kip for 1.5litres). Bad thing is there is very limited choice for snack like biscuit or bread from the mini stores and the price is not cheap at all. Most of the biscuits sold are imported from Vietnam, Thailand, China and even Malaysia, that’s the reason why the price is not cheap.

No.3 Season

We visited Laos during raining season. Although we did not encounter any big issue due to this, but we still need umbrella or rain coat to walk in the rain. It is not too bad to go in raining season, not peak season for tourism and not too hot! We felt comfortable to walk under the sun even in the afternoon.

No. 4 Bargain

It is very important to bargain for price especially for tuk tuk service and when you shop at night market. We bought one handmade lantern from the night market, asked around different stalls that sell the same thing, originally all asking for 50,000 kip. The last stall that we asked started with 50,000 kip too, but when we further asked and reduced to 30,000 kip. We thought the price is good enough but of course we didn’t show it on our face LOL. When we were choosing for the colour, the lady suddenly reduced the price to 20,000 kip! Hahaha, what a good deal :P 

One ride from airport to Luang Prabang town costs us around 50,000 kip.

No. 5 Airport

There is one small outdoor food court at Luang Prabang airport, look quite decent and Halal food was served there!