Laos international travel guide in 2023

Laos 🇱🇦

Laos is part of Asia with main city at Vientiane. It's usually 🌤️ 19.32 °C in Laos with a rainfall of 🌧 18.56 mm. Internet speed in Laos is on average 2.4 Mbps. In Laos you drive on the right side. Its Least Developed country with a population of 6M people. The main currency is Lao Kip. The languages spoken are Lao. Automatic teller machines are rare in Laos. Current travel safety advice is Exercise normal safety precautions. Get other useful information like socket plugs, SIM cards and emergency numbers.

👍 Least Developed 🌤️ ~19.32 °C 🌧 ~18.56 mm 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 6M people

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Advice

🛡️ Travel safety

Exercise normal safety precautions

We've reviewed our advice for Laos. We've lowered the travel advice level. We now advise you exercise normal safety precautions. Higher levels apply in some areas. Laos’ borders have reopened to international travellers. Australian travellers can obtain visas-on-arrival and e-visas. Legal spouses (foreign citizens) of Lao nationals will need to register via the Lao Greenpass website. You won't need a COVID-19 test if you're fully vaccinated. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated travellers over 12 years old will need to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 (rapid ATK) test taken within 48 hours before travel. You won't need to quarantine. If you contract COVID-19 while in Laos, you'll be responsible for your treatment costs. We advise: Exercise normal safety precautions in Laos overall. Higher levels apply in some areas.

Issue date: July 21, 2022

Weather

🌤️ Temperature

🌧 Rainfall

General

🔌 Sockets

Laos uses 230V, 50Hz with sockets and plugs Type A, Type B, Type C, Type E and Type F.

🌐 Languages

The languages that are typically spoken are Lao

Money

💱 Currencies Used

Laos uses the Lao kip (symbol: ?), code LAK.Banknotes come in denominations of 100000, 50000, 20000, 10000, 5000, 2500, 2000, 1000, 500, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5 and 1 kips. Kip is subdivided into 100 atts. Coins come in denominations of 50, 20 and 10 atts.

🏧 ATMs

Automatic teller machines are rare in Laos. Your best bet is to look for them in large cities and community places.You do not need a chip & PIN card to use an ATM — your standard magnetic card will work fine.

Calling

📡 Internet

Internet speed in Laos is on average 2.4 Mbps. WiFi coverage in Laos is very low. It's quite hard to find one.

📱 Phones

You can buy a SIM card for about 52,381.35 LAK, which includes 5 GB of data plan. You can choose from 4 telecoms: Beeline, ETL, Laotel or Unitel. Laos uses GSM mobile networks GSM 900 and GSM 1800. If you don't want to buy SIM card in Laos upon arrival, make sure to check the roaming charges with your telecom provider before your departure so there are no surprises when you return home.

📞 Calling

To call Laos, dial +, then 856 (the country code for Laos), then the area code (without the initial 0) and the local number. For local calls within Laos, start with the area code (with the initial 0). In the case above area code is 21 .

Driving

🛣️ Road rules

In Laos you drive on the right side. Most cars have manual transmission (stick). Unless otherwise posted, the speed limits for cars and motorcycles are as follows: 100-120 km/h (62-74 mph) on motorways, 100-120 km/h (62-74 mph) on expressways, 50 km/h (31 mph) in all built-up areas and 80-110 km/h (49-68 mph) on undivided highways.