Laos – Overall Cost of Backpacking

In order to track our spending in each country we visit, we are keeping a spreadsheet of overall expenses. We have decided to keep track of our expenses for interest sakes, to help others plan a trip, as well as to make sure we do not run out of money!

We spent a total of 18 days in Laos with a total bill of approximately $1,245 which includes:

Accommodation (hostels and hotels)

Food & Toiletries (the bare essentials – food, shampoo, soap, etc)

Liquor (have to try the local drinks)

Transportation (public transit, buses, trains, etc)

Entertainment (what we paid to do) and

Miscellaneous items (clothing, laundry, books etc)

TOTAL COSTS

Accommodation – $453

Food & Toiletries -$242

Liquor – $24

Transportation – $350 (this includes one flight, $200 for the 2 of us, ouch!)

Entertainment – $90

Miscellaneous items – $86

AVERAGE COSTS

Our average cost per day in Laos was $69 for the both of us.

Note: ALL costs are in CANADIAN FUNDS!

TRAIN

Because we came from Thailand, the easiest and cheapest way to Laos was via train. We hopped and overnight train from Bangkok to Vientiane. Once again we have not included this costs listed above to prevent skewing the overall costs of the country since once again we never know where people are coming from. But to help out, the cost of our one way train ticket was about $ 47 for the both of us, cheap!

VISA

You can obtain a visa upon arrival in Laos. For us, we hopped off the train at Thai/Laos border, filled out our immigration forms paid and we were done for. The Visa itself is a full page, so make sure you have room for it. As Canadians we paid around $116 for our visas together, but it is different for every country. From what I understand, your visa cost is dependent upon how much support your country gives to Laos.

LAOS KIP

The national currency in Laos is the Kip, however US dollars are accepted very widely and much of the time costs for tourists are reported in US dollars. One thing to make sure you watch out for is the conversion, if you are paying in Kip or Dollars make sure their conversion is accurate We had some US money with us, but used KIP for the most part.

MORE INFO…

If you would like to view a a more detailed break down of our costs you can view the spreadsheet here. If you have any questions regarding our costing sheet please do not hesitate to comment and we will respond.