Luang Prabang International Airport — Local services in Luang Prabang

WARNING: If you do Visa on arrival please be aware it costs $40 for the visa (cash payment only so they can cheat you easily) they charge you $1 USD extra if you do not have a physical passport photo to provide so they can attach it on the visa form (it's a scam as most people will not carry a photo with them and taking your digital photo should cost nothing as they take it anyway later so no need to charge $1) and in the next window where you recieve your stamped passport they have a sign saying that they charge extra $1 "service fee" (another scam to rip you off on the change, keep reading), I had only 2 x $20 USD bills ready to pay exact $40 (did not know about the extra "service fee" as it was not mentioned anywhere before (which is a scam) and so my total was $41 (I happened to have a passport photo on me from previous arrangement so did not need to pay for the photo) so I had to pay with $100 USD bill (and they gave me back the change in local currency, there was a queue of people I did not have enough time to count it properly as you can imagine it was a stack of local currency), on the way out I checked the actual USD/KIP exchange rate and I realized the guys ripped me off 100,000-150,000 kip. (~$5USD)... very nice hustle because you don't have time to check and you don't even know the exchange rate, and that's around $5 that they stole and put in their pocket, multiply that by 1000+ people on a busy day and thats a 2-3 year salary right? Really pissed me off as this is the first experience in Laos getting off the plane... Please make sure you have $1 bills with you to pay the extra "fees" and don't get ripped off by these...

Luang Prabang airport is small with some restricted amenities but decent service. Upon arrival in Luang Prabang, immigration officials direct me to the relevant desks for visa on arrivals. The fee payable depends on the nationality, so I had to pay USD35 for mine, maximum 30 days stay. Since they did not take cards, so the official directed me outside to the cash machines, (not before retaining my passport though). Two of the ATMs located at the airport were not working so luckily the third one did!

I then returned, fill the visa on arrival form, arrival form, and paid. The process was very straightforward and speedy. Once outside at the arrivals hall, I purchased a Laos Sim card to ensure my connectivity, cost 200 baht (they took my Thai money) for seven days unlimited. Again, a great deal!

Very basic halls with limited facilities, transport service or restaurants

There are not a bus or tuk-tuk services to the city centre (or at least I did not see one).  The only options with the ticket desk to order a shared minivan to the city centre, it cost me 50000 kip (£5, COP18000)

Departing

Although Lao Airlines does not have web-check availability, my airport check-in was very quick on my flight departing Luang Prabang to Hanoi, and I cleared immigration in less than 15 minutes. Airside there are few shops selling local textiles and souvenirs and a small duty-free shop. There is a spacious seating area near the gates.

There is a VIP Loung for Bangkok Airways passengers, but from the outside, it looked pretty basic with nothing more than some chairs and...

"customs officials" tried to extort money from us for having a small metal buddha statue in our possession on departure. This was bought from a market in Cambodia, and we exited there, entered/exited Thailand, entered Laos without any previous issues. The official said it was a sacred monument and asked us to produce a receipt or paperwork to prove we had permission/paid tax on the purchase. We didn't have this, so we were then sat down in a private security room where several of his colleagues entered, conversed, then left. After explaining we were on honeymoon and our way home, he said we must pay for paperwork to allow us to keep the statue. Conveniently, he then produced a poor quality photocopy of what looked like a very dubious and rudimental customs form. He demanded a fee for the form to be completed and provided, "normally 50% of the statue value, but since it was our honeymoon he'd only charge 30%". We then got upset and angry, as there was no sense this was an official policy. We refused to pay, repackaged the statue with our belongings, and left the security room. The staff never proceeded to stop/follow us, confirming our belief this was an attempted shake-down. My wife was also short changed by a vendor in the departure lounge. This was using a high denomination note, and had we not been familiar with the currency, this may have succeeded. The "customs" experience left us with a sour taste in our mouth, and took some of the shine off what had been otherwise a fantastic stay in Laos.

TLDR - don't pay the corrupt staff any fees they...