Naluang International Bus Station — Local services in Luang Prabang

DO NOT USE THESE BUSES/MINI VANS! Travelling from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. So first off, we had booked the 11am bus for a rip off price on 12goAsia.(£15) (at the station they were selling for £3). However, we get to the station by Tuk Tuk and it is so quiet and empty. No one moving or attempting to help you. We end up asking 5/6 people for the correct bus to get on to, trying our luck with BOTH stations either side of the road. Anyway, we eventually we find our mini-van, i think it was anyway, and we are told that the bus now conveniently leaves at 2PM AND OUR 11AM BUS NO LONGER EXISTS. Well, we wait this time and even debated the train, but to be honest I was wary about the security at the train station due to carrying lots of needles as a Type 1 Diabetic and would prefer not to lose all of my access to insulin half way across the world if I couldn’t explain due to the language barrier and stubbornness. Well we board at 2pm after going to the only decent restaurant in the area and are kicked out of the front row seats by some locals, it is what it is at this point. No way I could out persist them. So, we are moves to the back. Only, to find a large boxes and bags of rice etc in our foot space. So we sit in the already tight back row of 4 seats with our knees up to our stomachs. At this point we are more than dreading the 6+ hour journey. Then they continue to cram people into to the bus. Makeshift stools are placed in the aisle to cram more in with no backrest. Not quite sure how they feel perfectly okay to squeeze people into inhumanly tight and uncomfortable spaces. Well, we head off at two. The driver swerving all over the place with no finesse at all to help ease the passengers already tough journey but hey, it’s asian roads, what can you expect. THE ROADS ARE AWFUL. ABSOLUTELY HUGE POTHOLES EVERYWHERE, UNAVOIDABLE ASWELL. Regardless, the drivers love to fly through them and send you into the air. Definitely a safety hazard, I would not be surprised if you get bruises or snap your neck/back. The driver also made randoms stops to carve his own pineapple?? I don’t even know. Please do not book the bus or mini-van to Vang Vieng or anywhere over 2hours in Laos. Please. It is very dangerous and feels as though you are being trafficked. I wish you could give 0 stars because that is what...

Just sharing our experience of taking the minivan from Luang Prabang to Vientiane as we didn’t see more recent reviews on the internet -

We bought a ticket on 12go for 11am. We arrived at Naluang at 1015am and were told by the lady at the counter that the bus will leave at 1130am instead, to arrive at Vientiane at 5pm. Our minivan ended up leaving at 12 as we seemingly waited for it to fill up.

The road was exceedingly bumpy from the start and full of huge potholes, which required careful navigation. Take note if you are prone to motion sickness - suspension is zero and there is really more pothole than road. At some point someone puked. At another point something broke down and the driver had to stop at a roadside mechanic for a bit to get something fixed.

It was particularly slow-going on the mountain road leading up to Kasi due to a combination of said potholes, fog/low visibility, and narrow winding roads.

There was one rest/toilet stop in the middle of nowhere at 430pm where our driver took lunch. We were far from even the halfway point, and the 5pm estimation seemed incredulous. As evening loomed it occurred to us that road lamps had been non-existent.

We reached vang vieng around 6.40pm, by which it was pretty much dark. Gratefully from vang vieng to Vientiane it is an expressway with smooth roads. We travelled very much faster, which was a relief as lightning flashed across the pitch darkness outside.

By the time we reached Vientiane’s northern bus terminal, it was close to 9pm - 4h later than we were told we should expect to arrive. We had travelled on the minibus for 9h hours - 10 if counting the initial wait time. We took a shady shared taxi 20+mins to the city centre.

While there was some mountain scenery and we enjoyed seeing rural life, this was something we decidedly will not do again. Take the bus route only if you have lots of time and patience to spare + this sounds like it is...

All the people complaining here have clearly not travelled a lot of non-european countries by public transport... I took the public bus to Vientiane. Apparently the one at 11am doesn't run anymore, there's one at 9:30am and one at 2pm. The busses leave when full so it might be a bit earlier or later and since it's "first come-first serve" principle, it pays off to be there early to get a seat with a backrest.

The drivers go fast, as everywhere else in Asia on public transport but never unsafe, always slowing down for sharp turns or when there are holes in the road. There's a lunch break as well as two or three restroom breaks. Those happened in the middle of nowhere so there wasn't actually a restroom but enough nature to go behind a bush. It took about 8h to reach Vientiane, the people were all lovely. And amazingly they even cover the luggage (which is on top of the minivan/bus) with plastic and ropes so it doesn't get completely dusty (as it usually does on a lot of other busses in Asia). So overall, a completely normal bus experience through a...