mrs Gpanda is looking for the quickest way to do this--preferably to fly..

can't get lao air site to function

this one?

http://www.laoairlines.com/

Fly. The bus ride is very scenic, but long and likely requiring an overnight in Vang Vieng, a place to avoid. So pleased to read that Mrs Gpanda is traveling again.

I booked with Lao Airlines last time with no problems. Is this the site you're trying - http://www.laoairlines.com/ ? It looks fine to me.

Have you seen this from the man in seat61 site?

The jewel in Laos' crown is Luang Prabang, a city of French and Buddhist colonial buildings next to a river and nestled in mountains. You can travel from Vientiane to Luang Prabang by river boat or bus, as follows:

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by VIP bus, 10 hours, morning departures, about 140,000-170,000 Kip one-way, see timetable below.

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by overnight VIP sleeper bus, 10 hours, evening departures, about 140,000-170,000 Kip one-way, see timetable below.

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by air-con bus, 10 hours, 2 morning departures, about 120,000-130,000 Kip one-way.

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by ordinary bus, 11 hours, 5 daily departures, about 70,000 Kip one-way.

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by 6-seater river speedboat, 11 hours, morning departures, about $20 one-way. One seat61 correspondent has said he did not feel safe on the speedboat.

Vientiane - Luang Prabang by cargo/passenger ferry, 4-7 days, daily morning departures, about $6 one-way.

Vientiane to Luang Prabang by VIP air-conditioned bus...
Vientiane ► Luang Prabang (bus)

Luang Prabang ► Vientiane (bus)
Bus type: VIP

day bus
VIP

sleeper bus
Bus type: VIP

day bus
VIP

sleeper bus
Days of running: daily daily Days of running: daily daily
Vientiane hotel pick-up: 08:30 18:30 day 1 Luang Prabang depart: ???? ????
Luang Prabang arrive: 18:00 05:00 day 2 Vientiane arrive: ????? ?????

Fare: Day bus 150,000 Kip one-way. Sleeper bus 180,000 kip one-way.

now I'm confused.....

The speed boat is probably hazardous to your hearing aside from other dangers. I've done that trip by road, with a couple of nights in VV, and although the buses are probably more comfortable now than in 2002, it's still a LONG day's drive. As you know, I'm a big advocate of on-the-ground travel, but I'd still recommend flying that route. (I met a young woman backpacker on my last visit who had taken the bus, and she changed her plans for the trip back to Vientiane so she could fly.)

Bob, we flew. Eddie at SE tours sorted it for us.

Here is another shout out of delight that Beth is heading back to SEA. Great news! (Sorry I can't answer the question -- have only been to Luang Prabang which I wrote about at some length.)

I'd go with Eddie - he can book these tickets.

thanks... yes she is joining us in thailand for a couple of weeks in the fall..

we have rented green ghecko villa for a few days near udon thani, then will go to vientienne and then we will meet back in bkk for a final few days.. we too are delighted...

lets see if the lao air link works

I remember that the lao airlines site only worked properly on certain browsers. We use firefox and it was a problem - had to use explorer - but thats a few years back and hopefully it is better now.

Flying is certainly the easiest and quickest.

I have done it by bus, boat and by air. Overland travel is usually my preferred option but this is one route I would fly.
The buses take forever although not as long as they used to and are not bad comfort-wise. The fast speedboat was noisy, extremely uncomfortable and not for the faint hearted!

Lao airlines has always been difficult to book online and it may be necessary to use an agent. There are one or two sites in teh UK that will book flights on-line (http://www.flylaoairlines.co.uk/ is one)I am sure there must be something similar in the US - Bob - please pass on our best wishes to Beth

Bob use Eddie as Nicky suggested!

There are fake Lao air sites that will take your money, give you print-able receipts or tickets which will not be honored by the airline.

I checked my eticket from spring 2011, it says this:

"Contact through Onlinebooking@laoairlines.com or reservations@laoairlines.com. For more information,please visit www.laoairline.com/contactus.html "

Again, I had no trouble booking through the website, while traveling.

Eddie actually got me cheaper tixs than advertised on the Lao airlines website.

I tried Eddie, but I needed train tickets as well as plane tickets, and I got a rather curt response that he didn't handle train tickets. I don't remember that his price for the plane was any different than the website, either. Since I couldn't "one stop shop" I figured I'd do the whole thing myself.

"You can travel from Vientiane to Luang Prabang by river boat"
No you cannot.

"Lao airlines has always been difficult to book online."
The site is fine now, even with a Mozilla based browser.

http://ww2.laoairline.com/contactus.html
Be careful, this is a fake site. there are a number of fake sites, using similar names; some are in Thailand and some in Europe.

http://www.laoairlines.com/

Is the real site.

Hi, I'm more like planning to travel by boat or a passenger ferry Vientiane to Louangphrabang, Louangphrabang to Vientiane, Louangphrabang to Pakse, Savannakhet to Pakse and Pakse to Vientiane. Actually, I'm more interested in how many hours will this trip takes and how much is the fare for each trip. Hope you could answer.

"Hi, I'm more like planning to travel by boat or a passenger ferry Vientiane to Louangphrabang,"
I have already posted that you cannot travel from Vientiane to Luang Prabang by boat. There is no passenger ferry and the speedboats don't operate from Vientiane.

Hi Vientianeboy, how about on the other locations that I mention? Louangphrabang to Pakse, Savannakhet to Pakse and Pakse to Vientiane.

By car? (I don't know how much car and driver would be).

At present the road from Vientiane to LP is is quite good nick. It can be driven in a day (about 8 hours).

rofl. I doubt whether even Fangio could drive it in 8 hours. 12 with a stop is more like it.