If you’re backpacking South East Asia, you’ve probably heard of the slow boat from Thailand to Laos (or vice versa). If you haven’t, it is basically a slow boat that takes you from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang in Laos. Most people leave Chiang Rai, cross the border early in the morning and then board the boat at Huay Xai. The boat takes two full days from Chiang Rai or Huay Xai to arrive in Luang Prabang. This includes an overnight stay at a small village on the riverbank called Pakbeng. It is an extremely popular way to travel between Laos and Thailand due to the scenery and the experience of slow cruising down the Mekong River.
Is the Laos slow boat worth it?
I have both flown from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang (on my first trip in 2017) and taken the slow boat from Chiang Rai (more recently in 2022), and I would wholeheartedly recommend the slow boat if you have the time. If you’re on a really tight schedule where you’ve only got two days in each place, then the slow boat may not be ideal for you. If you have the time, though, the slow boat itself is an experience giving you a look into areas of Laos that tourists don’t usually see. We passed by local villages and saw kids swimming in the water, men and women cooking and farming outside. There were buffalos and sea snakes swimming in the water, and the scenery felt like something out of a movie.
One of the best things about the Laos slow boat is you have no phone service most of the time. It really forces you to notice what’s around you instead of being on your phone all the time. You do tend to get a bit bored, to be honest, but that’s when you join in a game of Uno or start up a conversation with someone around you and make a new friend. On the first day, we played Heads Up (it works offline) and had half the boat humming popular songs while someone tried to guess. On the second day, we played so many rounds of Go Fish and laughed at how hyper-competitive some people were. You will come off the slow boat with new friends or closer friendships with the people you are travelling with!
Crossing the Border from Laos to Thailand
The majority of people getting on the slow boat will stay in Chiang Rai the night before. If you are heading to Chiang Rai, you can read my full guide to the best things to do here. I booked a combined ticket which included border crossing and the slow boat. I booked it through Sleep In Hostel, which costs 911k LAK Lao Kip ($47 USD). You can book this combined ticket through many agencies in Chiang Rai. The ticket included all transportation from your accommodation in Chiang Rai until you get dropped off at the jetty in Luang Prabang. You do have to pay for food, sim cards, accommodation in Pakbeng and transportation from Luang Prabang jetty into the city centre yourself.
You can also organise the slow boat and border crossing yourself; you don’t have to go through a company and get a combined ticket. Most people who did the border crossing themselves stayed in either Chiang Rai or Chiang Kong (the tiny town right at the border between Laos and Thailand). It definitely works out being cheaper as you can easily rely on local transport.
The slow boat ticket itself (just for the boat, no transfers or border crossings included) is 490k LAK Lao Kip ($25 USD). However, you will have to allow extra time for delays and for all transfers. The slow boat will wait for everyone who booked through an agency if there are delays at the border as the guides communicate with the slow boat crew. If you’re doing it yourself and there are delays, the boat will not wait for you, and you will miss it if you are late.
The other alternative, which is popular among backpackers, is to cross the border and stay in Huay Xai (the town where the slow boat leaves from). There is a famous activity called the Gibbon Experience, which is popular among travellers and departs from Huay Xai. So travellers arrive in Huay Xai, do the Gibbon Experience (it takes three days), then stay an additional night in Huay Xai before getting on the slow boat the next morning. The benefit is that you are not rushed having to do an early morning border crossing from Thailand to Laos. You can also have a leisurely morning before wandering down to the jetty and getting on the slow boat for an 11 am departure.
Departing Thailand
The minivan or car will pick you up from your accommodation in Chiang Rai at around 5 am. They then drop you off at the Chiang Kong Border Checkpoint. Here you will meet the guide who will take everyone through the departure border. They hand out lanyards so everyone who is going on the slow boat is easily identifiable.
The first stop is the Thai immigration office, where you will need your passport, luggage and Thai departure card. This is the little slip of paper you would have been given when you first entered Thailand. If you have lost it, sometimes they will issue you another one free of charge. Often they will make you pay a fine of whatever amount the immigration officer decides to charge you. After everyone from the bus has cleared Thai immigration, you will jump back on the bus to head to the Laos Immigration Office via the Laos Thai Friendship Bridge.
What you will need to get a Laos Visa on Arrival
Ensure you check in advance that you are eligible for a Laos Tourist Visa on Arrival before booking this ticket! If you are eligible, here is what you will need to have with you (make sure you sort everything out in Chiang Rai before you leave):
- Passport with at least six months validity on it
- A passport photo of you
- USD $40 to pay for the visa. They can give you change, but you will get change in Lao Kip.
- A pen to fill in the paperwork (super important!! They will not provide you with this, and everyone ends up sharing pens which delay the border crossing)
Arriving into Laos
Once you have crossed the Friendship Bridge, you will arrive at the Laos Immigration Office. The guide will tell you to place your larger luggage on the floor while everyone sorts out their visas. It ends up being a massive pile of backpacks and suitcases, but the guide watches this for you. The guide hands out forms that everyone has to fill out before they enter the first queue.
Everyone will have to queue up three times to get into Laos. In the first queue, they ask you for your passport and if you are vaccinated, how many doses you have received and with what vaccine and write this down. In the second queue, they take your passport, your visa fee, your filled-out form and your passport photo. You then enter the third queue, where you have to wait for them to hand everything back to you (including any change) with your Visa on Arrival stamp. Afterwards, you head through the gates, show the security guard your visa in your passport, and you are officially in Laos! Before you head on the bus, make sure you get cash out in Lao Kip from the ATM. This will be your last chance to get cash out before Luang Prabang, and everywhere only accepts cash.
Getting from the Laos Border to the slow boat
After everyone has cleared immigration into Laos, you pile into Tuk Tuks for a short drive to Huay Xai. They stop at a small shop/ travel agency where you can stock up on essentials for the slow boat and grab some breakfast. You leave your luggage in the Tuk Tuk’s while you go into the agency. They sell Bahn Mi style sandwiches, a good array of snacks and sim cards which they will set up for you. Make sure you grab plenty of snacks. If you don’t want to get a sim card here, you don’t necessarily need to, as you will not have service for most of the next two days anyway. In Pakbeng (where you stay overnight), there is wifi at most accommodations as well.
The guide will explain how the slow boat works and make sure everyone has accommodation in Pakbeng booked. If you don’t have accommodation booked, they can help you book this. After 30 minutes, everyone gets back on the Tuk Tuks and heads to the jetty to board the slow boat.
What to pack for the Laos slow boat
Getting on the slow boat, you will have all your luggage with you. They’ll pack your larger bag into luggage storage at the back and underneath the boat. However, you can and should bring a smaller bag with you for the day. You won’t be able to access anything in your larger bag until they unload the luggage at the end of the day, so make sure you have everything you need!
Here’s what I would pack in the daypack:
- Your phone with games, music and movies downloaded offline (for the majority of the journey, you will not have phone service)
- Portable charger (there are no charging ports on the boat)
- A set of regular cards or UNO cards. You will get bored, and this is a great way to make friends.
- A book to read or other offline activity you can do by yourself.
- Snacks! They have a small selection of snacks and drinks available on board. However, you will have a much better range and cheaper pricing if you purchase them on land. Also, the boat does not stop for a proper lunch, so ensure you have enough food.
- Lots of water! Some of the slow boats don’t have filtered water on them (or if they do, it’s only boiling hot water for a cup of noodles). Make sure you bring enough water for the day.
- Hat, sunglasses and sunscreen. The slow boats are all open-air with no curtains, so some seats will be in direct sunlight for most of the day.
- Drinks. You can drink on the slow boat, so you may want to bring a few drinks. If you run out, they also sell Lao Beer on board.
What to expect on the Laos slow boat
Everyone boards the slow boat at around 11 am or even midday (depending on if there are delays crossing the border). Regardless of whether you have stayed in Huay Xai or have come from Chiang Rai, you’ll need to be at the pier with your luggage. Next, you have to walk down around 50 steep steps to where the boat is boarding. Most people have backpacks. However, there were some people with suitcases who, with great struggle, managed to carry them down the stairs. After the stairs, you have to walk along a literal gangplank to board the boat (try not to fall in!).
Afterwards, you have to head straight to the back of the boat to stow your luggage. They stow most of the luggage under the boat; all piled up on top of each other like Tetris. They then close the storage area, so you will not be able to access your larger bag for the whole day.
After you’ve handed over your luggage, you need to find a seat. It’s a bit of a free-for-all, so try and board the boat as soon as possible to secure a good seat! Depending on which slow boat you have, you may have just regular seats all facing the same direction with no tables. We had this boat on the first day. On the second day, we got a better boat where half the boat was regular seats, and half the boat was quad seats facing each other with a table in the middle. The quad seats do tend to be snapped up fast, so do try and board the boat early to get a seat if you’re travelling with people and want to sit together.
There’s a tiny bar on board selling cup noodles, packets of potato chips, soft drinks, beer, coffee and tea. It’s pretty basic, and there’s not much variety, so I strongly recommend bringing snacks from the land on board with you before you go. Also, the prices on board are double what they are on land, so more economical to buy snacks in advance. They also have toilets on board, but it is literally a hole in the ground that you squat over. Be prepared; there are no stops where you can get off and use the bathrooms, stretch your legs or buy snacks.
At around 6 pm, you will arrive at Pakbeng, the small riverside village where you will spend the night. You can show up with no previous accommodation booked and book on the spot. However, I would recommend booking your accommodation before so you know exactly what you are getting!
When you arrive in Pakbeng, you will have to walk up a steep hill with your bags. Ensure you don’t leave anything on the boat, as you may not have the same boat the next day! Locals will approach you offering to porter your bags (they will then expect payment if you let them). Local children will beg for money or food if you have any leftover snacks from the boat. We didn’t feel unsafe or anything, just more something to be aware of. It’s around a 3-minute walk up the hill to the first few accommodations. Depending on where you have booked, you may need to walk further up the hill.
The next morning, you will depart Pakbeng at around 8 am getting on another slow boat due to Luang Prabang. This day is a long day on the boat, so make sure you have plenty of snacks, water and ways to entertain yourself! After another day on the boat, you’ll arrive at Luang Prabang at around 5 pm. For the last 1 hour of this boat trip, you will start to get phone service as you near the city.
When you arrive, everyone grabs their bags and walks to the gangplank one last time. The location they drop you off at is around 15-20 minutes from the city centre, but there are a number of open-air trucks you can pile into with your luggage to take you there. Make sure you haggle the price and ensure your driver knows where to drop you off at! Expect to pay around 47k LAK Lao Kip ($2.50 USD) per person for the shared transport back to the city.
Where to stay in Pakbeng
Pakbeng is a small village, but they do have a few accommodation options. They have higher-end luxury resort options with swimming pools, shared dorms and affordable private rooms and local-run 3-star hotels. You can book accommodation by just showing up in Pakbeng. However, I booked it before I left Chiang Rai so I could research different places.
You’ll only be here for one night for less than 12 hours, so to most people, where you stay in Pakbeng is not super important. In my opinion, the most important thing is proximity to the jetty where the slow boat departs from. The jetty is at the bottom of a steep hill, and you do have to take all of your luggage with you. While Pakbeng is pretty tiny, it may be annoying staying somewhere more than a 5-minute walk away where you have to walk uphill with your luggage. You can book all accommodation here.
Mekong Backpackers- best budget option
Mekong Backpackers is the only accommodation that offers dormitories in Pakbeng. A dorm bed is 52k LAK Lao Kip a night ($2.70 USD). The beds are basic and very close together (no individual plugs as well), and the bathrooms are pretty basic. It is around a 10-minute walk uphill from the jetty. However, usually, there is someone with an open-air truck to pick you up and transport you. This accommodation is ideal for budget travellers or solo travellers.
Pakbeng Guesthouse– the most convenient option
This is the closest accommodation to where the slow boat departs from! It’s about a 3-minute walk up the hill from the jetty, so really convenient for getting to the slow boat. A private room with a bathroom will cost you 247k LAK Lao Kip ($13 USD). However, if you’re travelling with a friend, you could split the cost. The rooms and bathrooms are pretty basic, but they’re fine for just one night. They are super close to restaurants, the jetty and shops, which is the main benefit of staying here!
Mekong Riverside Lodge– best flashpacker option
If you want something a little bit more up-market but still budget-friendly, then Mekong Riverside Lodge is for you! Their main selling point is their balconies overlooking the river. A private room costs 338k LAK Lao Kip ($17.50 USD). However, you could always split this if you are travelling with someone. They’re about a 10-minute walk from the jetty, but they have complimentary pickup and dropoff. They also offer a basic free breakfast.
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