About this site
Transport Updates
Border, visa and transport changes that affect travel to and within Laos, newest first, each one checked before it is listed.
Checked 1 November 2026
A short, dated list of the border and transport changes we have checked and written up ourselves, not a feed of every small edit to this site. A bridge opening, a rule changing, a crossing closing: that goes here, linked to the page it affects. Wording tweaks and translation fixes do not. This is not everything that happens in the region, just what we have confirmed. See Sources for how we check things.
- : Lao Airlines resumed direct flights between Luang Prabang and Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays: 07:40 from Luang Prabang, 10:20 back from Bangkok.
- : Lao Airlines' winter schedule makes Luang Prabang to Hanoi a daily flight, Tuesdays included; Pakse to Siem Reap flies Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
- : New Boten–Vientiane trains C95 and C96 started running: C95 leaves Boten at 08:00 and reaches Vientiane at 11:47, C96 leaves Vientiane at 14:05 and reaches Boten at 18:35. Neither runs every day.
- : Thailand's Immigration Bureau launched THIM, a free app that also files the digital arrival card (TDAC). The TDAC website still works.
- : Savannakhet to Mukdahan is no longer sold online: no bookable seats in either direction into November. The bus still runs to timetable, so buy locally; the route stays listed.
- : Vientiane to Vinh is no longer sold online: no bookable seats in either direction into November. A daily 06:00 sleeper still appears on the timetable; ask at the Southern Terminal.
- : Sam Neua to Hanoi can no longer be booked online, so the route is now listed without a booking link.
- : Thailand's visa exemption changed from 60 to 30 days, with land-border entries capped at twice per calendar year.
- : Thailand's Transport Co. (BKS) launched a direct bus, Route No. 2, from Udon Thani Bus Terminal 1 via Udon Thani International Airport to Vientiane: 80 baht, one round trip a day.
- : The Lao immigration register dropped the eVisa at Nongnokkhene from available to not available, settling in favour of the traveller reports that had long disputed it.
- : Flooding in Luang Namtha closed Route 13 North to the Boten crossing; the Laos–China Railway kept running through the same stretch.
- : Thailand's Cabinet approved in principle vehicle tolls of 50 to 500 baht on the 5th Friendship Bridge; still under legal review, no start date, and the scheduled cross-border bus will be exempt.
- : Vietnam extended its airport pre-arrival declaration, used in Ho Chi Minh City since April, to Hanoi arrivals. Land borders with Laos are not covered.
- : A daily Jinghong to Xieng Kok cross-border bus opened a second Laos-China road link, at a crossing that does not appear on the Lao immigration register.
- : Cross-border bus service launched on the 5th Friendship Bridge, 100 baht flat fare, four departures a day each way.
- : 5th Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge (Paksan–Bueng Kan) opened to the public.
- : Vietnam e-visa expanded from 42 to 83 checkpoints and un-tied from a single named entry point (Resolution 389/NQ-CP).
- : Laos introduced a free online arrival and departure form, the Lao Digital Immigration Form, at Wattay, Luang Prabang and Pakse airports and the 1st Friendship Bridge.
- : Thailand made the digital arrival card (TDAC) compulsory for every foreign national entering by land, air or sea.