JL
Johanna LBus from Hanoi to Luang Prabang:
Pro:
- cheap
- an experience you won‘t forget
- you can sleep for 30+ hours
Con:
- 31 hours instead of 24 hours (to be expected in Asia)
- roads on Laos side are miserable. We were driving 20 km/h there
- frequent stops to load parcels or people (to be expected in Asia)
- bus overbooked so Vietnamese guests that joined at later bus stops had to sleep on the floor (to be expected in Asia)
- no sockets/plugs, toilet, wifi, … -> very old bus
Tbh, I enjoyed the drive, but many people hated their ride
Recommendations:
Bring WARM clothes and all that you have to keep yourself warm in your carry-on backpack
Bring loads of snacks/dry food that won‘t expire
Change some money to USD so you can pay in restaurants on the Laos side.
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus VIP Sleeper 41, HTX Van Tai 277 (HTX Vận Tải 27-7), Dec 1, 2024
EH
Erik H6 hours late... Arrived at 1h in luang prabang
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus VIP Sleeper 41, HTX Van Tai 277 (HTX Vận Tải 27-7), Mar 10, 2024
JF
Julia FGood
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus VIP Sleeper 41, HTX Van Tai 277 (HTX Vận Tải 27-7), Jan 30, 2024
CC
Camille CThe bus left 2h late, this is acceptable in East Asia so no problem. We Were supposed to do the trip with a techbus, it was certainly not one. This could be acceptable as well. But the worst part was that the bus arrived not 1,2, 5 hours left but 16HOURS LATE ( took us 39h instead of 23h to arrive) we basically spent 2nights in a bus that was basically Doing deliveries, taking merchandise (we were sleeping between a TV and a some rice bags at some points) every 20min while taking people on its way to laos. Added to that one of the tire punctured on our way, making us loose several hours (as if it was not already enough) to get it repaired while the driver just let us at a random street restaurant during this time and leaving us without telling us. If you are searching for thrill and you are not in a hurry then no pb otherwise find another alternative
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus Sleeper 40, Techbus VN JSC (Techbus Vietnam Joint stock company), Jun 19, 2023
EB
Emma BIt was better then we expected. The driver was really nice and helpful. The only thing that was not great was that we arrived 2 hours later then expected
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus VIP Sleeper 41, HTX Van Tai 277 (HTX Vận Tải 27-7), May 22, 2023
C
Carolina This was the second time we took this route since the first time we arrived to the border and had to go back to Hanoi since we didn't know that it wasn't possible to get on-arrival visas to Laos anymore. We left on time from Hanoi and arrive almost at 9 pm to Luang Prabang. More than a formal transport for people, the bus was a goods delivery service.The bus stopped more than a dozen times to collect and deliver multiple items on the way, including more people with no tickets. All felt more like of it was a side business from corrupted drivers than something organized from the company.
There were few stops to go to proper toilets (specially for women) and to eat. The drivers smoked constantly inside the bus and the air conditioning damaged a couple of times.
Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Bus VIP Sleeper 41, HTX Van Tai 277 (HTX Vận Tải 27-7), Mar 15, 2023