HTX Van Tai 277

Long journey but not as horrible as the other reviews make it sound. The journey is long but the bus was comfortable, had good AC, and a bathroom (I went on Tues; they say the busses on Tue/Thu/Sat are better). One stop around 9-10pm for food/bathroom. Got to the border ~2am and cued up to be first for border crossing in the morning. The bus got quite hot when not on during the night (~2-6am) but was otherwise quite chilly while running (bring a sweater/pants). At the border you need to have your visa already, pay 50k dong to leave Vietnam and 30k kip to enter Laos (or $1-2/dong equivalent). Another stop around lunch time then arrived on time. The roads in Laos can be a bit bumpy. The staff are efficient; if you pay attention, follow their hand gestures and are polite, they are nice enough. They yelled at one guy who was being super rude and pushy but that's not their fault.

The bus left according to schedule, chairbeds were comfy. The bus broke down during the trip, but the drivers could fix it. Nobody could speak a word in English in the whole bus. So we didn’t know what was going on and when we could leave the bus or had to stay inside. It was difficult to find out where to go and what to do at the border, nobody could tell us because they didn’t speak English. We arrived 2 hours earlier than expected which was nice. Overall the trip was ok.

Got an email 2 hours before departure that my selected type of vehicle ( VIP SLEEPER BUS) was not available, and I got downgraded to a seated couch bus . Yes I got 150.000 back , but I couldn’t do anything else apart from taking the bus anyway. No time to change the bus, reebok another day or with another company . Felt like there where not enough people on that bus and they decided to use only one bus regardless of the vip status or not. Felt a bit like a scam

No wifi,so hot😭

Smooth and comfortable ride, but I got to the border only to find out they don't do land visas here. If you need to get a land visa, be sure to go to the Lao Boa border. The ride back and to Hanoi or to the Lao Boa border can be anywhere from 3mil-4mil dong

I booked VIP sleeper bus for 155€ and my expectations were much higher. Our vip section was near the bathroom and engine of the bus. It was hot inside the bus and vehicle was very old. Staff were nice and smiling but I would not book this bus again. Operator was not on time and we waited for bus to start movement for 6 hours. In total we spent about 40 hours in the bus instead of 36

They should Defintely make people aware of needing to visit the embassy and getting a visa when advertising this certain bus

the driver drove like an asshole. how can you do that when you transport people? and we had to wait 2.5 hours at the boarder because it was still closed so why the hell was he speeding like there's no tomorrow??

The operator tried to scam me into buying a second seat on the bus. He seemed to indicate there were only 2 person seats and I would need to pay an extra 500,000. I insisted that I had a seat on the bus and he did let me on. I liked my bed/ seat and it was very comfortable. The operators did not make any effort to give directions to us. They didn’t say where to go eat or help us in any way. On one occasion in Vietnam nobody could eat anything, but the operator went to their set tables and ate. Most people went hungry. The pdf guide was great because I would have fallen for the scam if not for the guide warning about it. I’d suggest to bring both Vietnam and Laos money and even better an e sim that would work on both sides. Overall I would go again on this, it’s a good value for the money despite the terrible service.

I'm not one to complain, and my partner and I are used to traveling in all kinds of conditions. But this trip was one of the worst. People were everywhere in the bus, on the sleeper berths, which is normal. But in the corridors, like animals, it shocked us.We started the journey sitting on the floor. Then the conductor asked people to give us bunks. It was kind, but so awkward and sad for the others.

Too long and wayyy too tired The trip starts 30 mins earlier than the time

The ride was good. I was upgraded from semi sleeper to VIP bus. But the instructions were not updated. It was mentioned that bus is parked in A8 but it was not. Also the bus is the voucher was not the bus we rode. If you avail this service, make sure to call or message via WhatsApp once you arrive in the terminal to make sure the bus details and the bay where to find it. Also

My 12go online Ticket got rejected in Laos and I had to pay twice.

Stayed too much time in the border almost 9hours…after laos immigration stamped our passport around 8am we kept on waiting the bus till 10am with another bus….the bus has changed we dont know our luggages been transfered also…only the time when we reach vientiane

Comfortable bus to be fair - as a guy over 6 foot you expect it to be cramped but to be fair comfortability was alright. Service was by far the worst I have ever encountered in the months I have traveled Asia. 0 attempt to communicate even if we pulled out Google translate. One of the staff punched my feet 4 times because I was lucky enough to have the seats infront of me empty so I put my legs over them (Not gentle punches either). And we just got dropped off at places with no idea what to do - we didn’t know if they were toilet breaks or food stops so twice we bought dishes we hd to leave half empty because there was no time. The border was horrific - no idea what we were doing, the other passengers and I just guessed our way through it. Most disappointingly, we were advertised a toilet on board, free wifi and a completely different seat layout that what we were given. No toilet or wifi. Getting on the bus at the station was awful because we had bo idea which bus was ours as everyone was telling us different things. Honestly, if the bus wasn’t as half - decent as it was then I would have given this a 0 star if I could have.

Before getting this bus we read a big range of review and I was feeling quite anxious for the journey but it was much better than expected. It is very important that you read all the instructions and arrive at the bus terminal at least 2 hours before the bus leaves to secure your seat. we got there over 2 hours before and managed to get a bottom bed. we saw people trying to arrive 30 minutes before the bus left and they were not allowed to get on. you can adjust the seats so can be sitting up or lying down. they aren’t the biggest beds but they are satisfactory. we got handed a bottle of water and there was good AC and a small toilet on board. for the first part of the journey there were lots of people sat/laid down in the aisles (who had been picked up on the way) which made it hard to go to the toilet but was comforting to know there was a toilet as a lot of the reviews we read stated there was not one. we got the us that left vientiane on a tuesday. we left around 5:15 (bus was due to leave at 5:30 but i guess it left early as was full) and the first stop was 9pm where you could get dinner. we then got to the border at 12.30am and the bus was turned off so it did get very very hot without the AC. at 6am they woke us up and we all got off the bus with our bags to get ready for the border crossing (which opened at 6:50). nothing is really explained but the process was pretty simple if you just follow people. as a stamp fee you had to pay (so make sure you have some cash!) we paid in kip, one of the staff gave us dong to pay the stamp worker and then we were given our change back in kip. we paid 50,000 kip each but speaking to others doing the crossing it seemed they were charged more because they didn’t have the right money. we also read reviews about the staff being rude, we did not experience this. we did witness a fair few westerners being quite rude to the staff, which was understandably met with similar behaviour. but we were friendly to the staff and they were friendly back once we crossed the border, which took around 3 hours. we drove untill 12 and then stopped an hour for lunch. after we drove a few more hours and actually arrived in hanoi a bit earlier than expected the beds had curtains and personal AC. there was a TV but i didn’t test that. there was a reading light per bed but i personally found this too bright so didn’t use it. i would definitely recommend this bus, as i said the journey was much better than i expected.

I received a text 6 hours before the bus was due to leave, saying that the departure time was now 4.30pm, not 6.30pm. I replied asking a question but no one got back to me. I then got a further message just before 4pm, asking where I was. The driver/staff were rude on arrival and wouldn’t put our luggage under the bus and insisted it when in our cabins:beds with us! Luckily the bus wasn’t full, as the one nice member of staff agreed that we could move it later. The rude member of staff also kicked my husbands foot, as he had it out in the aisle (he’s 6ft 4) to tell him he couldn’t have his foot in the aisle. We arrived at the wrong bus station at 4.30am, so 1.5 hours early, so we couldn’t check into our hotel. All in all, it was a terrible journey.

Bus was meant to show up a day earlier. 12goasia said nothing to me about it being canceled until I reached out an hour before looking for my tickets. At which point they just refunded me leaving me stranded at the bus station. I then had to try book another bus for the next day. The bus was several hours late and picked us up from a random location that I was texted to go to. However if I wasn’t with someone else who was getting the same bus it would have left without us as it didn’t even come to that location with us having to walk 20mins to a different spot. At least we made it to our destination in the end

Would give 0 stars if I could. I did not expect a very comfortable ride but this exceeded all of my expectations. The staff was extremely rude the entire time and communication was impossible due to the language barrier and them being visibly annoyed when I tried to ask them a question. I already knew that there was not gonna be much privacy due to small seats and no curtains, but I was surrounded by men only who were clearly joking around while looking at me, which made me very uncomfortable as a female traveller (not the fault of the bus company but something to consider). During stops and the border procedure (Laos-Vietnam) noone communicated with me or the other foreigners, which left us quite confused at times. The lowlight of the trip was the 9-hour delay, again, no attempts of communicating this to us were made. Instead, only us foreigners were sent out in the middle of the night to get on a van and then a bus, again, confusion. Then, at 4am (instead of 7pm) we were rushed out of the new bus. We were not at the bus station or in the general city area, but on a highway crossing with no possibility to walk somewhere and with taxis waiting asking for us asking for outrageous prices for a ride to the bus station. Once we realized this, the bus, with all of the other passengers, had already left. All in all, I can only urge you to avoid this company.

Communication is incredibly poor throughout the entire journey, from arriving at the bus station to reaching the final destination. There is no issue with not speaking English, but passengers should be informed in advance about the stops, how the immigration process works, etc. This was very bad. • The bus departed at 5:30 p.m., half an hour earlier than scheduled. • The dinner stop took place at 9:30 p.m. and lasted half an hour. • The bus arrived at the border at 1:00 a.m., turned off, and you are woken up at 6:30 a.m. to prepare for immigration. It makes no sense to sleep on the roadside while the bus is stopped. • At immigration, you must take all your belongings, including your suitcase or backpack from the luggage compartment. No one explains this properly, everyone is confused, and you have to take everything out so the bus can be inspected by customs. • Then you stop for lunch around 11:30 a.m., which is only the second stop. Bring plenty of food for the trip, if possible, so you don’t have to eat at the stops. • Finally, our stop was in Ninh Binh. The driver stopped on the highway next to the bus station; we got off onto the asphalt, and the assistant took our backpacks out and placed them on the road. Before we could pick them up, the bus had already left.

The conductor was really helpfull ! They can help you if you have some trouble to cross the gate to come back to the city

Good sleeper bus. The bus was clean, had a toilet but wifi was not working. Beds were small and quite narrow but okay. The only annoying things: people talking loud in the middle of the night over the phone and Lao Vietnam boarder crossing which takes 3 1/2 hours. However the bus was only 45 mins delayed when I arrived in Nin Binh.

The rudest staff I’ve encountered my entire time in Asia. No water provided on bus despite being told by the driver there would be. I was essentially made to feel like an inconvenience the entire trip. I’d recommend it in terms of ease however the overall experience was not pleasant.

Get scammed at the start had to pay 200.000 Dong more. And the Bus throw us outside on the highway in HCM 20KM away from the Bus station 🤮

Wrong seat and bus assignment, locals are privileged, bus staff no English speakers and rude. But we made it after 24 hours and 2 hours delay.

My bus was cancelled with little notice, I was told I would receive a refund but I haven't heard from them

Went from Vientiane to Hanoi on Tuesday. I knew what to expect but I was not actually ready for it. The beds were okay; however, I was constantly sliding down it when we’re moving because it was fully horizontal. I was placed at the end of the bus, where there was the bathroom next to me, which was loud and stinky with no toilet paper. Also, the bed itself was really hot because there was something, don’t know what, under it. I had a USB and USB C ports but the C one was not working. Between 00:00 and 7, the AC was off, which is why I’m never taking a sleeper bus again. It was MAD hot, and I was sleeping while sitting. There was no air. On the other hand, the bumpiness wasn’t bothersome and we stopped twice to eat for 30min. We were also 5h late because of a road block.

You get what you pay for. My girlfriend and I decided to take the overnight bus from Vientiane to Hanoi. We left on a Tuesday so we did have a bathroom (that was nice). With this sort of thing just be prepared to be uncomfortable. It’s not the capsule type bed so you are in front of everyone….. and sometimes you can’t even get out of your bed because there are people on the FLOOR. with all this said, I was able to get some sleep. I’m 6 foot 2 so I wasn’t able to fully stretch out but if you get the position right it can be semi manageable. Now that I’m Vietnam I’ve taken a couple of capsule buses and I definitely recommend (more privacy/amenities). I would take this bus again though if I was doing the same route because it was cheap and we got to Hanoi 1 hour earlier than expected. The VIP buses were tempting though for 10-$20 extra.

It's reclining seat but it was half full so surprisingly comfortable for the price. I am solo traveler so I didnt want to share bed with a stranger. I only met one foreignerbin the bus we both Asians. Immigrations asked cash a lot, better to prepare 50k*2. The bus arrived around 16:30.

The van to the sleeping bus wasn’t that great of an experience, the road condition in Laos was bad, would still recommend taking bus all the way from LP to Hanoi, instead of this

The porter is really helpful. They make sure that everything is in place and comfortable.

No issues with the bus and travel experience; the not so good rating is because of a scammer working behind the counter at Nuoc Ngam Bus Station in Hanoi. She tells customers that there's a "promotion" going on for an extra 200K dong, for which we can board a special "VIP" bus instead. Of course, it's nonsense and we all end up in the same bus -- both those who paid and those like me who didn't. At least one reviewer on Google maps already reported this, and this affects customers from multiple services including but not limited to 12go. She tried withholding my boarding pass when I refused to pay for her scam, saying "tickets ready later", "come at 6 pm" (my scheduled departure time), and so on, which I ignored. When I started alerting other passengers to her scam, she relented and gave me my boarding pass, which I'd seen she had already prepared before I turned down her scheme. 12go might want to add this info to the info page about what to expect at the station.

The bus was a bit old and not very comfortable but the drivers were friendly and helpful for the crossing. The roads over the border into Laos are terrible and led to significant delays which wasn't factored into the time so arrived over 3 hours later than advertised.

quite comfy, however we did arrive three hours later then expected, we did stop for lunch on the second day but that was the only proper meal we could buy so be sure to bring snacks. you were provided with blankets.

The bus was waiting for over an hour at some stop for no reason I can see. We arrived 3h behind the scheduled time. A driver was using horn like every 10s which was super annoying. Is this suppose to be a sleeper? On the positive side a bus was very comfortable with lots of facilities.

Bus 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.

I know exactly what I booked - but I still put 2 star. I saved 3 500 000 by doing this trip and that is why I give it 2 stars. Make sure to have 50.000 for the stamp OUT OF CONUTRY and 10.000 Kep for the stamp in of the country. (But it’s good to bring extra in case they raise the “price” the day you arrive. ) The bus driver was super super rude to us over and over, and the end we just gave up trying to ask anything. If you have some money saved I recommend you spending your money on a flight ticket instead to save you a headache and a bumpy ride. But if you take this bus you will get a memory for life - and it’s not all that we are looking for ? Good luck!

6 hours late... Arrived at 1h in luang prabang

Too hot, no ac, took way lobger than necesarry, bus driver had a 6 hour sleep break mid drive

Good

It was better that I expected. I've read all the reviews before and was expecting something worse. The bus left on time. It's was Wednesday so the bus didn't have a toilet or outlets to charge phones. We didn't experience racism, we were just sitting in front of the bus when they called us and we got on. The seats were pretty comfortable and sleapable. There were 2 seats together and then one - on the side, so couples could sleep next to each-other. The driver knew a few English words but even without it we could have basic communication about stops and border crossing. The driver was not very friendly, but it was okay. The second driver was more attentive and helped us to search for lost headphones. The first toilet stop was in 2-3 hours at approximately 9 PM and the drivers yellled "toilet" so it was easy to understand. I recommend taking this change because there were no toilet stops until 8AM when we reached the border. The toilets in Laos side of the border were manageable, no paper though so make sure to have it. Also, make sure you don't put on the clothes you don't want to get dirty, because the border crossing was muddy. We had passports and Vietnamese E-Visa so there were no problems crossing the border. At first we went to Laos border and they checked our e-visas. Then we walked like 3-4 minutes and got to the Vietnamese side, took bags from our bus and got also checked for our passports and e-visas as well as bags. No queue and no extra fee. After that, we walked again for 4-5 minutes and stopped at a covered area (like a bus stop) after the barrier, where we got picked by our bus. We didn't have to walk a lot at all. The whole proess took us 1-1.5 hours. We stopped to eat at 1:30-2PM (there was a toilet there) and then didn;t stop anymore. At 5PM, we echnaged busses because our bus had to be repaired and got a bus with 3 rows with separate beds. We got to Hanoi 1.5 hours later. The roads were a bit bumpy in Laos, but got better in Vietnam. But the driver honked very frequently in Vietnam (apparently, that's normal in Vietnam). Overall, it was pretty good for such a long drive. Nothing to be scared of.

The sleeper bus itself was completely fine, though no toilets. The bus left 1:30 hours later than it was originally supposed to. Around 50 I’m away from Hanoi the bus had a technical problem and we waited 6 hours for a different bus, though we were only 6 passengers by this point and they could have took us sooner by cars. We ended up arriving in Hanoi at 10:30 am instead of 3 am.

It was wat I expexted

It 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

I took the bus on a Saturday from Hanoi to Vientiane, according to 12goasia, it's one of the days with better busses. Bus was clean, staff friendly although they spoke almost 0 English. Comfort will be lower if you're taller than 1m80. In Laos there's a lot of road works and the ride gets bumpy. It would be nice if their was clearer communication about where we would stop and for how long. Overall quite comfortable, nothing to do with some horror stories that other travelers experienced.

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.

Overall very good ride. I‘ve experienced none of all the bullying behavior against Western people described in some reviews. Very kind staff but unable to speak English, so it‘s more of a gesture-based communication :) Vientiane-Hanoi: Arrived at the border around 2.30 am, took a rest until the border opens, paid 10k Kip tip to the Lao staff and 50k Kip to the Vietnamese staff at immigration. Everything worked well having the eVisa in advance. No visa on arrival available. One guy had the wrong border crossing checkpoint to enter Vietnam in his eVisa, so he paid about 2M Dong to the Vietnamese staff to get in. Didn’t need any Dong at the border, I could pay everything in Kip. Bus was comfortable and we arrived only with a delay of 1-2 hours. Hard to tell if I‘d do it again bc it‘s a very long ride in the end but that‘s what you pay for I assume. Good job!

A comfortable ride that ran on time, a slightly chaotic boarder crossing but we got through fine with our e-visas (this was on a Saturday bus)

No way near as bad as the description makes it out to be, even the border crossing was fine, just lots of waiting. Comfortable sleeper bus and altogether easy journey.

I don't feel very comfortable in the car. The place is quite narrow and the mattress is hard while moving for 12 to 14 hours, and the staff does not drink anything. The garage should install additional USB connector-type phone chargers like many other night runs because of the urgent need for communication. Especially, the staff are very friendly and enthusiastic to support customers, but if they improve their English further, it will be a plus for the journey.