Laos month by month, and the two months nobody warns you about
The best time to visit Laos is November to February and almost every source will tell you so. What almost no source tells you is what happens in March and April, which is the part that ruins trips. So this article gives you the calendar in full, north and south, with the seasons named honestly rathe
Laos stretches about 650 miles (1,050 km) from the Chinese border to the Cambodian one, which is far enough that the north and the south do not share a climate. The north is mountains and it gets genuinely cool in winter. The south is lowland and plateau and it gets extremely hot in spring. Any single answer to when to go is therefore incomplete, and the useful version is by region.
The year at a glance
| Month | North, Luang Prabang and up | South, Pakse and the Bolaven | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|
| November | Dry, clear, cool mornings | Dry, warm, comfortable | The best all-round month |
| December | Dry, cold at dawn, superb light | Dry and pleasant | Peak season, book early |
| January | As December, coldest mornings | Dry, the coolest month | Peak season |
| February | Dry, warming, haze may begin late | Warm and dry | Good early, watch the end |
| March | Haze likely, hot | Hot, dry, clearer than the north | We usually argue against |
| April | Haze often severe, very hot | Extremely hot, first storms | Pi Mai, and a difficult month |
| May | First rains, air clears | Hot then wet, the plateau cools | Improving fast |
| June | Green, afternoon rain | Green, rain, waterfalls filling | Underrated |
| July | Wet, rivers rising | Wet, the plateau at its best | Workable with slack |
| August | Wettest, roads difficult | Wettest, waterfalls at full volume | The most beautiful and the least mobile |
| September | Wet, rivers high | Wet, still very green | Risky for tight routes |
| October | Rain easing, rivers full, green | Rain easing | The quiet good month |
November to February, the season we recommend
Dry, clear and comfortable, with the Mekong still high enough after the rains for river travel to be easy, the waterfalls still running and the northern hills gold rather than brown.
Luang Prabang in December sits at highs around 82F (28C) and lows near 57F (14C). That means a jumper before eight in the morning and short sleeves by ten, which is a nicer combination than it sounds and it is why the dawn hours here are the ones people remember. In the mountains at Nong Khiaw and Phonsavan it is colder again, and a January morning at the Plain of Jars can be genuinely cold before the sun clears the ridge. Bring a fleece. Most people do not.
The constraint is availability, not weather. The heritage zone in Luang Prabang is protected, so the good hotels are small and there are not many of them. December and January sell out four to six months ahead and the rates reflect it. If you want that town in that month, the booking decision is made half a year before the trip, not two months before. Our cost article sets out how much that timing is worth in dollars.
February is the sleeper month: still dry, warmer than January, slightly less crowded, and normally clear until the very end.
March and April, the two months nobody warns you about
Two problems, and they compound.
The heat. April in Vientiane and the southern lowlands regularly exceeds 96F (36C). At that temperature a temple morning is fine and an afternoon outdoors is not. Only the Bolaven Plateau at around 3,300 feet (1,000 m) and the highlands around Phonsavan stay comfortable in the middle of the day.
The haze. This is the one that is missing from most planning articles. From roughly late February through April, agricultural burning across northern Laos, northern Thailand and Myanmar produces a persistent smoke haze that can sit over Luang Prabang for weeks. In a bad year the mountains disappear entirely, air quality is genuinely poor, and the view from Mount Phousi at sunset is a grey wall. It varies year to year and it is not predictable more than a fortnight out.
We do not pretend otherwise. If your dates are locked to March or April we build the trip in the south, where the effect is much weaker, we say plainly what you are risking, and we do not fill the proposal with photographs taken in December.
Pi Mai, Lao New Year, falls in mid-April. It is three days of water throwing and it is one of the most enjoyable festivals in Asia to be present for. It is also three days when businesses close, transport runs to no schedule and nothing can be relied on. We plan for it deliberately or we plan around it. What we do not do is plan through it by accident, which is what happens when someone books flights first and asks about the calendar later.
May to October, the green season
The rain arrives in May and peaks in August and September. It is usually not all-day rain: it is a heavy afternoon downpour that clears, and the mornings are often bright. The country is at its most beautiful in these months. The waterfalls at Kuang Si and on the Bolaven run at full volume, the rice terraces are being planted and are an improbable green, and there are very few other visitors anywhere.
Rates fall accordingly, sometimes by half.
The cost is mobility, and it is a real cost. Unpaved roads in the north and east become difficult or impassable. River levels can stop boats as easily as start them. A landslide on Route 13 is a normal event in August rather than an emergency. Green season Laos works if you build slack into the plan and stay on the paved corridors and the railway. It does not work if you have a tight route, one flight home and no spare day. Our Asia-wide piece on travelling in the monsoon makes the general case; in Laos the specific issue is that there are so few alternative roads.
June and October are the two months in this window we actively recommend to people who want the green and can accept an afternoon indoors. October in particular: the rain is easing, everything is still green, the rivers are full and high enough for good boat travel, and the crowds have not arrived.
Region by region, if your dates are fixed
If you must travel in March or April: the south. Pakse, Champasak and Wat Phou early in the day, and then the Bolaven Plateau, which is the coolest habitable place in the country in spring and where the coffee harvest story is at its most interesting. Add Si Phan Don if you want to do nothing at all.
If you must travel in August or September: the rail corridor. Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang are all on the line, so a washed-out road does not strand you. Add short river legs rather than long ones and keep two spare half days.
If you have November to February: anywhere. This is when the north opens up properly, when the walking around Nong Khiaw is comfortable, and when the twelve-day adventurous route makes most sense.
If you want the festivals: Boun Ok Phansa at the end of Buddhist Lent, usually October, with boat racing on the Mekong and candlelit offerings floated on the river at Luang Prabang, is the one we would build a trip around before Pi Mai. Boun Bang Fai, the rocket festival, falls in May in the villages and is a very different sort of afternoon.
What we would tell a friend
If you have a free choice, go in November. It has the dry-season clarity without the peak-season rates of late December, the rivers are still full from the wet season, and the country has not yet filled with the January crowd.
If you are choosing between a January trip you have to book six months out and an October trip you can book in August, take October and accept some rain.
If your only option is April, go south, or go somewhere else this year and go to Laos next year. We have said that to clients and we would rather say it before the deposit than after the trip.
Plan this trip
Tell us the dates you can travel and we will tell you honestly what those dates buy, and what they cost you. A Laos specialist writes the first outline. Free, no obligation.
Keep reading
- Laos: the complete guide to planning your trip
- What does a trip to Laos really cost?
- The best two-week route through Laos
- Travelling Asia in the monsoon
- Adventurous Laos in 12 days
- All our Laos trips
Frequently asked questions
Is there a bad month for Laos?
Does it rain all day in the green season?
When is the Mekong best for boats?
How far ahead should we book?
Do these temperatures change?
Plan a trip to Laos is the slowest country in the region, and that is the point All Laos is the slowest country in the region, and that is the point trips
