Laos Travel Guide

A third of it
never went off.

Between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped more than two million tonnes of ordnance on Laos. Around 30% failed to detonate and it is still in the ground, still killing people. Nothing else you read about Laos matters more than this.

Laos is genuinely beautiful and the tourism copy is not wrong about that. It is just incomplete in a way that gets people hurt. Unexploded ordnance contaminates a quarter of all villages, clearance is measured in decades, and the organisations doing that work publish plainly about where the risk is and how visitors should behave. Read them before you read anything about tubing in Vang Vieng.

The reading list

Link-out only. Governments, institutions and primary data, not tour operators.

The unexploded ordnance

The defining fact of modern Laos, and the one thing a tour brochure will never lead with.

  1. UXO Lao

    National clearance programme · Primary

    The Lao national clearance programme. Survey data, casualty figures and clearance progress from the organisation actually doing the work.

  2. COPE

    Rehabilitation nonprofit · Primary

    Makes prosthetics for survivors. Their visitor centre in Vientiane is the single most worthwhile hour you can spend in the country, and free.

  3. Legacies of War

    Advocacy · Advocacy

    Campaigns for clearance funding and keeps the historical record of the bombing campaign. An explicit position, openly held.

  4. The Laotian Civil War

    Wikipedia · Reference

    The Secret War, why the bombing happened, and why it was denied for so long. Necessary background.

Practical, and honest

  1. Laos travel advice

    UK Foreign Office · Advisory

    Blunt where tourism copy is soft: UXO risk, road safety, methanol in spirits. Free, updated, and not selling anything.

  2. Laos health notices

    US CDC · Health

    Vaccination and disease guidance from a public health agency rather than a travel clinic with an upsell.

  3. Laos

    Wikivoyage · Guide

    Volunteer-written, no advertising, no affiliate links. The closest thing to an honest general guide.

  4. Laos

    CIA World Factbook · Reference

    Geography, economy and demographics in a standard format. Useful precisely because it is not written to sell.