Luang Nam Tha Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus & sǎwngthǎew

The main bus terminal (312164) is just west of the morning market.

Luang Nam Tha can be reached via all-weather Rte 1 from Udomxai (US$3.20, four hours, three daily). A side road going north off Rte 1 about one-third of the way to Udomxai leads directly to Boten (US$2, two hours, four daily) on the Lao-Chinese border. At the intersection of Rte 1 and the road to Boten, the small town of Na Toei has one guesthouse (US$2), a market, health clinic and customs checkpoint.

A sǎwngthǎew plies daily between Luang Nam Tha and Ban Na Lae (US$3.90, three hours, 9am), roughly halfway to Pak Tha alongside the Nam Tha.

One sǎwngthǎew travels daily to Huay Xai (US$6.50, eight hours), stopping in Vieng Phoukha (US$2.50, four hours) on the way, and there are about six sǎwngthǎew to Muang Sing daily (US$2, two hours). There is also one bus daily to Muang Long.

One bus a day also goes to/from Luang Prabang (US$7, eight hours, 8.30am). It’s the same bus that goes to Vientiane (US$14, 19 hours) and because you can’t buy tickets the day before, it’s advisable to get the bus station early as it fills up fast.

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Boat

See the Nam Tha River Trip for details on boat transport between Luang Nam Tha and the Mekong River.

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Air

At the time of writing Luang Nam Tha’s airport was under renovations in order to become an ‘International’ airport. The idea is to cater to flights from Thailand, although Chinese investment is likely to make more use of it. Once construction is completed Lao Airlines (312180) is likely to resume its flights to/from Luang Prabang (one way/return US$45/86) and Vientiane (one way/return US$84/160). Schedules are anyone’s guess.

If you don’t want to bus the whole way up here consider a flight to Udomxai and then take a bus from there.

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