cambodia to laos

Can anyone tell me what bus travel is like from PP to Vientiane please?
Thanks
Senara

long journey you will need to at least change bus in Pakse but I would do it in several stages if it was me and certainly I would avoid any night buses

Yep, it's a long way - bits of the road in Cambodia are pretty rough... and the road from Pakse to Vientiane is very mountainous.

I would recommend doing it in stages.

My advice is based on the opposite journey - earlier this year I did Vientiane to Phnom Penh by bus, but of course I stopped along the way.... I stopped at Pakse/Paksong, Si Phan Don, side tracked to Ban Lung and also stayed at Kompong Cham.

If you are taking an overnight bus in Lao you can try for a 'sleeper' bus that has beds. The beds are tiny though so if you're travelling alone try to buy two tickets (saw plenty of backpackers spending the night spooning complete strangers - it's the only way to fit!).

Considering the reverse direction: Vientiane to Pakse - overnight is the fastest I believe (less traffic on the roads), and left at about 7pm and arrived about 12 hours later. Pakse to the Cambodian border is about 2 hours. There's not a lot of transport at this border so the thing to do is to book a ticket that covers both sides, but the border crossing will still take as long as it takes. I was on a bus that took appx 2.5 hours to then cross the border. A few more hours then to Kratie on a road that was very, very rough in January (could have been roadworks though I doubt it's all good now), a couple more to Kompong Cham and a few more to Phnom Penh....

I've been Cambodia and Laos a few times now and busses usually take longer than what was scheduled. But if you add up what I have put above it's 20+ hours!

Have fun

I could be wrong but although travel agencies will sell you through tickets, more than likely you will change buses at the border, but there will be another bus waiting on the other side. I have never seen any cross-border services between Phnom Penh and Laos using the same bus, I don't think they exist. Currently only Cambodia-Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) and Cambodia-Bangkok services use the same bus without needing to change at the border.

I think a daisy chained series of trips would be ok. But a single haul would be murder.