When to go, and when not to
Laos has three seasons, not two, and the third one is the reason some trips disappoint. Here is what each month does to the country and to your photographs.
Three seasons
Most guides give Laos a dry season and a wet season. That is a season short, and the missing one is the reason people come home with grey photographs.
Cool and dry, November to February
Clear air, 15 to 30 degrees, cold at night in the mountains. Everything works. This is also when hotels fill and prices peak.
Hot and hazy, March to April
Agricultural burning across the north and into Thailand and Myanmar. Visibility falls for weeks, air quality is genuinely poor at times, temperatures reach 38 degrees. This is the season nobody advertises.
Wet, May to October
Heavy short downpours rather than all-day rain, green landscape, full waterfalls, prices down 30 per cent. Much better than its reputation.
Month by month
| Month | What it is like | Our view |
|---|---|---|
| November | Rains finished, air clean, landscape still green, 18 to 30 degrees | The best month in the country |
| December | Dry, clear, cold in the mountains at night. Peak visitor numbers | Excellent, book three months ahead |
| January | As December, coldest nights - 5 degrees on the Xieng Khouang plateau | Excellent, bring warm clothes |
| February | Dry and warming. Burning usually starts in the second half | Good in the first half, deteriorating in the second |
| March | Peak burning. Haze across the north, viewpoints lost for weeks | We would move your dates |
| April | Hottest month, 35 to 40 degrees, still hazy. Pi Mai mid-month | Only for Lao new year, which is genuinely worth it |
| May | First rains clear the air. Hot, green, quiet | Underrated |
| June | Wet season proper begins. Waterfalls fill | Good value, expect afternoon rain |
| July | Heavy rain, high rivers, muddy trails, leeches in the north | Fine for towns, poor for trekking |
| August | The wettest month. Occasional road closures | The one month we would actively discourage for a first trip |
| September | Rain easing, everything green, river levels high | Better than August, still wet |
| October | Rains ending, air clean, landscape at its greenest, few visitors | The best-kept secret of the Lao calendar |
The burning season, in detail
From roughly late February to late April, farmers across northern Laos, northern Thailand and Myanmar clear fields by burning. The smoke collects in the valleys, and because the region is mountainous it does not disperse quickly. In the worst weeks air quality readings in northern Lao towns reach levels that would trigger health warnings in Europe.
For a traveller this means three things. Long views disappear - the Nong Khiaw viewpoints, the Mekong from the boat, the karst at Vang Vieng, the plateau at the Plain of Jars are all reduced to white. Sunsets go. And anyone with asthma or a respiratory condition will notice it within a day.
What is unaffected: temples, museums, markets, caves, food, and people. A trip built around Luang Prabang and Vientiane in March is perfectly good. A trip built around landscape is not, and we will say so before you book rather than after.
Come anyway, and let us build a different trip: more towns, more culture, the caves at Konglor and Vang Vieng which are indoors, and the south, which is less affected than the north. Pi Mai in mid-April is one of the best festivals in Asia and worth planning a trip around on its own.
The wet season is better than you think
Between May and October it rains, usually hard, usually for an hour or two in the afternoon rather than all day. What you get in exchange is a green country, waterfalls at full strength, rivers high enough for easy boat travel, hotel prices 30 per cent below high season, and almost nobody at any of the sites.
What you lose: trekking gets harder and leechier, some dirt roads become slow or impassable, the Konglor cave boats stop when the river is high, and there is a real chance of losing half a day to weather.
Our own preference for a second visit to Laos is late September or October. The rains are ending, the country is at its greenest, the air is clean and the high season has not started.
Festivals worth planning around
| Festival | When | Where | Worth a detour? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pi Mai, Lao new year | Mid-April | Everywhere, biggest in Luang Prabang | Yes, if you accept being wet for three days |
| Boun Ok Phansa and boat racing | October full moon | Vientiane and Luang Prabang | Yes |
| That Luang festival | November full moon | Vientiane | Yes, the best week in the capital |
| Boun Bang Fai, rocket festival | May | Villages, especially in the south | If you happen to be there |
| Boun Khao Phansa | July full moon | Nationwide | Quietly, yes |
Festival dates follow the lunar calendar and move. Ask us for the exact dates in your year rather than assuming last year's.
So when should you come?
- If you can choose freely: November, or late October. Clean air, green landscape, and prices not yet at their peak.
- If you want certainty: December or January. The most reliable weather in the Lao year, and you pay for it.
- If you want value and do not mind rain: late September and October, or May.
- If you can only come in March or April: come, and let us build a town-and-cave trip rather than a landscape one.
- If you can only come in July or August: also come, but not for trekking, and accept that a day may be lost to weather.
Once you have a month, how many days you need is the next question, and it matters more than most people expect.
Questions travellers ask most
Is the burning season really that bad?
In the worst weeks of March, yes. Air quality in northern towns can reach levels that would be reported as a health event in Europe, and mountain views simply are not there.
It varies year to year and week to week. Some Marches are much better than others, and nobody can tell you in advance which kind you will get.
Will it rain all day in the wet season?
Rarely. The pattern is a heavy downpour for an hour or two, usually in the afternoon, and a clear evening. Whole days of rain happen but are not the norm.
August is the exception, when multi-day systems come through and roads occasionally close.
How cold does it actually get?
On the Xieng Khouang plateau at 1,100 m and on the Bolaven at 1,200 m, 5 to 12 degrees at night in December and January. In the northern valleys, 8 to 15.
Vientiane and the south stay above 18 at night. Heating is rare everywhere, so pack a fleece if you are going high.
When is it cheapest?
June to September, when hotel rates fall 30 to 50 per cent in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. Guides, vehicles and boats barely change.
That means the saving is real but smaller than a hotel-rate comparison suggests, because transport is the larger part of a trip cost here.
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Tell us what you want out of Laos
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.