Pakse

Getting Here & Around

By Air

There are several Lao Airlines flights each day from Vientiane to Pakse, sometimes routed via Savannakhet; the flight takes an hour and costs $125 one-way. Lao Airlines flights from Siem Reap, Cambodia, arrive every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. The price of a one-way ticket is $115. A tuk-tuk from Pakse International Airport (4 km [2 mi] west of town) to the city center costs 30,000 kip to 40,000 kip.

By Boat

There is one public boat to Champasak each morning at 8 am for 70,000 kip per passenger. You can charter a boat for $60 to $70 (up to six passengers) from several agencies in town.

By Bus

Pakse is the transportation hub for all destinations in the south. Comfortable VIP buses (using the VIP bus station near the evening market) make the overnight, 11-hour journey to and from Vientiane (180,000 kip). Buses leave Vientiane nightly at 8 or 8:30 pm and arriving in Pakse at 6:30 am; the times are the same from Pakse to Vientiane. Pakse's central bus station, a short walk east of the VIP terminal, has hourly departures to Savannakhet (40,000 kip, 5 hours) and other points north.

Buses depart from the southern bus station (known as Lo Lak Pert, due to its location at the 8 km mark on the road east of Pakse) for the Si Phan Don area and Champasak. If you're headed to Si Phan Don, it's more convenient to take a minibus, which will pick you up at your hotel for 60,000 kip; all guesthouses sell tickets.

By Car

Any travel agent in town can arrange car rental with a driver.

By Taxi, Tuk-Tuk & Songthaew

Tuk-tuks around town cost 10,000 kip, and a charter out to the southern bus station costs 40,000 kip. Songthaews to Champasak (two hours, 30,000 kip) leave from the Dao Heuang market.