Bangkok to Vientiane

Rapid No. 133 leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat at 21:25 and calls at Don Mueang at 21:42 and Ayutthaya at 22:30, so you can board near the airport if you've just flown in. It takes the line through Kaeng Khoi and Bua Yai rather than Korat, passes Udon Thani at about 07:00, and reaches Nong Khai at 07:55. After about 40 minutes there for Thai exit checks, it crosses the Friendship Bridge and arrives at Khamsavath station at 09:05. Thailand and Laos keep the same time, so there's no clock change.

The train is short, two third-class cars with fans and open windows, one air-conditioned second-class seat car and one air-conditioned second-class sleeper car with curtained upper and lower berths and bedding. At the station, third class costs ฿281, an air-conditioned seat ฿574, an upper berth ฿784 and a lower berth ฿874. The berth is the ticket I'd book for a night train. Passengers' reviews from mid-2026 say the air conditioning runs very cold, the lights stay on, there's no food service or hot water on board, and the train can run an hour or more late because of the border, so bring a layer, an eye mask and breakfast, and don't book anything tight in Vientiane that morning.

With only one sleeper car, the berths go first. By SRT's booking rules, a ticket for the whole Bangkok to Vientiane run should go on sale about 90 days ahead on the D-Ticket site and at stations. 12Go sells the seats with a booking fee, but on the dates I checked it showed no berths, so if the sleeper matters to you, book it with SRT as early as you can. If it's sold out, the No. 25 sleeper to Nong Khai is the better fallback.

At Nong Khai everyone gets off with their passport and goes through Thai exit immigration on the platform, then the train is moved down the platform and you board again. Reviewers say you can leave your luggage on the train for this northbound stop. Lao immigration and customs are on arrival at Khamsavath, where you queue with the rest of the train.

The official Lao e-visa site lists Khamsavath Railway Station and the Lao–Thai Friendship Bridge I among its e-visa entry points, so an e-visa works on the train and on the bridge. It usually takes three working days to process and needs a 4 x 6 cm photo and your passport's photo page, and the site gives the fee for your nationality before you pay. The visa on arrival at Khamsavath is about US$40 in cash for 30 days, per Seat61, paid in US dollars, baht or kip, with a passport photo and a short form. Seat61 also warns that dollar notes have to be in perfect condition.

Whichever you use, the UK government's Laos advice asks for a passport valid for six months with two blank pages. There's no currency exchange at Khamsavath, so I'd bring the visa money in cash and some baht for the ride into town.

Khamsavath station is about 7 km from downtown Vientiane. Seat61 puts a metered taxi at about 80,000–100,000 kip, and a car booked through your hotel at about 300,000 kip. Barrow's Thai Train Guide describes a shuttle bus that meets the train and runs to the Talat Sao bus station in about 30 minutes, for 20,000 kip when the service started, but one passenger in July 2026 found only taxis and minivans waiting, so don't count on it. Travelers also use LOCA, the Lao ride-hailing app, if you have data.

Special Express No. 25 is the newer Chinese-built sleeper, with first-class two-berth cabins and a restaurant car. It leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat at 20:25 and reaches Nong Khai at 06:25, and Seat61 lists second-class berths at ฿894–994 and first class at ฿1,350–1,550 to Nong Khai. From there you have two ways over. You can wait about two hours on the platform and take the last leg of No. 133, Nong Khai at 08:35 to Khamsavath at 09:05, for ฿70 in third class or ฿120 in second, clearing Thai exit with the through passengers. Or take a tuk-tuk from the station to Nong Khai bus station, where a shuttle bus crosses the bridge about every 20 minutes for about ฿30–40, stopping at Thai exit and then Lao immigration.

The day train, No. 75, leaves Krung Thep Aphiwat at 08:45 and reaches Nong Khai at 17:30, five minutes after the evening train to Laos, No. 147, has left at 17:25. So from No. 75 you'd take the bridge bus. Both checkpoints are open from 06:00 to 22:00, so there's time, but you'd arrive in Vientiane after dark. The Lao end of the bridge is about 25 to 30 km by road from the center, where taxis and tuk-tuks wait. Our Bangkok to Udon Thani guide has all three trains north with their Udon times.

Transport Co., the state bus company also called BKS, runs an international express from Mo Chit 2 to Vientiane at 20:00. 12Go lists it arriving at Talat Sao, the bus station by the Morning Market in central Vientiane, at about 11:20, after about 15 hours with both border checks, for about ฿983 with its booking fee, and BusOnlineTicket lists fares from ฿900. Passengers say the staff walk you through the border, and you stay with the same bus. It's cheaper than a berth on the train but slower, and you get off in the middle of town instead of 7 km out, so it suits a tight budget more than a good night's sleep.

Three airlines fly nonstop. Thai Airways and Lao Airlines fly from Suvarnabhumi, with Lao Airlines advertising two flights a day, and Thai AirAsia flies from Don Mueang. The flight takes 1 hour 10 to 1 hour 20. Many listings on booking sites route through China or Singapore and take most of a day, so filter for nonstop. Wattay International Airport is about 3 km from the center, and it's an e-visa entry point as well as offering a visa on arrival. If you've landed at Suvarnabhumi on a long-haul flight, the Thai Airways or Lao Airlines connection saves the trip across town to Don Mueang.

When the Vientiane flights are expensive, the domestic flights to Udon Thani are often the cheaper half of the trip. About a dozen a day leave Don Mueang and Suvarnabhumi and take about 1 hour 10. BKS buses to Vientiane leave Udon Thani Bus Terminal 1 at 07:00, 09:00, 11:30, 13:30 and 15:30 and stop at Udon Thani airport 30 minutes later, then cross the Friendship Bridge on the 87 km run, for ฿80. An early flight puts you in Vientiane by the afternoon. Our Bangkok to Udon Thani guide has the flights by airport.

Plan the return before you leave. Coming back into Thailand by train or over the bridge is a land entry, and on the visa exemption, now 30 days for most passports, land entries are capped at twice per calendar year, with Malaysian, Bruneian, Indonesian and Singaporean passports exempt from the cap. Every entry also needs a fresh Thailand Digital Arrival Card. A trip to Vientiane is a good reason to cross, but I wouldn't treat it as a guaranteed way to reset a stay; our Thailand visa guide covers the rules by nationality.

The UK government's Laos advice warns of bag snatching by people on motorbikes in Vientiane, so carry your bag away from the road. Laos has zero tolerance for drugs, and e-cigarettes and heated tobacco are illegal too. The only area the UK advises against visiting is Xaisomboun Province, far from Vientiane.

Going back, Rapid No. 134 leaves Khamsavath station at 18:25, stops at Nong Khai for Thai immigration, where everyone gets off with their bags, and reaches Bangkok at about 07:20 to 07:30. Lao exit costs 10,000 kip at the station, and coming back into Thailand by land counts toward the exemption's two land entries a year. Our Vientiane to Bangkok guide has the full timetable, the switch to the No. 26 sleeper at Nong Khai, the buses, the flights by Bangkok airport and the re-entry rules.