This is one of our Budget series of posts to give you an idea of how much we spent traveling around the world. Here we will look at Laos. Check our posts to see what kind of activities we did and where we stayed!

In Laos we used the Laotian Kip. We converted to US dollars using the current conversion rates at the time of our visit. It was approximately 8,000 Kip to $1.00.

Total Spent (12 days): $890.56

Accommodation: $311.48

We stayed in several places in Laos – 3 hotels, 2 guesthouses, and 1 hostel. The guesthouse we stayed at in Luang Prabang was beautiful and probably a little bit pricier than we would have stayed if we had not been with family.

Activities: $116.33

This included entrance fees for museums and wats, as well as a fee to cross a bamboo bridge in Luang Prabang. The majority comes from a day tour we did in Vang Vieng.

Alcohol: $11.78

We only count alcohol costs when it is not purchased with other food. This included several afternoon beers.

Food: $199.14

We ate out one to two times per day. A few of our guesthouses included breakfast, but not all.

Miscellaneous: $42.38

This included several souvenirs… More than we’ve bought almost anywhere in Asia. (A secret: It included some gifts for some special people in our lives!) Eric also got his hair cut!

Transportation: $137.44

We took buses between major cities, including one of the worst bus rides we’ve had in a long time, as well as two days on a slow boat to get to Thailand.

Visas: $72

It should have only been $70, but we stupidly forgot our passport pictures in our checked luggage and had to purchase them for $2.

This divides out to $74.21/day which is under $100/day budget! Still a little bit higher than we were hoping for countries in Asia. However, we stayed in mostly the biggest tourist cities and bought more souvenirs than is our norm.