Another place to visit in Asia? Laos reopens
Somewhere that has definitely not been on my radar, but the landlocked South East Asian and Socialist nation of Laos is beginning to reopen their borders for tourism under a three stage programme which started in early-January.
The beginning is quite limited…
Unfortunately, this is not quite as flexible as schemes in place in Thailand and Singapore. The Laos scheme requires you to have pre-booked, packaged tours with an authorised travel agent and you can only visit specified zones within the nation including Vientiane, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. All visitors to Laos will need to either fly directly into Wattay International Airport in Vientiane on the following flights:
Lao Airlines from Bangkok to Vientiane once per week on Fridays
Thai Airways/Thai Smile from Bangkok to Vientiane twice per week on Thursday and Sundays
People can also cross via the First Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge. This is clearly not particularly flexible for anybody but it does open up options. This initial phase is expected to last until the end of March 2022 and is open to citizens of the following countries:
France, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, Finland, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Austria, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Italy, United States of America, Canada, Australia, Brunei, Indonesia, The Philippines, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Further expansion will happen
After the 1st April, there will then be two additional phases of border reopening. Phase 2 will involve expanding the Green Zone areas for foreigners to visit with an additional entry point through the city of Luang Prabang. I would assume that the countries mentioned above will be allowed access alongside a few extra - but this is not yet confirmed and neither has the tour group access been advised. Phase 3 is a bit more fuzzy but is anticipated to begin on 1st July 2022 with minimal travel restrictions. One would hope this would involve just proof of vaccination and a lateral flow test at the most.
This could make for some interesting multi-destination trips
Although trips are very difficult to plan right now, even more so across multiple borders, you could consider making a multi-city itinerary across South East Asia as many had done prior to Covid. For example:
Fly from a Vaccinated Travel Lane country such as the UK or US to Singapore. Spend a few days here.
Use the Thai Test & Go scheme, restarting on 1st February, to travel from Singapore to Bangkok. Complete a 1 night quarantine in Bangkok before travelling to other parts of Thailand, spending a week to 10 days in the country.
Finally, use a packaged tour from Bangkok to Vientiane on Thai Airways spending some time in Laos.
Although this would be a little complex to manage, it does show that aspirational air travel is once again possible. It is worth noting that you couldn’t do this in the other direction as you must only have a travel history within Singapore’s VTL countries in the past 14 days - of which Laos is not on the list. Finally, it feels like most countries are readjusting to a new reality where borders are beginning to reopen once more and people can get back to exploring once again.
