7 Best Things to Do in Vientiane in One Day

If you’re debating whether or not to spend a day in Vientiane–or more–odds are that you’ve come across online forums sharing descriptions like “dusty”, “boring”, and “not worth seeing”.

It’s true that Laos’ sleepy capital city doesn’t have the best reputation among tourists, but Jeremy and I had a different take. While we would never want to dedicate a huge amount of time to the city, we loved our one day in Vientiane!

With a short amount of time, we managed to see most of the best things to do in Vientiane.

Here’s how to explore the best of Vientiane in one day!

The Best Things to Do in Vientiane, Laos

Visit the Laos National Museum.

The Laos National Museum is unlike anything you would see in a major European or North American city.

It is small and worn down (peeling paint, dirty displays), it doesn’t have air conditioning, and it doesn’t even pretend to be unbiased in the facts presented.

While you’d never mistake it for the Louvre, I found myself fascinated by it.

The museum presents an interesting insight into the way that the Lao government views history (American Imperialists bad, Communists good), which is undeniably very different than the perspective we were raised with.

Even more so, the museum demonstrates how incredibly monetarily poor Laos is today. I found myself thinking that I had been to local museums in small towns with more resources while in the West.

Visit a Wat.

Vientiane has a handful of beautiful Wats, but with only one day in Vientiane, there’s no point in trying to squeeze them all in.

During our time backpacking Southeast Asia, we were constantly trying to balance experiencing beautiful Wats with avoiding getting “out-templed” (and I’m glad we did, because Angkor Wat was one of our last stops in the region, and it would have been a shame to be bored of Wats for that!).

If you’re trying to strike the same balance, we recommend visiting one, maybe two during your day in Vientiane (if you’re someone who really likes Wats).

We visited Wat Si Saket, which is directly across the street from the presidential palace.

It ended up being one of my favorite Wats of our time in Southeast Asia! I loved the walls of tiny Buddhas behind the larger Buddha statues.

Wat Si Muang, Pha That Luang, and Wat Ong Teu are a few more options worth considering.

Climb Patuxai (Victory Gate).

Did you know that Vientiane has its own Arc de Triomphe?

There are a few differences from Paris’ iconic version, of course: Vientiane’s Patuxai is slightly taller, made of concrete, and is more Laotian in design (though French influences are obvious).

The concrete and funds were actually given to Laos by the United States to build a new airport, though the arch was built instead.

Unlike the more famous Arc de Triomphe in Paris, Patuxai is extremely inexpensive to climb and had no line at all while we were there.

We paid $0.37/person during our visit, as best I can tell, price for foreigners as of 2026 has increased to 30,000 LAK, or roughly $1.39 USD.

There are salespeople inside the arch on the way up, ready to sell any souvenir imaginable.

At that price, the views from the top are not to be missed! Seeing the city from above is one of the best things to do in Vientiane.

Visit the COPE Visitor Centre.

The COPE Visitor Centre was tough to see.

The Centre exists to provide prosthetic limbs, among other treatments, to victims of the cluster bombing that the US performed during the so-called “Secret War” from 1964 to 1973.

The sheer numbers are astounding: two million tons of ordnance were dropped on Laos during those nine years, making it the most heavily bombed country per capita in history.

As is the nature of cluster bombs, many of them did not deploy immediately.

To this day, there are many areas of Laos which are unsafe to visit due to the possibility of inadvertently stumbling onto one of these bombs and causing it to explode.

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The government is trying to clear the countryside of bombs, but a combination of inefficiency/corruption and limited funds is making the task extremely difficult.

As an added layer of nuance, the metal in them is valuable, and there are Lao citizens who try to make money by collecting the ordnance themselves and selling the scrap metal, a clearly dangerous profession.

This was a hard piece of history to swallow–I had no familiarity with it before we visited Laos, which I think made it more difficult to hear about as an American–how could this not be covered by our history classes?

Knowing the Lao government’s propensity for propaganda a la the Laos National Museum, the first thing I did after getting back to our hotel was to Google the Secret War–but while the Lao National Museum did not take other points of view into account, the COPE Visitor Centre didn’t seem to need exaggeration to make their point about the human cost of war.

Wrap up your day in Vientiane at the Night Market.

I was underwhelmed by Vientiane’s night market, possibly because it was nearly identical to Luang Prabang’s night market and every other tourist-catering market that we saw in Southeast Asia.

That being said, it’s still one of the best places to visit in Vientiane at night, and one of the simplest and most popular places to get dinner!

The market is enjoyable to walk through, easily accessed by finishing the circle through Vientiane that we made throughout the day, and located in and around the Mekong River Park.

We were able to get some views of the river itself and also see the wide stretches of concrete where Vientiane citizens gather in the morning for group aerobics. If you’re an early riser, feel free to join in!

Consider visiting Buddha Park.

There is one major attraction in Vientiane that we are sad to have missed: Buddha Park, the eclectic park that is home to over 200 Buddhist and Hindu statues.

None of them are particularly historic (the park started in 1958), but it is an interesting place.

If you can pull yourself out of bed earlier than we do on a day after a long van ride, go to Buddha Park. It’s unexpected, it’s bizarre, and it’s one of the best things to do in Laos.

Unfortunately, it is also about a 45-minute tuk-tuk ride each way from the part of town we were staying in, and with only one full day in Vientiane, we simply didn’t have time for it.

If you’re going to add one more stop in Vientiane, Buddha Park should be it!

Was spending one day in Vientiane worth it?

At the end of the day, is Vientiane going on our list of favorite cities? No.

Do we ever feel the need to go back and spend several days exploring? Also no.

But we are very glad that we saw it!

If it makes sense for your itinerary, I would recommend spending one day in Vientiane while in Laos.

The city has some high points, it’s extremely inexpensive, and, most importantly, Vientiane provides extremely valuable context for understanding Laos as a whole.

Read More About Visiting Southeast Asia + Beyond

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