Laos Visas - any experts out there?

We are trying to get visa's for Laos but are having trouble sussing out how best to do this.
Seems easy enough if you fly into to one of the main airports, cross overland in the south or spend 3 days applying for one in Bangkok - only if possible we dont want to have to do any of these!

Ideally we want to travel overland across the boarder somewhere up around Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand.
Anyone know if there is any other ways to get visas - either in advance from london, or at an obscure boarder crossing in the north havent been able to track down?

Hi

My advice would be to get one in London before you go to south-east Asia. Though it's a hassle, and might have been a waste of time if you do end up going through a border crossing where you can get a visa easily, if you get a visa in London it'll give you total flexibility to rock up to any border crossing you want. i wouldn't rely on being able to get one at an obscure border crossing.

Make sure you take some US dollars with you. It's not unknown for border guards to ask for a bit extra, but a few bucks can smooth your way.

There's a list of Laos embassies here: http://www.laosvisa.com/mynembassylist.htm

Have a great trip - Laos is a fantastic country.

True, things might have changed in the couple of years since I did it, but I got to Chiang Rai in the evening, and the accommodation sorted out the visa by the time we had to leave the next morning to cross. It was easy.

Hi there

I crossed into Laos on 1 Jan 08 so hopefully the visa regulations are still the same.  We crossed into Huay Xai in Laos (can't remember what it was called on the Thai side of the border but it's up north - we had to go thru Chiang Rai to get there).  Some of us already had our Laos visas obtained in Australia which made it a bit easier however there were a few I was travelling with that didn't.  It seemed pretty hasslefree as they just had to leave their passport with border control for about 4 hours and they would then issue the visa and you have to come back to the dock to pick it up later on.  Not sure how much they had to pay but it was all pretty straightforward.

Enjoy - Laos is one of my favourite places I have ever visited!

When we went to Laos we got it on arrival at the border and it took only 15 minutes to get. This was last year April so  shouldn't have changed to much. Good luck and have a great time, it is definitely my favourite place in the Far East.