Vientiane is the cheapest capital in Southeast Asia to spend a day in: almost every temple runs on a donation box, the riverfront costs nothing, and a bowl of khao piak sen is 25,000 kip. Three days here rarely tops 150,000 kip in entry fees.
Vientiane's busiest working temple asks nothing at the gate. Locals arrive from 06:00 with marigolds, bananas and raw eggs for the lintel stone said to hold the city's guardian spirit; a ruined Khmer laterite pillar stands in the back garden.
Home to the 16th-century bronze 'Temple of the Heavy Buddha' and one of the country's main monastic schools. Novices practise English in the courtyard between classes, the carved wooden facade is free to photograph, and nobody sells tickets.
An unflinching exhibition on unexploded cluster bombs and the prosthetic limbs made from them, housed at the national rehabilitation centre on Khouvieng Road. Open 09:00-18:00 daily, entry free, with a small cinema screening documentaries on loop.
The kilometre-long embankment park below Fa Ngum Road fills at dusk with badminton players, skateboarders and open-air aerobics groups thumping Lao pop from portable speakers. Benches, lawns and river views cost nothing.
The old Morning Market and its adjoining mall trade silver, Beerlao merchandise, SIM cards and textiles from 07:00 to 17:00. The upstairs food court is where office workers eat: laap, grilled chicken and sticky rice for 20,000-30,000 kip a plate.
The scruffy wet market behind the bus station is the cheapest hot lunch in the capital. Khao piak sen rice noodles run 20,000-25,000 kip, feu beef broth 25,000 kip, and vendors ladle free extra broth if you ask for 'nam eek'.
Vientiane's largest neighbourhood market, north of the centre and almost tourist-free. Whole roast ducks, Mekong river fish, bamboo shoots and bags of khao niaw sticky rice for 5,000 kip; the sweets aisle sells coconut cakes at 2,000 kip each.
Red-roofed stalls unfold along the Mekong embankment at 18:00 and pack up by 22:00, selling T-shirts, phone cases and hill-tribe fabric. The real value is the food row at the eastern end: grilled skewers 10,000 kip, papaya salad 15,000 kip.
A concrete garden of 200-plus Hindu and Buddhist figures poured by a self-taught shaman-priest from 1958, 25 km downriver. Climb inside the three-storey pumpkin-shaped dome for a view over the Mekong and the sculpture field.
A forest temple in a stand of old trees south of the centre where monks teach meditation and lay attendants run a wood-fired herbal sauna from 13:00. Entry to the grounds is free; the steam room costs about 20,000-30,000 kip.
A crumbling brick stupa stranded on a roundabout, stripped of its gold and, in local telling, once home to a seven-headed naga that defended the city against Siamese invaders in 1827. Free, unfenced, and a two-minute walk from the Nam Phou fountain square.
Three floors above Fa Ngum Road, this open rooftop looks straight across the river to Thailand and charges nothing to enter. A large Beerlao is around 20,000 kip — cheaper than most ground-floor riverside restaurants with the same view.