Laos Group Tours is based in Luang Prabang and is one of the leading tour operators offering personal travel services and private tours in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore.
Naluang is a bus company based in Northern Laos and was established in 2006. They specialize in Southern Thailand, providing many different types of buses, schedules, domestic lines, and international lines to Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia.
The road to Nong Khiaw is not the best and I heard lots of horror stories from fellow travellers of their overstuffed minibuses and dreadful journeys. Not so ours. There were in fact more of us collected by tuk tuk for the ride, but the surplus people were taken off to join a different minibus rather than being squeezed in on loose seats in the aisle (as reported by other travellers who booked through different agencies). I had a choice between front row middle seat (by driver) or rear row and chose the former as I get carsick. So I probably had a better journey than most, as there was fresh air from the front windows and a good clear view of when the potholes were coming! That said, I thought our young minibus driver did a great job - he was a careful driver and negotiated overtaking, potholes and less careful vehicles overtaking in the opposite direction to ours with skill and in a very safety-conscious manner. He apologised spontaneously whenever he felt we had experienced tension or discomfort, which jst showed how hard he was trying to give us the smoothest ride possible. The scenery along the way was really good; I actually really enjoyed the journey - all 4 hours of it! We had one break of 10 mins where there were clean loos and a small shop. We left (and arrived) a bit behind schedule, but it was fairly immaterial really. . :-)
Even after booking online, you need to stay in regular queue to get bus ticket. Any available van and seat will be assigned at the time of ticket exchange.
There are number of vans are standby and leave as soon as van is full. Its your luck if you get bad van and bad seat or good one. All the vans added extra chairs to accommodate more people and those are not comfortable for 4 hours ride. Even I saw some vans having wooden chair tied to side of the seats. And you have to survive 4 hours on worse bumping roads.
As per booking, drop off is at southern bus station which is just 2. 5km away from city center. But bus dropped everyone at northern bus station which is more than 8km away from city center. And then you need to take tuk tuk if available by your own expenses.
No pick up or drop off offered by company. You need to reach bus station by yourself. If you can’t find any way to reach to bus station, you will miss the bus. Better book directly at bus station or agency which at least can provide tuk tuk to bus station.