My experience is that it depends on the packages you use. Personal I try to upgrade directly after the packages I use support the new version. The latest upgrades didn't be a lot of work.

Your test should find any problem that an upgrade create.

Yes I agree with above's opinion.Besides, it depends where you use laravel, in production environment I suggest the LTS version, and if you just develop your personal program you can always use the latest version.

Besides, it depends where you use laravel, in production environment I suggest the LTS version, and if you just develop your personal program you can always use the latest version.

Personal I disagree. If you keep updating your project (there is a new version every 6 months) you don't need to stick to the LTS versions. This is (in my experience) more easy to do then to upgrade from LTS to LTS.

if you do upgrade you should first try to upgrade your app's backup copy in a local environment and see if it breaks and upgrade for real if it works

Upgrade should be handled on the same way as every code change. Local/dev -> automated tests -> acceptance/staging environment -> production :)