Exploring the Isaan region of Northeast Thailand is a must if you’re road tripping Thailand. We love nothing more than doing a slow drive and if we’re going to do a road trip in Thailand, our first choice will be the Isaan region, Thailand’s most off-the-beaten-track region in the remote northeast of the country.
‘Isaan’ means ‘northeast’ and Thailand’s northeast is the least-visited part of the popular tourist destination. Renting a car to explore the Isaan region of Northeast Thailand on a road trip had long been a dream of mine. I love a slow drive and while road tripping Thailand is something we love to do, and we’ve driven all over the country researching travel guides and stories, we’d never driven Thailand’s Isaan region until this trip.
But first, a confession: I don’t drive. Well, I can drive and I have driven, but I never got around to getting formal lessons or a driver’s license. Terence drives and I navigate. That partly explains my fondness for, okay, let’s admit it, my absolute obsession with maps. But this trip we did neither and the Thailand road atlas I’d lovingly highlighted and dog-eared on our last road trip around the country to update the DK Thailand guidebook stayed packed away.
Instead, because we were on a magazine assignment, and Terence had thousands of images to shoot and I had endless notes to make, we hired a driver for exploring the Isaan region. We were driven around northeastern Thailand by Narawat, an excellent English-speaking driver from Ubon Ratchathani, who knows the region intimately. If you like the idea of an Isaan road trip (self-drive or chauffeured) here’s how we did it.
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Exploring the Isaan Region of Northeast Thailand is a Must if Road Tripping Thailand
Exploring the Isaan region by car in Thailand’s northeast had long been a dream of mine, which is why I’d pitched an Isaan story to a magazine editor in the first place. A driver is a necessity for us when we do these kinds of stories, but especially so in a region such as Thailand’s northeastern Isaan.
We’re getting up well before the crack of dawn, we’re working our butts off all day checking things out, making beautiful photos (Terence) and interviewing people (me). We’re going to bed late after downloading and backing up images (Terence), writing up notes (me), answering emails (both of us), and re-confirming arrangements (me).
It’s too exhausting to worry about driving and navigating on top of all that. Trust us, we’ve done this so many times before. But being driven is not the same as self-driving. The things I love about our road trips are the rituals we develop and the freedom driving ourselves gives us.
While hiring a driver certainly provides a lot more freedom to go anywhere and do anything than we’d have taking a bus or train – and that freedom is what we’re paying for – we’re still conscious of how many hours the driver has driven, how hard we’re working the poor guy, and how much we’re paying him, to really go crazy.
When we drive ourselves we can spontaneously decide to stay longer in a place that looks intriguing or skip a town that seems dull and drive longer into the night if we choose. It’s hard to do that with another person, even when we’re paying him.
And it’s also hard to develop those rituals that make road trips special. We’ve done long road trips before – from a few weeks to a few months – around Australia, Morocco, Syria and Lebanon, the UAE, Oman, Spain (this Mallorca road trip was one of the most memorable ever), Italy (The Italian Lakes! Calabria!), France, Germany, Cyprus, Greece, Bulgaria, and more… our first ever road trip as a couple (after eloping in Vegas!) was along Route 66 in the USA. So we know how road trips play out…
After a few days on the road you get into the swing of things, forming certain habits, and acting out particular rites, especially on long trips: there are the soundtracks that create themselves, the silly games that are played, the pit-stops for breakfast, coffee, lunch, snacks, tea, and toilet stops.
Then there are those spontaneous looks across to each other and sudden manoeuvres when you see something you want a closer look at and the screech of bringing the car to a halt for: a cool shot, a kooky sign, a camel, or kangaroo.
Exploring the Isaan region in Thailand is no different. Only there we were mostly stopping for processions of monks, spirit houses, monkeys, and elephants. And in the Isaan, cowboys and cows, too.
But you don’t really do any of that when you have a driver, a stranger. You behave yourself instead, which makes for a much more serious road trip, and road trips after all are meant to be fun.
With more signs in Thai than not, fascinating and diverse landscapes that are especially lovely once you get off the highways, and all sorts of interesting stuff by the side of the road to stop for – from gai yang and som tam (chicken and papaya salad!) and Isaan sausage sellers to extravagantly decorated shrines – the Isaan is certainly a region that’s made for road-tripping.
Tips to Exploring Thailand’s Northeast Isaan Region By Car
These are our tips to exploring the Isaan region in Thailand by car.
To Self Drive or Hire a Driver in Northeast Thailand?
Driving in Thailand is actually easy if you’re not working as we were, but when it comes to exploring the Isaan region, driving in the northeast is an absolute delight. We’d never had any problems driving in Thailand before, and road tripping the Isaan region was a breeze, with good roads and very little traffic.
But if you’re not confident driving in a foreign country and find the thought of it stressful, or you’d simply prefer to sit back and take in the scenery than have to worry about which road to take, then definitely hire a driver with a car. Then again, there’s always a first time for everything…
When to Go to the Isaan Region
Exploring the Isaan region is about as off-the-beaten-track as road travel gets in Thailand for foreign travellers, so there’s really no period when you need to avoid the high season crowds of other regions.
November to February are the coolest and driest months, while March and April are sweltering. Check the Tourism Authority of Thailand website www.tatnews.org for festivals and events in the region such as Phi Ta Kon.
Where to Start and End Your Isaan Region Road Trip
If you don’t feel like driving all the way from Bangkok, because distances around the Isaan region are large, then we recommend taking a bus, train or plane to Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) or flying to Udon Thani or Ubon Ratchathani, then picking up a car from the airport or town and begin exploring the Isaan region in the region itself. We recommend buying bus and train tickets on 12Go.
On this particular trip, we took a bus to Korat from Bangkok (see this post for details), where we met our driver. From Korat we headed east, drove north, then northwest, looped around the Loie province, and flew out of Khon Kaen. We would have spent even longer in the region, but we were on a tight schedule as we had a magazine deadline.
If we would have had more time, we would have gone as far east as Chong Mek and Khong Chiam, north to Nakhon Phanom and explored the northeast, and then headed west to Udon Thani and up to Nong Khai. We will do that next time.
Renting a Car in the Isaan for Your Northeast Thailand Road Trip
We’ve rented cars and driven the length and breadth of Thailand and we always book hire cars online through booking sites or a major car rental company site and collect the vehicle from the airport. We strongly recommend doing this, as driving from the airport gives you a chance to adjust to the roads and signs on the way from the airport to your hotel, rather than picking up a hire car in the chaotic centre of a city and navigating your way out. Which we’ve also done!
Make sure you buy car insurance from the car rental company if you’re not covered by your travel insurance and always take your own road atlas or maps, a Thai-English dictionary, and a Thai phrase book.
Hiring a Driver for Exploring the Isaan
If you decide to hire a driver for exploring the Isaan region, you can try and organise a driver through your hotel, however, this is usually the more expensive option in Isaan and you’ll find it difficult to find one who speaks English.
It took us a long time and our best contacts to find an English-speaking driver in the Isaan, but it was worth it, he was brilliant. Narawat is lovely, knowledgeable and flexible. His number is 081 579 0388. If you book him, do tell him we sent you.
These days we book drivers with vehicles, as well as airport transfers and other transport on Get Your Guide, which has very comprehensive offerings when it comes to car rentals with and without drivers, transfers, and buses, mini-buses etc. Highly recommend it.
Are you planning on exploring the Isaan region of Northeast Thailand by car? Or have you done a road trip through Thailand’s northeast before? Do let us know if you have any questions in the comments below and feel free to share tips for our readers.
Hi! I really wan to let you know that I enjoy your blog. I came across it while conducting research for a final grad school paper. I’m getting my MS in Tourism Management. I am traveling to Thailand in January with my husband and I’m interested in a couple things: 1) Can you recommend other cooking classes (good quality but less expensive than the Mandarin Oriental class. 2) How far is Isaan from Bangkok and it is a full one-day trip? We are only in bangkok for a few days then traveling to Koh Samui. Thanks a lot! – Nik
Hi Nik, thank you so much for your kind words. What’s your grad school paper on? (I was an academic in a former life, so curious to know.)
We can recommend another cooking class, which we’ll be posting on next week – the only reason we haven’t posted about it yet is because we have a story about it coming out in the Australian travel magazine Get Lost on the 1st January – but it’s called Helping Hands Thai Cooking School and it’s ran by a vivacious young woman, a former noodle vendor, called Poo, our of a small kitchen opposite her home in the slums of Khlong Toey. It’s worth doing as much for the insight it provides into everyday life there as much for the course itself. The course is very simple – nothing like the Mandarin Oriental; it’s probably the extreme opposite in terms of the kind of experience it is – but it’s great fun. Look out for that post next week.
You can’t do the Isaan region in a day trip I’m afraid, even if you were to fly. It’s Thailand’s largest region and distances are vast. It’s really a region that is made for a road trip and warrants a minimum of a few days if not a week to explore. I’d recommend you stick to Bangkok for your few days as it’s a fabulous city and there’s so much to see and do. If you wanted a day trip out of town, you could take a boat up to Ayuttaya, which boasts beautiful sprawling archaeological ruins. It was hard hit by the recent floods and they desperately need tourists.
Enjoy! And do let us know if you need more tips. Also come back after your trip and tell us how you enjoyed Thailand!
Great post! I used to live in a small village outside of Ubon and am planning to come for a visit next month. There is very limited bus service, and since I have don’t have a valid driver’s license in any country, I am in need of a driver!
Narawat sounds lovely, I will be contacting him soon. I’ll definitely tell him how I found him.
Best
Sara
I recently went on a road trip in northern thailand too! I rented the car at Chiang Mai, went to Pai and the Mae Hong Soon area and drove back to Bangkok to return it. The Isaan region sounds really cool. Im definitely going back to Thailand to do that! thanks for sharing!
Sounds wonderful, Josie! We very briefly passed through Pai and Mae Hong Soon many years ago when updating a DK Thailand book but never spent anytime there. Keen to return and stay longer one day. What I like about the Isaan region is that it’s actually not extraordinary beautiful although it’s very bucolic in parts, and it isn’t developed for tourists, so you get a great insight into ordinary people’s lives. Do come back and visit us if you ever do that trip. Would love to hear how you like it. Thanks for visiting!