The Isaan Loop: A Road Trip Through Northeast Thailand

Isaan is the northeastern third of Thailand and the part almost no visitor drives. It has the emptiest main roads in the country, the best Khmer architecture outside Cambodia, and a week's worth of driving that can be strung into a loop from Bangkok: up over the Khao Yai escarpment, east along Highway 24 past the temple mountains, out to the Mekong at Ubon Ratchathani, and back along Highway 2.

The driving is the easy part. Isaan roads are wide, flat, straight and lightly used, and after a week of them you will wonder why anyone hires a driver in Thailand. What the region asks of you instead is willingness — to eat somewhere with no English menu, to stay in a provincial hotel rather than a resort, and to spend a lot of hours looking at rice.

• Total distance1,200-1,500km depending on version
• Time7 days comfortable, 5 at a push
• Main roadsHighway 2, Highway 24, Highway 304, Route 2090
• Best seasonNovember to February
• VehicleA car. Distances are too big for a scooter.

The shape of the loop

Out from Bangkok on the southern side, east along the bottom of the Khorat plateau, north-east to the Mekong, and back west on the Mittraphap road. Anticlockwise, in other words, which puts the interesting driving early and the fast road home at the end.

That is one shape. There are others: cut it short at Ubon and fly home, or extend north from Ubon along the river to Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom and pick up the Mekong river road, which is the better trip if you have ten days rather than seven.

Getting out of Bangkok: two ways up the escarpment

Isaan sits on the Khorat plateau, and you have to climb onto it. There are two routes and they are quite different.

Highway 2, the Mittraphap road, is the main artery: it starts at Saraburi and runs north-east through Pak Chong, Nakhon Ratchasima, Khon Kaen and Udon Thani to Nong Khai. It is four to six lanes, fast, and carries every lorry heading for Laos. It is the efficient choice and it is covered in detail in Highway 2: the Mittraphap road into Isaan.

Highway 304 is the interesting choice. It leaves Bangkok south-east through Chachoengsao, runs to Kabin Buri and then climbs north through the forest between Khao Yai and Thap Lan national parks to Wang Nam Khiao and Nakhon Ratchasima. On the way it passes under Thailand's first wildlife overpasses — a pair of vegetated bridges built over a road tunnel so that elephants, deer and, occasionally, tigers can cross between the two parks without meeting traffic. It is a genuinely handsome piece of road, and the forest section is the only real gradient in Isaan.

Khao Yai

Khao Yai is Thailand's oldest national park and part of a UNESCO forest complex. The usual approach is Route 2090, the Thanarat Road, which climbs south from Pak Chong on Highway 2 to the northern gate. Route 2090 has become a strip of vineyards, farm cafes, alpine-themed resorts and wedding venues over the last two decades, which is either charming or ridiculous depending on your mood, and it is jammed at weekends.

Inside the park, the road network is sealed, steep in places, and shared with wildlife. Gibbons, macaques, hornbills, deer and elephants are all seen from the road; there are signed elephant crossing points and rangers do close sections. There is a national park entrance fee, higher for foreign visitors than for Thais, payable at the gate.

Two nights is right. One is a long drive for a short look.

Khmer Isaan: Phimai and Phanom Rung

The Khmer empire built north as well as south, and the two great sites in Thailand are both on this loop.

Phimai sits about 60km north-east of Nakhon Ratchasima, reached on Route 206 off Highway 2. It is an 11th and 12th century sandstone complex in the middle of a small town, and its layout is generally thought to have influenced Angkor Wat rather than the other way round. Because it is in a town rather than on a hill, you can park a hundred metres from the gate and walk in.

Phanom Rung is the more dramatic of the two: a temple on the rim of an extinct volcano, approached up a processional causeway with a long stairway at the end. It is reached by a signed side road north off Highway 24 near Ban Ta Ko, between Nang Rong and Prakhon Chai. The smaller Muang Tam complex sits a few kilometres below it and is worth the extra half hour. Nang Rong is the practical base.

Highway 24 itself, which runs from near Nakhon Ratchasima east to Ubon Ratchathani, is the backbone of this trip: a wide, mostly four-lane road across open farmland with generous sight lines and very little on it. It is fast, easy and monotonous, and it is where you will do most of your kilometres.

Ubon, the Mun and the Mekong

Ubon Ratchathani is the eastern end of the loop and a bigger, livelier city than its reputation suggests. The reason to drive out here is what lies east of it, on the Mekong.

Khong Chiam is where the Mun river meets the Mekong, producing the two-colour water that gives the town its tourist tagline. It is about 80km east of Ubon on quiet provincial roads.

Pha Taem National Park, just north of Khong Chiam, has cliffs above the Mekong painted with prehistoric images of fish traps, hands and cattle, thought to be several thousand years old. The clifftop road gives you the river, Laos on the far bank, and one of the best sunrise positions in Thailand — this is the point where the sun first strikes the country.

Sam Phan Bok, further north along the river, is a stretch of eroded rock that emerges when the Mekong drops in the dry season, full of potholes and channels. It is only visible roughly between January and May; at high water it is under the river.

The roads out here are narrow, sealed and empty. Navigation gets harder — signage thins out and Thai script becomes the default — so download offline maps. See navigation apps in Thailand and reading road signs in Thai script.

What Isaan driving is actually like

Compared with anywhere else in Thailand, it is a holiday. Long straight roads, four lanes on the main routes, minimal congestion, and drivers who are not in a great hurry. The specific things that are different:

• Farm vehicles. The two-wheeled walking tractor with a trailer bolted on — the rot itaen — travels at about 20km/h, often without lights, and is everywhere at harvest.
• Distances between towns. Two hundred kilometres between places with a decent hotel is normal. Plan fuel and food around the towns, not around when you feel like stopping.
• Villages on the highway. Main roads run straight through settlements with no bypass and no speed change other than a sign. School zones and markets appear without much warning.
• Dogs. More of them, sleeping on warm tarmac, than anywhere else in the country. See dogs on the road in Thailand.
• Almost no other foreign drivers. Which means locals are not expecting one, and that cuts both ways.

When to go

November to February is much the best. Isaan gets properly cool in December and January — genuinely cold at dawn on the plateau — and the light is clear.

March to May is brutal. This is the hottest part of Thailand and temperatures on the plateau regularly exceed anything on the coast. Sandstone temples in open sun at 40 degrees are not enjoyable, and a vehicle without working air conditioning becomes a serious problem. Check the air conditioning at handover — see the car rental handover inspection.

June to October is the wet season and Isaan is at its most beautiful: the rice is green, the reservoirs are full and the Mekong is high. Roads flood locally and briefly rather than catastrophically. Sam Phan Bok is underwater.

Car or bike?

A car, for this loop. The distances are simply too great — five-hour driving days on open highway are not scooter territory, and Isaan's rental market outside the big cities is thin. Udon Thani and Ubon Ratchathani both have airports with car hire desks, which makes a shorter one-way or fly-in version practical; see car hire in Udon Thani and Isaan.

On a large motorbike it is a fine ride and the roads suit it. On a 125cc rental scooter, it is not a sensible trip. If you want to see one province rather than six, base yourself somewhere and ride locally.

Frequently asked questions

For the general character of driving up here, see driving in Isaan. For the road that gets you there, Highway 2. And if you would rather do this on two wheels under your own power, cycling in Isaan covers Thailand's quietest touring roads.