Is Isan Worth Visiting? An Honest Traveller's Guide to Northeast Thailand

The Honest Answer: Yes — But Read This First

Fewer than 3% of international visitors to Thailand ever make it to Isan. That number has barely moved in a decade, despite the region covering nearly a third of the country's land area and holding about a quarter of its population. We have been bringing private groups here for seventeen years, and we are still asked the same question at least once a week: "Is Isan really worth it?"

The honest answer is yes — with a very important caveat. Isan requires a mental shift that many travellers are not prepared to make.

You will not find beach resorts, infinity pools with Instagrammable sunsets, international restaurants with English menus, or the kind of polished, tourist-ready infrastructure that Bangkok and Chiang Mai have spent decades building. If that is the holiday you are looking for, Isan will disappoint you, and we would rather tell you that upfront than have you discover it on day two.

What you will find is something increasingly rare in Thailand: the country as it actually is. The most genuine daily life, the warmest people, food that chefs in Bangkok openly describe as the soul of Thai cuisine, Khmer temples with no ticket queues and almost no other tourists, and the Mekong River drifting past Laos on the other side. For the traveller who values depth over convenience, Isan is not just worth visiting — it is essential. Explore more on our Isan destination page.

Where Is Isan, Exactly?

Isan (also spelled Isaan or Issan) is Thailand's northeastern region, a vast plateau bordered by the Mekong River to the north and east — which forms the border with Laos — and by Cambodia to the southeast. It encompasses 20 provinces and sits on the Khorat Plateau, a broad, flat tableland that gives the landscape its characteristic openness: wide rice paddies, thin forest lines, and enormous skies.

With approximately 22 million people, it is Thailand's most populous region by a significant margin. It is also historically the poorest. Many Bangkokians with Isan heritage are quietly proud of where they come from — Isan people make up the majority of Bangkok's working population — but the region itself has long been overlooked by the mainstream Thai tourism industry, let alone the international market.

That gap between significance and recognition is exactly what makes it so interesting.

Khmer Ruins That Predate Angkor

Before Angkor Wat was built, the Khmer Empire was already constructing temples on the Khorat Plateau. Two of the most important Khmer monuments in mainland Southeast Asia sit not in Cambodia, but in Isan — and most visitors to the region never see them.

Prasat Khao Phnom Rung

Built between the 10th and 13th centuries, Prasat Khao Phnom Rung sits on the rim of an extinct volcano in Buriram province. The approach is along a 160-metre processional walkway flanked by naga balustrades, ascending through three ceremonial terraces to a central sanctuary dedicated to Shiva. The sandstone carving is extraordinarily detailed — the lintel above the main entrance depicts the Reclining Vishnu in a quality of execution comparable to the finest work at Angkor. In fact, one of Phnom Rung's lintels was removed in the 1960s and ended up in the Art Institute of Chicago, eventually returned after years of diplomatic negotiation.

On a weekday morning, you may share this complex with a handful of Thai school groups and almost nobody else. The contrast with Angkor Wat — which receives 10,000+ visitors a day — is stark.

Prasat Muang Tam

Twelve kilometres from Phnom Rung, Prasat Muang Tam (the "Lower City Temple") is smaller but arguably more atmospheric. Four L-shaped ponds surround the central sanctuary, their stone edges lined with five-headed nagas. The complex has been conserved but not over-restored, and there is an honesty to its weathered state that the more pristine sites lack. We almost always include it as a half-morning add-on when we route guests through Buriram.

Ban Chiang: One of Asia's Most Significant Archaeological Sites

In 1966, a Harvard student named Stephen Young tripped over a pottery shard while visiting a friend's family in Udon Thani province. What subsequent excavations revealed changed the understanding of Southeast Asian prehistory entirely.

Ban Chiang is a Bronze Age settlement dating back approximately 5,000 years — making it one of the earliest centres of bronze metallurgy in the world, predating similar developments in China and putting Southeast Asia much earlier on the human timeline than previously assumed. The site's pottery is immediately distinctive: red-on-buff geometric spirals and whorls that look more like 20th-century abstraction than ancient craft. UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1992.

The on-site museum is genuinely excellent — burial excavations are preserved in situ under glass, allowing you to see skeletons surrounded by the bronzeware and ceramic pots that were placed with them. For anyone with even a passing interest in archaeology or world history, this is one of the most compelling sites in Southeast Asia. It draws a fraction of the attention it deserves, largely because it is in Isan.

The Food: This Is Where It Comes From

Isan food has become fashionable in the past decade. Som tam (green papaya salad) is on menus in New York and London. Larb is appearing in Michelin-starred restaurants in Bangkok. Gai yang (charcoal-grilled chicken, typically served with a fierce jeaw dipping sauce) has its own cult following.

What you eat in the region is the original — and it is significantly different from what you encounter anywhere else. The som tam here is made with pla ra, a fermented fish paste with a punishing depth of flavour. The heat level is calibrated for people who eat this daily from childhood. The sticky rice (khao niao, always steamed, never boiled) is the staple — you do not eat it with a spoon, you tear a small ball from the basket with your fingers and use it to scoop other dishes.

Larb in Isan often contains toasted ground rice and raw herbs that do not appear in Bangkok adaptations. The version from the Loei-Udon corridor uses fresh dill, a herb that most Thais outside the northeast do not cook with. A good market breakfast in Ubon Ratchathani — a bowl of khao tom (rice soup), a skewer of grilled pork, a small bag of fresh herbs — costs about 60 baht and is better than a great deal of expensive food we have eaten in tourist zones.

"Isan is the part of Thailand that hasn't learned to perform for tourists yet — and that is the most compelling thing about it."

— We Go Round Travel, 17 years of private trips across all 20 provinces

Language and Practicalities

The Isan dialect is linguistically much closer to Lao than to Central Thai. An Isan speaker from Ubon Ratchathani and a Vientiane resident from Laos can hold a conversation without difficulty. Most Isan people also speak standard Central Thai — it is taught in schools and used on television — but written signage, market menus, and village interactions operate entirely in Thai script with Isan vocabulary.

English is spoken in a handful of hotels in Khon Kaen, Udon Thani, and Ubon Ratchathani. Outside those, it is genuinely rare. This is not a problem — it is simply a reason why Isan rewards proper preparation. With a knowledgeable guide who speaks Isan dialect, doors open that are simply invisible to the independent traveller navigating on Google Maps.

Related Trips

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Ubon Ratchathani & the Mekong

Pha Taem cliff art, Khong Chiam, and the Mekong River where it borders three countries.

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Udon Thani & Ban Chiang

UNESCO Bronze Age site, Nong Han lake, and northern Isan food culture.

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Destination Guide

All Isan Itineraries

Browse every Isan private tour we offer — from 3-day introductions to 10-day deep dives.