Thailand · Changwat Ubon Ratchathani
Where to Stay in Ubon Ratchathani, Changwat Ubon Ratchathani
Ubon Ratchathani is a city of northeast Thailand on the Mun river near the Mekong, the great city of Isan, famed for its festival of giant carved candles.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Ubon Ratchathani
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Ubon Ratchathani turns on the town or the rivers. The streets around the old temples keep the shrines, the market, and the museum within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the festival. The Mun runs below the town.
Temples fill the old quarter. Out toward the Mekong and the cliffs, the town gives way to the river country, the painted rocks, and the canyons of the border. A room by the river trades the streets for the quiet banks, the Mekong views, and the wild rocks of the border country.
The rivers run east to Laos. Stay downtown for the festival, or out for the rivers. The candle city sits on the Mun near the Mekong.
About Ubon Ratchathani
Ubon Ratchathani is the candle city of Isan.
What is Ubon Ratchathani known for?
On the Mun river near the Mekong in northeast Thailand, it grew as the great town of the lower Isan, and it keeps the giant carved candles of its Buddhist-Lent festival, the ancient rock paintings of Pha Taem above the Mekong, the strange rock canyon of Sam Phan Bok in the river, and the old teak temples of the town. The wide Mun runs to the Mekong. Flat Isan spreads all around.
What are the main landmarks in Ubon Ratchathani?
The Candle Festival is the pride of Ubon Ratchathani. The great procession of carved beeswax floats for Buddhist Lent, worked by the town's temples, is the emblem of the city, downtown. Cliffs hold ancient art.
The painted rocks of Pha Taem rise over the Mekong upstream, while the Sam Phan Bok canyon, the teak temples, and the two rivers mark the country around Ubon Ratchathani.
What is the history of Ubon Ratchathani?
Ubon rose on the Mun in the east. Founded by Lao settlers two centuries ago, it grew as the chief town of the lower Isan, a land long shared between Thai and Lao. The rivers shaped its life.
On the Mun and the Mekong the town traded and fished, and its temples filled with the Lao Buddhist art of the border country. The candles made the town famous. Each year for Buddhist Lent the temples of Ubon carved great floats of beeswax, and the Candle Festival grew into the grandest in Isan, filling the streets with sculpture and song.
The river held wild wonders. Upstream lay the painted cliffs of Pha Taem and the rock canyon of Sam Phan Bok, carved by the Mekong, and Ubon grew as the great city of the lower Isan, keeping its candles, its rivers, and its temples. The candles still light each Lent.
Ubon Ratchathani keeps its river city on the Mun.
Where is Ubon Ratchathani?
Ubon Ratchathani lies in the far east of Thailand, on the Mun river in the lower Isan. The city sits on the flat plain of the Mun near where it joins the Mekong, in a dry land of rice and forest, with the Mekong marking the Lao border to the east and Cambodia lying to the south. The Mun runs slow and wide.
Flat plains reach the rivers.
What is the climate of Ubon Ratchathani?
Ubon Ratchathani has a hot, tropical savanna climate. Warm weather holds all year, with a wet monsoon in the summer and a cool dry season from winter into spring. The monsoon floods the Mun.
Dry winds cross the winter plain.
How do you get to Ubon Ratchathani?
Ubon Ratchathani lies in the far east of Thailand, near the Lao border. Trains and flights run to it from Bangkok across Isan, and roads lead east to the Mekong and Laos. Boats work the Mun.
Bangkok lies far to the west.
Good for
Updated August 2026