Getting around Roi Et.

The province's real connection to the rest of the country. Roi Et Airport sits in Thawat Buri district a short run north of the provincial town, with a runway of about 2,100 by 45 metres — long enough for a Boeing 737 or an Airbus A320, which is what actually serves it. Thai AirAsia operates daily to Don Mueang, roughly 470 kilometres away, and is currently the only airline flying from Roi Et; the schedule runs to roughly twenty-eight departures a week, all to the same single destination. Nok Air served the airport in the past and later withdrew, which is worth knowing for two reasons: there is no competing carrier to discipline the fare, and a single-airline route is a single point of failure. Bangkok is the only direct destination — there are no international services and no other domestic city on the board. There is no rail or public shuttle link to the terminal, so plan a taxi, a hotel transfer or your own vehicle.

Roi Et has no railway. This is not a case of a thin service or an inconveniently placed halt — there is no track anywhere in the province, and no station. The Northeastern Line splits at Nakhon Ratchasima and its two branches pass either side of Roi Et: the northern branch runs through Khon Kaen and on to Udon Thani and Nong Khai, and the eastern branch runs through Surin, Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani. Roi Et sits in the gap between them. Almost every general guide to Thailand describes the country as rail-served and every neighbouring province here has a station, so the assumption is easy to make and expensive to make wrongly. If you want to arrive by train, the practical option is Khon Kaen, about 113 kilometres northwest, followed by roughly ninety minutes to two hours of bus or minivan.

A railway through Roi Et has been proposed: a line of around 355 kilometres running from Ban Phai on the existing Northeast Line through Maha Sarakham, Roi Et and Mukdahan to Nakhon Phanom, as part of the East–West Economic Corridor scheme. If built it would give the province rail access for the first time and would change several of the calculations on this page. It is important to be precise about its status, because provincial land is sold on stories like this: it is a proposal, and BAANLYY has not verified a construction start, a completion date or a funded delivery programme for it. Treat it as a possible future, not a planned one, and do not let it price a purchase.

Roads do the work here. Highway 23 is the main east–west route, running west to Maha Sarakham and Ban Phai and east to Yasothon and on to Ubon Ratchathani — it is also the road to the regional hospital's teaching partner at Mahasarakham University, about forty kilometres west. Highway 214 runs north to Kalasin and south through Kaset Wisai toward Surin and Prasat. Highway 215 heads south to Suwannaphum and the Surin boundary, and Route 2044 runs east to Phon Thong. Bangkok is roughly 470 kilometres away by air and a long day by road. Long-distance buses connect Roi Et with Bangkok's Mo Chit Northern Terminal and with the Isaan network.

Roi Et town is flat, compact and built around Bueng Phalan Chai, and it is the one part of the province you can genuinely live in without a vehicle: songthaews and tuk-tuks cover the main roads and the bus terminal is walkable from the middle. Everything past the municipal boundary is a different proposition. The province spans 7,873 square kilometres across twenty districts with no mass transit, no railway and no fallback: Roi Et Rajabhat University is out at Ko Kaeo in Selaphum, the airport is in Thawat Buri, and the district towns of the Thung Kula plain and the eastern uplands are forty minutes to over an hour away. Most residents have a motorbike; most families end up with a car, and in a province where every medical transfer and every school run is a road trip, that is not an optional extra.