Best place to stay in Ubon

[chris_samui]

Next month i will be going to Ubon for a week.

Can someone recommend me a hotel over there, and where is the best place to look around (restaurants, expat bars) I live in Bangkok and I am not familiar with Ubon.

Edited September 28, 2017 by chris_samui

[tonray]

26 minutes ago, chris_samui said:

Next month i will be going to Ubon for a week.

Can someone recommend me a hotel over there, and where is the best place to look around (restaurants, expat bars) I live in Bangkok and I am not familiar with Ubon.

There is a hotel called "The Bliss" ...it is owned and run by a French expat and his Thai wife. Very comfortable...and he can be very helpful with local attractions. Beautiful rooms too on a nice quiet side soi.

[Patriot]

anywhere except the Ubonburi Resort and Hotel ... near Do-Home. The place is a tip. An abandoned car in the front parking lot and the fridge's beers 3 years out of date ..... I do not exagerate ... 3 years out of date. The pool looked nice though.

[larsstig]

I have not stayed in many hotels in Ubon, but I enjoyed Com Pang hotel. It opened in 2016 and is run by a Thai family. About 1-2 km. from the citycenter. Enjoy your trip

 

http://asiahandbook.com/hotel/2017/01/16/come-pang-hotel/

[H508]

I stayed at Come Pang and V Hotel about a month ago, both were just fine. V Hotel had the better breakfast and was more like a traditional hotel. At Come-Pang. I finally got a soft (for Thailand) bed. Went through Agoda. Note Come-Pang doesn't have an elevator and at a minimum you're walking up 1 flight.

Edited October 1, 2017 by H508

[H508]

Things I did in Ubon that weren't bad (so leaving off places I didn't like): 

- Tawan Daeng, Wat Phrathat Nong Bua, Sirindhorn Dam (if you want to drive out of Ubon - places to eat and drink in pontoon boats on the lake), Country of Arts (3D picture place is okay, one in Pattaya is better, and it's only open on Saturdays), typical Central/Lotus/Big C (stay away from Sunee if you're looking for malls), I thought they had one of the better night markets to walk around and kill some time in as they had quite a few food places and trinkets, a year from now the Ubon Zoo will be good, but it's still under construction; if you have time to kill it's still okay and you drive a golf cart around it and can feed deer, see some tigers, and play with a sloth.

- Peppers, The Home, Outside Inn, a lot of people like Spago for pizza but meh (I usually don't like to disparage and name bad places, but for god's sake, stay away from Smile since you'll probably see that on a list of restaurants to go to)

Edited October 2, 2017 by H508

[Amusements]

Sunee Towers is decent. It's in a shopping mall on the main drag near Tescos.

[SantiSuk]

Hotels in Ubon are cheap and plentiful. Depending on what you want to do and what transport you would expect to use would determine an area of the city for you to narrow down the choice. Also depends on what type of entertainment you want. Girly type stuff is very spread out (no 'bar areas' or 'walking street'), so you will be using taxis if that's your bag.

 

Taxis - plentiful, but the basic proposition is that you phone one of several despatch numbers and they send a guy round. They come quickly are metered and are similar in price to Bangkok taxis, so with Ubon being a lot smaller you are likely to pay in the range of 40 to 80 baht for a single trip within the town (ie within the Ring Road) plus a despatcher usage charge of 20 baht. They are now 'flagable' on the streets as well, so if you are in the very centre you can usually get away with flagging one down. The 20 baht premium is not applied. The service is excellent; they come quickly on despatch and I have heard no real complaints about service/driver reliability. Language is the only and real issue if you do not have a basic command of Thai - taxi drivers are not used to foreigners, so expect some issues with telling the driver where you want to go unless it is an obvious hotel, restaurant or falang bar and are prepared to repeat it's name with several different emphasis/tone variations until the guy get's it, or unless you have a Thai business card for the destination. Get the English-speaking staff of where you are at to arrange your taxi.

 

Other public transport - there are fixed route baht buses throughout town. If you are into that mode then get a hotel that's near a baht bus route. Some samlors/bycicle 4 wheelers exist (mostly around the several fresh markets), which are a charming touristic experience if you speak some Thai - they are there for little old ladies with shopping needs, not tourists but I use them occasionally and it would be sad if they disappeared from the scene.

 

Walking. Parts of Ubon are very walkable and October will see cooler temperatures particularly in the evenings - should be 25 at say 9pm, not 32! Bring/buy a good umbrella though if you are a walker.

 

Give me answers (by PM if you want) and I'll narrow down the recommendations for you. Also, do you need a pool (that narrows choices down to only a handful and non of those very central) and do you eat breakfast in hotels or prefer room-only basis. 

 

Meanwhile: here's a few pointers:

* expect to pay 350 to 450 baht per night for cheap room-only backpacker/traveller type places with aircon and bathroom; 500 to 650 room only (possibly some snack brekkie/coffee in reception area) in a better quality budget hotel with 20-25 sq.m; 600 to 950 for slightly more boutiquey, better design plus buffet breakfast; 900 to 1,400 for a hotel with full facilities, quality fittings and a quality buffet breakfast and 1,400 to 1,600 for upmarket 4 to 5 star (there are only 2 of these I would consider)

*  The following link has some comments in post no 15.

My 5 top recommended hotels through the price ranges, as mentioned in that posting are:

- Padaeng Mansion

- T3 House

- Come Pang

- Bliss Hotel

- Laithong (executive rooms), which I prefer to top of the range Sunnee Tower
 

But location, pool, breakfast and room style/size would have a major bearing on the top 5 for you!

 

* Attached is a hopelessly anal critique of about 25 popular Ubon hotels

 

I can supply an 'entertainment' guide to Ubon which includes falang bars/ soapies / karaokes and some restaurants with maps if you PM me. [Other guys who have asked - now finished - about to distribute]

 

You will enjoy Ubon, particularly if well briefed by a local! Ting (English-speaking Thai owner of Wrong Way falang bar can arrange some touristic day trips to interesting parts outside too). Jay-Jay rentals are reliable step-thru' bike and car rental agencies and push-bikes can be hired cheap or given free at some hotels in addition to rent shops

 

Ubon hotels pdf version sep17.pdf

Edited October 2, 2017 by SantiSuk

[Patriot]

I notice that Santi mentioned Laithong executive rooms. Has there been a revamp 'cos a few years ago I gave up with the Laithong as it was becoming more and more "tired". I'd be interested if there has been an improvement because it was my choice of hotel for about a decade???????

[SantiSuk]

Yes - I had the same view on Laithong, but about 3 years ago I stayed in one of their best rooms on the top floor for about 1,800 baht. That room had been clearly recently modernised to a high standard and was much more luxurious (with great deep European-soft beds) than the standard Sunnee rooms - which do look tired to me*. The reception had also been done out to modern standards with a modern boutique cafe experience - no more tired old sofas or knackered laptops in the corner with 'out of service' notes on them as of yore

 

The breakfast buffet was ordinary on falang stuff, but outstanding in its Thai-Chinese choices. Have meant to try out the Laithong standard rooms to see if they have merit (typically at 1,250 baht) but haven't got round to it yet -there's such a huge range of good breakfast-inclusive hotels now in town within the 650 to 950 range that my interest would probably be purely academic!

 

 

* My main beef with Sunnee is that when I stayed there about 2 years ago the TV reception was absolutely dreadful - basically unwatchable. I went and complained to reception. They reacted like 'well what do you expect for the 1,600 baht weekend special rate rooms'. I don't know whether they keep back some tired rooms for the cheap raters, but it felt like it. I made it clear to them that there were a host of 500 baht a night new mansion rooms knocking around Ubon now, with much better TV experiences than theirs. Made me feel better, but they were unmoved and we were also left unmoved (to a room with better reception, which is what I would have expected any normal service-minded hotel to arrange).

[ShannonT]

Our family stayed at the T3 Hotel before we moved into the house. No complaints!

[Michael Hare]

On 10/2/2017 at 6:58 PM, SantiSuk said:

Yes - I had the same view on Laithong, but about 3 years ago I stayed in one of their best rooms on the top floor for about 1,800 baht. That room had been clearly recently modernised to a high standard and was much more luxurious (with great deep European-soft beds) than the standard Sunnee rooms - which do look tired to me*. The reception had also been done out to modern standards with a modern boutique cafe experience - no more tired old sofas or knackered laptops in the corner with 'out of service' notes on them as of yore

 

The breakfast buffet was ordinary on falang stuff, but outstanding in its Thai-Chinese choices. Have meant to try out the Laithong standard rooms to see if they have merit (typically at 1,250 baht) but haven't got round to it yet -there's such a huge range of good breakfast-inclusive hotels now in town within the 650 to 950 range that my interest would probably be purely academic!

 

 

* My main beef with Sunnee is that when I stayed there about 2 years ago the TV reception was absolutely dreadful - basically unwatchable. I went and complained to reception. They reacted like 'well what do you expect for the 1,600 baht weekend special rate rooms'. I don't know whether they keep back some tired rooms for the cheap raters, but it felt like it. I made it clear to them that there were a host of 500 baht a night new mansion rooms knocking around Ubon now, with much better TV experiences than theirs. Made me feel better, but they were unmoved and we were also left unmoved (to a room with better reception, which is what I would have expected any normal service-minded hotel to arrange).

 

I travel frequently within Thailand and also overseas. I can not remember when I last turned on a TV in my hotel room. Must be years ago. TV is the last thing I want to turn on when traveling, either on holiday or on work. In some Thai hotels I have to pull out the TV plug in order to connect my notebook. TV reception is not a thing I would rate a hotel on these days.

[SantiSuk]

Different strokes for different folks!

[ShannonT]

these are the best 3 restaurants in ubon: spago (italian), peppers (german), outside inn (mexican). spago is moving now to a new location so be sure to check before you go.

[rocket2]

i have 2 rooms booked for the sunnee grand over xmas but an considering moving after these reviews.  i am thinking somewhere closer to the river in a more walkable area. 

 

bliss or t3 seem to the be the front runners so far.  

[MeMock]

Both are great hotels but T3 is way better if you like going for a stroll around town / park / river.

[SantiSuk]

On 10/25/2017 at 12:21 AM, ShannonT said:

these are the best 3 restaurants in ubon: spago (italian), peppers (german), outside inn (mexican). spago is moving now to a new location so be sure to check before you go.

I might agree with this if it said the best 3 western food restaurants in Ubon. Otherwise 99.5% of the residents of Ubon would take issue with you; there is some pretty good Thai and other Asian nation's food knocking around 

 

[Peppers is run by a German-American + Thai family and Outside Inn by an American + Thai family and both have a much broader range of international food than ShannonT's parentheses imply]