Daugavpils region borders with Lithuania, Belorussia, Krāslava, Preiļi and Jēkabpils.
The Daugava river meanders throughout all the territory of the region, making 10 loops from Kraslava to Krauja and running calmly from Liksna and Nicgale, and then it flows into the Baltic sea dividing the region into two parts which developed politically and ethnographically independently. Augšzeme, or the land of sels, is situated on the left bank of Daugava, Latgale – on the right.