The southern coast and the islands
Kampot, Kep, Sihanoukville and the two islands worth the boat — which stretch of coast fits which kind of holiday.
7 min read
Cambodia has 440 kilometres of coastline and most visitors see one town of it. The south splits into three quite different experiences: a river town with pepper farms, a sleepy seaside village famous for crab, and a set of islands that still look the way Thailand did thirty years ago — provided you pick the right one.
Kampot
A low-rise French colonial town on a wide green river, backed by the Bokor mountain. The days are made of things that take an afternoon: a boat at sunset, a pepper plantation tour, the salt fields, a scooter ride up to the abandoned hill station in the cloud forest. It is the place people intend to stay two nights in and end up staying five.
Kampot pepper carries a protected designation and genuinely deserves its reputation. Buy it at a farm rather than at the market, and buy the red as well as the black.
Kep
Twenty-five kilometres east: a 1960s seaside resort for the Phnom Penh elite, abandoned in the war, now a scattering of ruined modernist villas among the trees with a crab market at its centre. Lunch is the entire point — blue swimmer crab wok-fried with green Kampot peppercorns, eaten at a plank table over the water. Then the island of Koh Tonsay for an afternoon, or the national park loop on foot.
Sihanoukville, and what happened to it
The port city changed beyond recognition in the casino construction boom of the late 2010s, and the backpacker beach town it used to be no longer exists. Treat it as what it now is: the airport and the ferry pier. Otres beach retains some of the old feel, but almost nobody should plan nights here rather than on an island.
Which island
Koh Rong is the big one and splits in two: Koh Touch, loud and young, and the long empty sweep of Long Set and Sok San on the other side, which is a different holiday entirely. Koh Rong Sanloem is the quieter sister — Saracen Bay for calm water and simple resorts, Lazy Beach and M’Pai Bay for something closer to nothing at all. Koh Ta Kiev and Koh Thmei are the ones for people who want no electricity after ten.
Ferries run from Sihanoukville, take thirty to ninety minutes and stop in bad weather. Bring cash for the whole stay, expect the power to be generator-timed on the smaller islands, and check whether your room has a fan or nothing.
Common questions
How many nights on an island?
Three. One is eaten by the crossings, and two full days is what it takes for the pace to actually change.
Is the sea good all year?
Best from November to April. In September and October the water is choppier and crossings are cancelled more often.
បន្តអាន
Phnom Penh, beyond the stopover
Most people give the capital one night. Give it two and it becomes the most interesting city in the country.
Siem Reap and the Angkor temples
Tickets, timings and the order to see them in — how to spend three days at Angkor without spending them in a queue.
Battambang and the north-west
The country’s second city is its most charming: colonial shophouses, an art scene, and rice fields that start where the pavement ends.
