Phnom Penh, and a difficult morning

What Phnom Penh actually is

A capital of around two and a half million people at the confluence of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap, which is a genuinely unusual river system: the Tonle Sap reverses its flow twice a year, filling the great lake in the wet season and draining it in the dry. The city sits at the hinge of that.

It was emptied at gunpoint on 17 April 1975. The Khmer Rouge marched the entire population out within days and the city stood almost empty for nearly four years. That fact is not background; it is the thing every Cambodian over fifty in this city lived through, and it shapes how the place feels.

What it is now is a fast-changing river capital with good food, a genuine café and gallery scene around Bassac and BKK1, some of the best surviving French colonial architecture in Asia, and traffic that has got noticeably worse each year. It is more interesting than Siem Reap and almost every itinerary gives it less time.

How many nights

Two, which is one full day. That day is Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek in the morning and something deliberately gentle in the afternoon, because the morning is genuinely hard and pretending otherwise does nobody any good.

Three nights if you want the Royal Palace, the National Museum and the riverside properly, or if you are going on to Kampot and want a buffer.

One night does not work: you either miss the genocide sites, which is a choice some people make and it is a defensible one, or you do them and then get on a bus.

Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek

Tuol Sleng was a secondary school. Between 1975 and 1979 it operated as S-21, the central interrogation prison of the Khmer Rouge security apparatus; somewhere between 12,000 and 20,000 people passed through it and a handful survived. It is preserved almost exactly as it was found. Choeung Ek, fifteen kilometres out, is one of several hundred execution sites and is the one that is properly memorialised.

Both use an audio guide and both are done at your own pace. Our guide will tell you their own family history if you ask, and will not perform it if you do not; almost every Cambodian family lost people, and that is a fact rather than a talking point.

It takes a morning. We do not schedule anything demanding afterwards, and if you would rather not go at all we will arrange the day differently without comment. Children under about twelve should not go, and we will suggest an alternative for them.

When to go

How to get there

Techo International (KTI) opened in September 2025 and replaced Pochentong, which is closed. It is 20 kilometres south of the centre and the transfer takes 45 to 60 minutes, longer in the evening peak. Build the hour in.

Overland from Vietnam: the Bavet–Moc Bai bus is six to seven hours from Ho Chi Minh City, USD 13 to 20, and Giant Ibis and Mekong Express are the two operators worth using. The border is open 06:00 to 22:00 and both countries accept eVisas there.

The river route from Chau Doc is more agreeable: about five hours by speedboat including both immigration posts, USD 38 to 45, arriving at Sisowath Quay in the centre.

Siem Reap is six hours by road on National Road 6, or a short flight. Bangkok is seventy-five minutes by air, and by air only — the land border has been closed since June 2025.

What things cost

Photographs

When to skip Phnom Penh

• If you have young children and the genocide sites are the reason you are stopping. There is no age-appropriate version of Tuol Sleng.
• If your trip is under ten days and Angkor is the point. Phnom Penh costs two days and a transfer.
• March to May, if heat is a problem.
• If you are counting on reaching Thailand by road afterwards. You cannot; the border is closed.
• If you want beaches. Sihanoukville is four hours away and we do not send people there.

Tours that include Phnom Penh

Two nights in the seven-day Cambodia route, the twelve-day Vietnam and Cambodia route and the eighteen-day classic. It is where the twenty-four-day route and the five-day delta crossing both finish.

Questions travellers ask most

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