Hello Friends,
Most “Cambodia travel guide” pages read like they were assembled from a dozen other Cambodia travel guides — a wall of statistics, price ranges, and safety boilerplate written by someone who has never smelled the Siem Reap night market. This isn’t that. I moved to Cambodia at the end of 2025, I live in Siem Reap, and this is how I’d actually help a friend plan a trip here: what the country’s really shaped like, what I know first-hand, and where I’ll be honest that I’m still exploring it myself.
The Shape of a Cambodia Trip
Most first trips to Cambodia run on a simple triangle: the temples around Siem Reap in the northwest, the capital Phnom Penh in the middle-south, and the coast and islands down on the Gulf of Thailand. Nearly everyone flies into Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, does the temples, spends a night or two in the capital, and finishes on a beach. You can see that triangle comfortably in about ten days; you can rush it in five and regret it, or you can do what I did and just move here.
The country is small and the distances are shorter than they look on a map, so you don’t need to over-plan. Pick the triangle, decide how much beach versus temple versus city you want, and leave room for the days that go sideways in the good way. Below is how I’d think about each corner of it, honestly.
Siem Reap and Angkor: The One You Can’t Skip
Siem Reap is where I live, so I’ll say it plainly: it’s the reason most people come, and it deserves more time than the standard 48-hour blitz. Angkor is bigger, older, and more overwhelming than the postcards let on, and a little planning goes a long way — how many days you actually need, what to wear so you’re not turned away at the top, and when to go so you’re not melting by 10 a.m. I’ve written all of that from the ground:
- My full Siem Reap travel guide — a local’s rundown of the whole town, not just the temples
- How many days you actually need — three is the sweet spot, and I explain why
- How to visit Angkor Wat and the dress code that’s genuinely enforced
- The best time to visit, season by season, with the trade-offs stated plainly
The thing nobody budgets enough time for is the town itself — the markets, the gardens, the NGOs doing real work, the everyday rhythm of a place I decided to stop leaving. The temples are half the story; Siem Reap is the other half.
Phnom Penh: The Capital on Foot
Phnom Penh hits harder than Siem Reap — bigger, louder, a proper city with real traffic and real height. Most people give it a day or two for the Royal Palace, the National Museum, and the sobering-but-essential history at Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields, then move on. That’s fair, but the capital rewards walking as much as ticking off sights. When I finally went down, I skipped the checklist and just wandered — a bar lane, the riverside food stalls, a day with no plan. That’s in my Phnom Penh on foot write-up, and getting between it and Siem Reap is its own small decision, which I break down in Phnom Penh to Siem Reap: bus, flight, or taxi.
The Coast and the Islands
Cambodia’s southern coast delivers the beaches Thailand is famous for, at a fraction of the price and with a lot more raw edges left on. Sihanoukville, over in Preah Sihanouk province, is where the ferries leave from — I spent a few days there myself, bouncing back and forth to Koh Rong Sanloem, and I’ll be honest: it’s more transit hub than destination, but it’s a real part of the coast run. The reward is mostly offshore. I lived on Koh Rong Sanloem for my first stretch in the country, so this is the part of the coast I actually know — the good, the boring, and the genuinely hard parts of island life:
- My first week on Koh Rong Sanloem and the month-one reality check
- Getting sick on the island — the unfiltered version
- When paradise starts to feel like a golden cage
For the full spread of islands and how to hop between them, my Cambodia island-hopping guide lays it out.
Getting Around
Getting around Cambodia is easier than its reputation suggests. Between the big three — Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville — modern air-conditioned buses are cheap and reliable, and the Phnom Penh-to-Siem Reap run in particular is a well-worn groove with buses, vans, taxis, and a short flight all on the table. Within a town, you’re on tuk-tuks and app rides: PassApp and Grab both work well in the cities and set fair, fixed prices so you skip the haggle. The US dollar runs alongside the Cambodian riel everywhere, so bring small bills. I go deeper on routes and booking in my getting around Cambodia guide.
When to Go
Cambodia has two seasons, and both are worth traveling in. The dry season (roughly November to April) is the classic window — comfortable temperatures, blue skies, easy temple days — and it’s also the most crowded and priciest. The green season (May to October) brings afternoon downpours, but also thinner crowds, lower prices, and a landscape that goes lush and photogenic. I’m genuinely a green-season fan, and I make the case with the trade-offs laid out in the best time to visit Angkor. Just know that Khmer New Year in April essentially shuts the country down for a few days — plan around it or lean into it.
Money and Daily Life
Cambodia is one of the best-value countries I’ve ever spent real time in, and I don’t mean that in the abstract “$25 a day” way those other guides throw around. I mean that a fruit stand down my street sells more variety than an American supermarket for what a single mango costs back home — I wrote a whole love letter to fresh fruit in Cambodia and what it did to my sense of what a good life costs. Eating well here isn’t a splurge, walking is built into the day, and the pace doesn’t demand constant productivity just to survive. That’s the real texture of it, and I get into what daily life actually feels like in finding my rhythm in Siem Reap. On the practical side: bring a passport with six months’ validity, sort your e-Arrival and e-visa before you fly, and carry cash, because card acceptance drops off fast outside the tourist core.
The Parts I’m Still Exploring
Here’s where I’ll be honest rather than pretend. I live in Cambodia, but I haven’t been everywhere in it yet, and I’m not going to write you fake authority about places I’ve only researched. That said, these are the spots high on my own list, and I’d point a curious traveler toward them: Battambang for its preserved colonial streets and the bamboo train; Kampot and Kep down south for riverside calm, pepper farms, and the famous crab market; Mondulkiri in the northeast for cooler hills and ethical elephant sanctuaries; and the remote pre-Angkorian and jungle-swallowed temples — Beng Mealea, Koh Ker, Banteay Srei, Preah Vihear — for people who want ruins without the Angkor crowds. When I get to them, they’ll become first-hand write-ups like everything above. Until then, I’d rather tell you they’re on my list than pretend I’ve been.
Start Planning
That’s the honest shape of a Cambodia trip from someone who decided to stay. Build your version around the triangle, weight it toward whatever you actually enjoy — temples, cities, or beaches — and leave slack for the unplanned days, because those tend to be the ones you remember. For the destinations themselves, ranked honestly, see my guide to the best places to visit in Cambodia, and for the town I call home, start with my Siem Reap travel guide. If you’re heading this way and have questions, reach out — I’m right here. Cheers.
