Cambodia
Phnom Penh
A riverfront capital that asks something of you: a gold-roofed palace, a brutal recent history and the country's best eating, all within a few blocks.
Cambodia's capital sits where the Mekong meets the Tonle Sap, a low-rise, fast-changing city of French shophouses, gold-spired wats and a long riverfront promenade. The Royal Palace and its Silver Pagoda anchor the old quarter, while Tuol Sleng and the killing fields on the edge of town make the Khmer Rouge years unavoidable. Between the two is an ordinary, chaotic, very likeable Asian capital of markets, motos and some of the best eating in the country.
Suggested stay
2–3 days
Language
Khmer
Currency
KHR
Timezone
UTC+7
Why you'll love Phnom Penh
The confluence Sisowath Quay runs along the meeting of the Mekong and Tonle Sap, and at dusk the whole city is out walking, exercising and eating on it.
History up close Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek are hard, honest and essential, and the National Museum holds the finest Khmer sculpture anywhere.
Food The country's best eating, from fish amok and dawn noodle soup to a serious modern Khmer restaurant scene and a lingering French bistro habit.
Markets An art deco market dome and the tangled aisles of the Russian Market cover silk, silver, spare parts and a very good cheap lunch.
Best time to visit
Dec-Feb
31-33° days
11.573° N, 104.858° E
UTC+7 · Asia/Phnom Penh
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Weather & when to go to Phnom Penh
Month by month: typical highs and lows, rainfall and rain days.
✓ Best Dec-Feb
Watch for Apr-May extreme heat risk · Sep-Oct monsoon flooding risk
Cards tinted by calculated verdict · big number = typical daily high, small = low · hover for conditions
When to avoid Phnom Penh
September and October are the wettest weeks of the year, when afternoon downpours flood streets and the rivers run high. March to May is heavy, hot and dusty. December to February is the cool dry stretch and the easy time to walk the city, which is also when it is busiest.
Top things to do in Phnom Penh
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Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda - the gold roofs of the old quarter
history culture arts 👍 PopularStill a working royal residence, so only part is open: the Throne Hall under its tiered spire, the pavilions around it, and the Silver Pagoda, floored with thousands of solid silver tiles and holding an emerald Buddha and a life-size gold one studded with diamonds. Shoulders and knees must be covered. Mornings are cooler and quieter.
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Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) - the prison in a schoolhouse
history 👍 PopularA suburban high school the Khmer Rouge turned into their central interrogation prison, left close to as it was found: classroom cells, iron bed frames, and wall after wall of photographs of the people who passed through. The audio guide is one of the best anywhere, and survivors are sometimes present at the gate.
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Choeung Ek killing fields - the memorial stupa outside the city
history 👍 PopularThe best known of the killing fields, out past the southern suburbs, where prisoners from S-21 were executed and buried in pits that still surface bone and cloth after heavy rain. A memorial stupa stacked with skulls stands at the centre. Quiet, orchard-like, and harder than the museum. Pair the two in one morning.
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National Museum of Cambodia - Khmer sculpture in a terracotta pavilion
culture arts history ⭐ Highly recommendedA red pavilion beside the palace holding the world's finest collection of Khmer sculpture: pre-Angkorian Vishnus, the great bronze reclining Vishnu from the West Mebon, and a courtyard garden that is the coolest place in the city at midday. An hour here makes every temple you visit afterwards legible.
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Russian Market (Toul Tom Poung) - silk, silver and lunch in the aisles
shopping food ⭐ Highly recommendedLow, dark and tightly packed, named for the Soviet expats who shopped here in the 1980s. Silk, silver, carvings, clothing straight out of the garment factories, motorbike parts, and a food court in the middle serving some of the best cheap Khmer lunches in town. Go early: the tin roof turns it into an oven by noon.
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Central Market (Psar Thmey) - the art deco dome
shopping culture artsAn ochre dome from the 1930s with four vaulted arms radiating off it, still the most striking building in the city after the palace. Jewellery and watches under the rotunda, fabric, electronics and flowers down the arms, and a food section at the back where the noodle stalls are far better than they look.
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Wat Phnom - the hill the city is named for
history culture artsA small wooded rise topped by the temple that Lady Penh is said to have founded in the fourteenth century to house four Buddha images pulled from the river. More neighbourhood shrine than sight, with fortune tellers, incense and caged birds at the steps, but it is the city's origin story in one place.
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Sisowath Quay - the riverfront at dusk
scenic nightlife musicThe promenade along the confluence is the city's living room in the late afternoon: mass aerobics classes, food carts, kite sellers and families out walking. The strip of bars and tourist restaurants faces it, so eat a block or two back and use the quay for the walk.
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Mekong sunset boat - out to the meeting of the rivers
scenicWooden boats leave the quay in the late afternoon and potter upstream to where the brown Mekong meets the greener Tonle Sap, with the palace roofs and the new towers behind. Unhurried, cheap and the clearest way to see how much of this city still faces the water.
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Kun Khmer bouts - Cambodian kickboxing, broadcast live
culture artsThe local kickboxing art, close cousin to muay thai and fiercely claimed as the older of the two, fought at the television stations' arenas on weekend afternoons and shown live nationwide. You can usually walk in off the street. Loud, fast, and wagered on hard by everyone around you.
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Khmer food - amok, kuy teav and the night grills
foodFish amok steamed in banana leaf, kuy teav noodle soup for breakfast, num banh chok rice noodles under a green fish gravy sold from shoulder baskets, and grilled river fish after dark. The capital also carries the country's ambitious modern Khmer kitchens and its best French-leaning bistros.
Best areas to stay in Phnom Penh
$ Budget $$ Mid-range $$$ Premium
Daun Penh (Riverside)
First-time visitors $$Colonial-era grid along the quay
Explore hotels in Daun Penh (Riverside) →
Boeung Keng Kang 1
Best all-round base $$Leafy embassy streets, cafes and restaurants
Explore hotels in Boeung Keng Kang 1 →
Toul Tom Poung
Slow stays and cafes $Low-rise lanes around a covered market
Explore hotels in Toul Tom Poung →
Tonle Bassac
Hotels and nightlife $$$High-rise riverside south of the centre
Explore hotels in Tonle Bassac →
Live nightly prices from Booking.com, Agoda and others, centred on Phnom Penh
Getting to & around Phnom Penh
Getting there
Fly into Techo International Airport south of the city, then roughly 40 minutes by road to the centre.
Flight
Techo International Airport (KTI)
About 20 km south of the centre, out in Kandal province. Taxis, hotel cars and the ride-hailing apps take 40 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. Commercial flights moved here from the old airport on the western edge of the city, which was much closer in, so allow more transfer time than older guides assume.
Coach
City bus stations
Buses arrive from Siem Reap in about six hours, from Sihanoukville in around three on the expressway, and from Ho Chi Minh City via the Bavet border crossing.
Train
Phnom Penh railway station
Royal Railway runs slow scheduled services up from Sihanoukville and Kampot, and north towards Battambang and the Thai border at Poipet. A thin timetable, and a lovely way to arrive.
Ferry
Sisowath Quay
Fast boats come up the Mekong from Chau Doc in Vietnam, and the river cruise ships working between here and Siem Reap tie up along the quay.
Getting around
Ride-hailing apps
Small covered rickshaws, motos and cars booked in the app with the fare agreed up front. What almost everyone actually uses.
TBC
Tuk-tuk (remorque)
The classic carriage towed behind a motorbike. Roomier than the app rickshaws and worth hiring by the half day for the museums.
TBC
Moto-dop
Pillion on a motorbike, quickest through traffic and the local default for short hops. Helmets are not a given, so ask.
TBC
City bus
A handful of numbered routes along the main boulevards. Slow, air-conditioned and used far more by residents than by visitors.
TBC
Walk
The old quarter and the riverfront are flat and walkable in the cool hours; heat and motorbike-parked footpaths limit the rest.
Free
Day trips from Phnom Penh
Oudong
Half dayFormer royal capital
The hill where Cambodia's kings were crowned for two and a half centuries before the court came back to Phnom Penh, marked by a ridge of royal stupas reached up a long staircase. Wide views over rice fields, plus a huge modern monastery and a meditation centre at the foot.
Getting there
car | tour
About 1 hr each way by car or tuk-tuk, 40 km north
Koh Dach (Silk Island)
Half dayRiver island weavers
A flat green island in the Mekong just upstream of the city, where families weave silk on looms under their stilt houses and sell scarves and krama straight off the veranda. Easy to ride around by bicycle, with a sandy river beach that fills with Khmer families at weekends.
Getting there
car | ferry | tour
30-45 min by road and a short car ferry across the Mekong
Tonle Bati and Phnom Chisor
Full dayAngkorian-era temples
Two laterite temples from the Angkor centuries within easy reach of the capital: Ta Prohm at Tonle Bati, beside a lake of picnic platforms, and Phnom Chisor up a few hundred steps on a hill, with an eleventh-century sanctuary and a view clear across the plain.
Getting there
car | tour
About 45 min south by car to Tonle Bati, another 30 min on to Phnom Chisor
Kirirom National Park
Full dayPine forest plateau
A pine-forested plateau the French used as a hot-season retreat, high enough to want a jacket after dark. Waterfalls, easy walking trails, a scattering of lodges and a lookout over the Cardamom foothills. The falls run hard in the wet season and thin out by the end of the dry.
Getting there
car | tour
About 2 hr southwest by car, expressway then a hill road
Kampot and Kep
1-2 daysPepper farms and crab
A sleepy riverside town of shuttered shophouses under Bokor mountain, with pepper plantations on the roads out and salt flats on the way to Kep, where the crab market grills the catch with green Kampot pepper. Too good to rush, which is why most people give it a night.
Getting there
car | bus | train
About 3 hr south by road, or slower by train
A little history of Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh takes its name from a hill and a woman: the legend has Lady Penh finding four Buddha images in a koki tree washed down the Mekong in the 1370s, and raising a mound to house them. The court came down from Angkor in the 1430s, drifted between Longvek and Oudong for four hundred years, and only settled here for good in 1866, when King Norodom built the palace under a French protectorate that laid out the boulevards, the shophouse blocks and the market dome.
Independence came in 1953, and by 1975 the city was swollen with people fleeing a countryside war. On 17 April the Khmer Rouge marched in and emptied it within days, driving its residents into the fields and turning a school in the southern suburbs into the S-21 prison. Phnom Penh spent almost four years close to uninhabited. Vietnamese forces took it in January 1979 and people walked back to a looted city with no records and no money. Rebuilding was slow, the UN-run transition of the early 1990s reopened it to the world, and the last two decades have thrown up towers along the Bassac.
Lady Penh is said to found the shrine on the hill that gives the city its name.
The Khmer court abandons Angkor and moves to the confluence, the first stint as capital.
King Norodom moves the capital here permanently and begins the Royal Palace, under French protection.
Cambodia wins independence from France; the city enters its Sangkum-era building boom.
The Khmer Rouge take the city on 17 April and force the entire population out within days.
Vietnamese forces enter Phnom Penh in January; survivors walk back to a stripped, empty city.
Tuol Sleng opens as a museum in the buildings of the S-21 prison.
UN-supervised elections end the transition and the monarchy is restored.
The Khmer Rouge tribunal convicts Duch, the commandant of S-21, its first verdict.
Know before you go
Payment
Cash preferred
English
Widely spoken
Wifi
Workable
Power
Type A / B / C / F / G
230 V, 50 Hz
Dialing
+855
Extreme heat risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
Monsoon flooding risk in this window; check current conditions before you go.
The months our climate read flags to avoid: the wettest, lowest-rated weather of the year.
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FAQs about Phnom Penh
▸ How long do you need in Phnom Penh?
Two full days covers it: one for the palace, the National Museum and the riverfront, one for Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek with the markets in the afternoon. A third day buys a day trip to Oudong or Silk Island, or simply time to eat. Most people give the city a single night on the way through and regret the rush.
▸ When is the best time to visit Phnom Penh?
December to February is the cool dry stretch and much the easiest time to be outdoors all day. March to May turns hot and heavy. September and October are the wettest weeks of the year, when afternoon downpours flood streets. November brings the water festival, when the rivers turn and the riverfront fills with racing crews and enormous crowds.
▸ Should you visit Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek?
Yes. They are why many people come, and the country's recent history is not something you can politely skirt. Do both in one morning with the audio guides, in that order, and plan nothing demanding afterwards. They are too much for young children, and photography is restricted in places.
▸ Is Phnom Penh safe?
Broadly yes, with one real and well-documented exception: snatch theft from passing motorbikes, especially phones held out near the road and bags worn on the traffic side. Walk on the inside, keep your phone away from the kerb, and take a tuk-tuk rather than walking home late along the riverside.
▸ Is Phnom Penh expensive?
No, by the standards of most Asian capitals. Food, tuk-tuks and rooms are cheap, and street eating cheaper still, while the top end of hotels, cocktails and imported goods costs roughly what it would anywhere. Worth knowing: the country runs day to day on US dollars alongside riel, with riel used as small change.
▸ How do you get around Phnom Penh?
The ride-hailing apps and their small covered rickshaws are the default, with the fare set before you get in. The classic remorque tuk-tuk is roomier and worth hiring by the half day for the museums, and motos are quickest through traffic. The centre is flat enough to walk in the cool hours.
▸ Is Phnom Penh worth it if you are only in Cambodia for Angkor?
Yes, and it answers a different question. Angkor tells you what Cambodia was; Phnom Penh tells you what happened to it and what it is now. Two days here, plus the six-hour bus or a short flight, is a fair trade for one fewer temple day.
More in Cambodia
Angkor Wat (Siem Reap)
The largest religious monument ever built, at the heart of a lost capital you can spend three days getting lost in.
✓ best Nov-FebBattambang
Angkorian hill temples, a bat-filled cave and a circus school, all a tuk-tuk ride through rice fields from a sleepy colonial grid.
✓ best Nov-Jan