A far cry from the hotspots of Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia’s empty beaches, buzzing capital and luxury hotels for less are now increasingly accessible
“Can you hear that?” our guide, Lina Phin, asked, stopping in his tracks. We had just emerged from a hike in the mangrove jungle that makes up most of Koh Ta Kiev, an island just off Cambodia’s southwestern coast, on to a sprawling stretch of sand fittingly named Long beach.
All I could hear — bar the waves and the flapping of bird wings among the trees — was the panting of two extremely unfit hikers (me and David, my fiancé), relieved to be back in their natural holiday habitat (a beach). But Phin put a finger to his lips, gestured at the sky, and then I heard it: the growl of thunder. “It’s a rainstorm,” Phin explained. Sensing our bewilderment — there were only blue skies here — he quickly added, “Don’t worry. It’s on the other side of the island. Nowhere near us!”
Phin was right. The distant tempest stayed away, leaving us to enjoy the beautiful postcard we had found ourselves inside: inconceivably clear sea, sand so fine it squeaked underfoot and not another soul in sight. As Phin wandered up the beach in search of a phone signal, and David and I settled in for an afternoon of swimming and sunbathing, I reckoned that this was probably the closest I would ever come to living out my Robinson Crusoe fantasy.
The Six Senses resort occupies the entire 30-acre island of Krabey
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I should make a confession, though: this expedition to Koh Ta Kiev was a coddled one, part of a guided jungle hike and beach excursion put on by our less-than-rustic pad for the night, Six Senses Krabey Island (B&B doubles from £633; sixsenses.com). The 40-villa resort, which occupies the entire 30-acre island of Krabey, runs daily trips to neighbouring islands, including Koh Ta Kiev, a 20-minute ferry from the southern port city of Sihanoukville by speedboat. OK, I know, not very Crusoe.
I was here as part of a ten-day trip to Cambodia organised by the tour operator Wild Frontiers. I had heard about Cambodia’s islands and their paradise beaches, and this tailor-made tour was a seamless way to hop between them in a style that was, admittedly, more suitcase than backpack.
As well as island-hopping, the trip would take us to the temples of Siem Reap, in the north, and Phnom Penh towards the south — you can’t visit Cambodia for the first time without seeing Angkor Wat or exploring its capital. It’s possible to travel through Cambodia independently, of course, but given its complex history and chaotic cities (more on those later) I thought as a first-timer it would be useful to have a guide.
Siem Reap, in the northwest of the country, feels like a green city
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Cambodia is typically overlooked by British tourists in favour of its neighbours, Thailand and Vietnam (to give a sense of scale, 28 million people visited Thailand in 2023, 12.6 million visited Vietnam and five million landed in Cambodia). There are no direct flights to Cambodia from the UK — we flew via Singapore — and visitors must buy a tourist visa in advance (£28; evisa.gov.kh) while none is required for Thailand. Add to this the fact that Cambodia, whose population was slaughtered en masse by the Khmer Rouge’s genocide between 1975 and 1979, reopened to tourists only in the 1990s.
But increased investment in Cambodia means that more of the country, beyond Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh, is becoming accessible to tourists. The roads have been modernised and a Chinese-funded expressway that opened in 2022 has cut the drive-time from Phnom Penh to coastal Sihanoukville, the gateway to Cambodia’s islands, from six hours to three hours. This highway has made the islands easier to reach than ever.
And it was the islands that I had been most excited to see. For now they remain blissfully under the radar compared with those of Cambodia’s neighbours, and Koh Ta Kiev felt like I imagine Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi in Thailand were like before they became familiar tourist terrain.
Cambodia’s 275-mile coastline (Thailand’s is 2,000 miles) doesn’t just come with fewer tourists and backpackers, but generally a lower price tag too. Aside from the private island resorts such as Six Senses and Song Saa, you can find luxury for less here. On Koh Rong, Cambodia’s second-largest and most developed island, there are several beachfront resorts for less than £100 a night, such as You&Me Resort (B&B doubles from £94; youandmecambodia.com) and the Secret Garden (B&B doubles from £87; secretgardenkohrong.com), on the island’s northeast coast.
Claudia Rowan stops beside a temple during a morning cycle ride in Siem Reap
After three days on Krabey and Koh Ta Kiev we were bound for Koh Rong. As our ferry slowed and I peeked out the window, I let out a squeal of delight. We were approaching our resort’s wooden jetty, which was jutting out from the prettiest stretch of coastline I had ever seen: sugar-white sand, coconut trees and turquoise water, set beneath a jungle backdrop.
We were staying at the Royal Sands, a resort on the island’s west coast. Creamy white, thatched-roof villas at this Maldives-vibe hotel, which has a 400m private beach, a lovely spa and glorious infinity pool, cost about £250 a night (royalsandskohrong.com). David and I spent a delightfully lethargic few days here doing little but hopping from the beach to the resort’s excellent restaurant and sipping margaritas from our sunloungers.
Koh Rong is Cambodia’s second-largest island
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But there’s much more to keep you occupied on the island if you get itchy feet. Inland there are hiking trails to waterfalls, while on the coastline there are plenty of unspoilt beaches — among them Long beach, Sok San beach and Lonely beach — as well as Padi-certified dive centres from which you can scuba to coral formations (and spot colourful tropical fish, stingrays and green sea turtles). From Koh Touch village, the island’s tourist hub, you’ll find plenty of affordable restaurants and lively bars, as well as ferry services to surrounding, less-developed islands such as Koh Rong Sanloem.
We didn’t have time to see Koh Rong Sanloem (let alone the country’s more remote islands, such as the uninhabited Koh Tang, to which there are ferries from Koh Rong Sanloem), but we found there was enough to keep us happy on Koh Rong and it was hard to imagine beaches more perfect than those we found.
Our visit to Cambodia had started a week earlier in Siem Reap, the gateway to Angkor Wat. We were met at the airport by Narla Phay, the regional manager for Wild Frontiers. Everyone here has a story about Cambodia’s history and as we drove along wide jungle road to our hotel, Phay told us about his upbringing in a rural province near Siem Reap in the aftermath of the genocide.
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Koh Rong has sugar-white sand, coconut trees and turquoise water
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He lost relatives during the Khmer Rouge regime and grew up in poverty while “dreaming of travelling the world”. Phay’s mother, a survivor of the forced labour fields, borrowed money to fund his tourism studies. That investment launched his career and he has since paid her back. “Our tourism industry is being driven by a new generation who are proud of their country and are excited to show it to the world,” Phay said.
Our Siem Reap hotel for the next few nights, Jaya House River Park, was a 36-room boutique stay backing on to the river (B&B doubles from £167; jayahouseriverparksiemreap.com) in a quiet street five minutes’ drive from the city centre. The hotel feels like a luxury cabin in a tropical rainforest, with a river running through it and trees everywhere, including the edges of its two pools.
Cold towels and even colder drinks are provided as soon as you enter, and rooms are gorgeous, featuring locally made toiletries, dark-oak furniture and lotus-flower tea. There are some great guest perks here, including a free daily laundry service and a complimentary hour-long massage every day.
Siem Reap is a 50-minute flight from Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital
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Our busy sightseeing schedule meant that we didn’t have long to lounge around in Jaya House River Park (although we did find time for those free massages). Over the following days our guide Saravy “Ravi” Sor imparted his knowledge as he showed us around. We visited Angkor Wat, the vast 12th-century temple with its spectacular beehive-shaped towers, and the otherworldly ancient city of Angkor Thom before spending a morning cycling along Angkor Wat’s scenic eastern banks. Here Sor would pause along the route to show us the various hidden temples that the crowds often miss, such as the 10th-century Banteay Srei temple.
Afterwards we stopped off at a monastery where we were doused with water in a memorably freezing srouch tec (water pouring) blessing. That evening we watched a dance show about children’s experiences during the genocide, by graduates of the non-profit Phare Ponleu Selpak, a performing arts school set up by displaced victims of the Khmer Rouge in 1994 (from £14; phareps.org).
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After a few days in Siem Reap, we took the 50-minute flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. From the air, the differences between the cities were stark. The first is predominantly green, the second is a concrete-packed metropolis. From the moment we landed in Phnom Penh, I was obsessed with its chaos. Everywhere you look there are colourful street markets, beeping horns, speeding tuk-tuks and sights that make you do a double-take, such as families packed on to motorbikes and goat carcasses hanging from market stalls.
Phnom Penh is a packed metropolis that thrives on chaos
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When we weren’t gazing at the gold-roofed Royal Palace (£8) and exhibits in the sprawling National Museum of Cambodia (entry £8; cambodiamuseum.info), we were gripping the sides of one-dollar-a-ride tuk-tuks as we whizzed about the city (US dollars are the de facto currency here).
We split our time in Phnom Penh between two luxury hotels. First was the Rosewood, which opened last year with views over the sparkling cityscape and the Mekong river from its rooftop sky bar and glamorous rooms (room-only doubles from £250; rosewoodhotels.com). Our second Phnom Penh base, the palatial 20th-century, cream and terracotta Raffles Le Royal, was historic and characterful where the Rosewood was polished and modern (B&B doubles from £215; raffles.com).
The people we met in Phnom Penh were just as warm and charismatic as the city itself, from the chatty owner of the Library (a cupboard-sized, bookshelf-lined bar on Bassac Lane, a trendy neighbourhood in the backstreets of the city; cocktails £4) to Chevoin “call me G1” Koem, our excellent guide. G1, who taught himself English by watching videos on YouTube, spent much of his childhood in a refugee camp in Thailand. He came from a family of teachers, many of whom were murdered during the genocide.
The capital provides a sobering insight into this not-too-distant history. G1 took us to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum and the Choeung Ek genocidal center (entry to each £4pp; tuolsleng.gov.kh), where we were confronted with the brutality of the atrocities committed by the former dictator Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge army. Both were necessary visits but deeply harrowing. The towering glass cabinets packed to the brim with skulls at the latter is a sight I’ll never forget.
But something you will sense throughout Cambodia, from the capital to the islands, is the indefatigable optimism of its people. Despite its horrific past, Cambodia’s population — two-thirds of whom are under 30 because so many of the older generation were wiped out during the genocide — is full of youthful, forward-looking zeal. When I said as much to G1 he grinned, shrugging as he replied, “We just keep smiling.”
Cambodia may be a geographically enticing land of islands, forests, and temples, but this infectiously positive energy makes me want to return more than anything else.
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Claudia Rowan was a guest of Wild Frontiers, which has ten nights’ B&B from £5,650pp, including domestic flights, private excursions, drivers, entrance fees and permits and some extra meals (wildfrontierstravel.com). Fly to Siem Reap