PHNOM PENH · CAMBODIA
Gold spires, three rivers, and a city that remembers.
The Royal Palace and the riverfront promenade, sunset cruises where the Mekong meets the Tonlé Sap, tuk-tuk food crawls and Silk Island by bike, and the history of the Khmer Rouge years that every visitor comes to understand.
Only in Phnom Penh
Three things you only do in Phnom Penh.
Sunset cruises, old palaces and history tours turn up in plenty of capitals. The exact meeting of three great rivers, a silver-floored pagoda beside a living royal palace, and the memory of S-21 belong to this one.
The weight of recent history
The Killing Fields & S-21
Tuol Sleng was a school the Khmer Rouge turned into the S-21 prison; Choeung Ek, on the city’s southern edge, is where most of those held there were killed. Visiting both, usually with an audio guide or a survivor’s account, is how travellers come to understand the years from 1975 to 1979, and the country that rebuilt itself after. Sobering, essential, and handled with care by the city’s guides.
- 1 Phnom Penh: The Killing Fields & Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
- 2 The Killing Field and Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) Tour
- 3 Phnom Penh: Killing Fields and Prison S21 Bus Tour
Where three rivers meet
Sunset on the Mekong
Phnom Penh sits at the Chaktomuk, the “four faces” where the Mekong, the Tonlé Sap and the Bassac come together. Each evening the wooden cruise boats push out from the riverfront as the light turns gold over the water and the Royal Palace glows on the bank. Dinner, a cold drink, and the city seen from the river it was built on.
- 1 Phnom Penh: Sunset Cruise with Unlimited Beers & BBQ Buffet
- 2 Phnom Penh: Sunset Cruise with Unlimited Beer &Fruit platter
- 3 Sunset Cruise with unlimited beer & soft drinks -English speaking guide on board
The royal capital
The Palace & the Pagodas
Behind cream walls on the riverfront, the Royal Palace is still the king’s residence; beside it the Silver Pagoda is floored with five thousand silver tiles and guards an emerald Buddha. Add Wat Phnom, the temple-hill the city is named for, the art-deco Central Market and the French shophouses, and the old “Pearl of Asia” is all a short tuk-tuk ride apart.
- 1 Phnom Penh Full Day Private Tour Included All Admission Tickets
- 2 Phnom Penh: Highlights Tour Including S21 and Killing Fields
- 3 Phnom Penh: Royal Palace, S21, Killing Fields & More Tour
Where most visits begin
The visit that explains modern Cambodia.
More travellers make time for this than anything else in the city, and for good reason. Set aside a careful half-day, and go with a guide who can give it context.
The classics
Phnom Penh's Most Popular Tours & Cruises
Tuk-tuk city loops, sunset cruises on the Mekong, the Killing Fields and S-21, Silk Island and the street-food lanes. The experiences travellers book first.
Where to begin
The days a Phnom Penh trip is built around.
The history and the river, the palace and the markets, Silk Island and the street food. The guides most trips are planned around, and the best of each.
Planning the trip
How to spend your days.
Phnom Penh asks for a little balance: a careful morning at the memory sites, a golden-hour evening on the river, and a full day for the palace, the pagodas and the markets. Here is how the city’s days tend to fall, and what each is for.
Where three rivers meet
The city the Mekong built.
Phnom Penh grew up around the Chaktomuk, the point where the Mekong, the Tonlé Sap and the Bassac braid together in front of the city. The riverfront promenade is where the capital comes out to walk at dusk; from its piers the wooden cruise boats slip onto the water as the light turns to gold, the palace and the spires glowing on the bank. Dinner, a cold Angkor beer, and the breeze off the river.
Read the guide: Mekong sunset cruises →Across the water
Silk Island, by tuk-tuk and bike.
A short ferry across the Mekong lands you on Koh Dach, the green island the city calls Silk Island. Wooden houses on stilts, looms clacking under them, farmers’ lanes shaded by mango and banana, and weavers who will show you a scarf taking shape thread by thread. Roll around it by tuk-tuk, e-bike or Vespa – the countryside, twenty minutes from the riverfront.
See the Silk Island tours →The Pearl of Asia
A royal capital on the river.
The gilded Royal Palace and the silver-floored pagoda, Wat Phnom on the hill that gave the city its name, the National Museum’s hall of Khmer bronzes and the art-deco dome of the Central Market – all within a few riverside blocks, threaded with French shophouses and tamarind-shaded boulevards. They called it the Pearl of Asia, and the shine is coming back.
Browse the city tours →Khmer flavours
Eat your way through the lanes.
Phnom Penh eats on the street, and the best way in is on the back of a tuk-tuk after dark. Fish amok steamed in banana leaf, char-grilled skewers and num pang baguettes left over from the French, sugar-palm cakes, fresh fruit shakes and a riverside night market thick with grill smoke. A local guide does the ordering; you just keep up.
- 1 Ultimate Phnom Penh Food Tour by Tuk Tuk: 20 Tastings and Drinks
- 2 Phnom Penh’s Culinary Underground: Local Food Tour by Tuk-tuk
- 3 Phnom Penh: Evening Food Tour with Drinks & Tuk Tuk Included
Phnom Penh after dark
The capital, once the heat lifts.
Phnom Penh saves its best mood for the evening. Rooftop bars catch the last gold over the rivers, the riverfront fills with families and food carts, a night market sprawls along the quay, and somewhere across town a Kun Khmer ring is roaring through the live boxing. Cool, loud and easy – the city at play.
See all 26 evening experiences →The hub of Cambodia
Onward from the capital.
Phnom Penh is where the country’s roads, rivers and runways meet. When the city is done, the temples of Angkor are a morning away, the Gulf coast an afternoon, and the Mekong itself carries on south into Vietnam.
Around the capital
The city, and the country around it.
Silk Island for the weavers, Oudong for the old royal stupas, Choeung Ek for the history. The riverfront for the evening walk, the royal quarter for the palace, and a flight north to the temples of Angkor.
By activity
Choose your kind of day.
A tuk-tuk if you want the city fast. A boat if you want the river. A food tour if you want the lanes. Plus cooking classes, bike and Vespa runs, a night at the Khmer boxing, and a spa to put yourself back together.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Phnom Penh? A long weekend that balances the history with the river, the palace and the countryside across the Mekong.
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