Sihanoukville

Around are the best beaches of the country.

Sihanoukville is also the biggest harbor around 230 km southwest of Phnom Penh. Here you will find some useful information about guesthouses, hotel, islands, beaches, day trips, restaurants and the biggest harbor in the country. 
The city and Angkor should be on the agenda when visiting the country including a trip to the nearby Bokor National Park near Kampot.

The hotels and beach resort are not on the high end, but nobody wants this anyway, this is rather a average tourist destination. The main reason to visit is probably to have a great time on the seafront and the islands in front of the South China Sea Coast.

Around the harbor

Day-trips from Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville Beach

All this is not as developed as let’s say Patong beach at Phuket and other places in Thailand but this is probably nothing negative, rather positive. Check "Paradise Beach", "Victoria Beach", "Independence Beach", "Hawaii Beach", "Ochheuteal Beach", and other.

Nightlife is rather quiet although there are some open air discos.

No Khmer temples and monuments are around, there is a good bus service to the capital, to Koh Kong and Kampot. 

One top resort is at "Sokha Beach" with about a kilometer long sand strip in front. That’s for the high end, if you are a low end traveler there is everything as well. Since the visa parameter are much more tourist friendly than in Thailand, long stay is no problem this is especially attractive to retired people.

Sokha Beach Waterfront

This city is also somehow a paradise for backpacker. 

Prices are quite low, the whole situation is somehow similar to Spain and Canary Islands around 40 years ago. Since they don’t have all this restrictions on foreigners as in Thailand it’s easy to open a business actually already now are many western owned which draw plenty of tourists in because cheating level in the private sector is low compared to Thailand but with government related subjects it’s around three times more.

Downtown is in a central position on this small peninsular which makes it easy to reach every location quick, especially the seafront since there are large boulevards but when the waterfront is reached often the last part is a real bad dirt road. Some shopping centers plus the usual infrastructure such as banks, bars and restaurants are also in this area, actually this area is not very large, with a motorbike taxi every location can be reached within a couple of minutes.

Don't rent a motorcycle in Phnom Penh and come down, its similar dangerous as in Thailand since no one cares about any traffic rules and if you have a accident there is no qualified hospital around where you can be moved to. I have seen several smashed "white guys" laying on the road after an accident.

Everything is very basic. Only in 2009 the first upper market beach resort opened the door for business. The whole area is in a state of flux since many people try to do some tourism business. The normality is, go there and have a look, all what you need is there including internet.

Some nightlife is on at Ochheuteal beach.

with BBQ, bars and lounges where one can find a companion and so on. But exactly this back to basic has its charm. Plenty of sea food is available so what else one needs?

Sihanoukville Nightlife

Night activity and a very good dinner is secured at one of the open air barbecue stalls between the bars and the beach itself, this is all fresh and they handle it in front of you. In the back is modern music, Hip Hop in English and sometimes in Thai language, the Cambodians rather prefer old fashion style, not all, of course, read more.

Sihanoukville Day Trips

Fishermans job

Have a look at the harbor and the fishing village close by, this is not some big stuff but it brings a bit of an insight how people at the coast are living.