Kampot and Kep Guide

Southern Coast

Cambodia’s South Coast is dotted with tropical beaches, lovely off shore islands, laid back towns of past glories and incredible nature. South of Sihanoukville you will find the sleepy towns of Kampot and Kep. Perhaps the beaches aren’t as nice as those in Sihanoukville, but the quiet calm of these towns can make up for the difference.

1/5

Recommend

1 Enjoy a few days on one of the islands: snorkel, swim, relax!

2 Visit the old hill station of Bokor.

3 Spice up your life with some authentic and highly acclaimed Kampot pepper.

4 Enjoy digging into a mound of fresh crabs like the locals in Kep.

5 Go for a trek in the incredible Cardamom Mountains.

About The Southern Coast

Kampot town located on the banks of the Kampot River, is the gateway to Bokor an hour or two away and is famous for producing world-renowned pepper.

Once an important trading center for its port and proximity to Vietnam, Kampot is now more of a relaxed fishing town, a place to stop and enjoy the absolute opposite of hustle and bustle. Kampot still has remnants of its past glory in the form of its architecture in the form of decaying villas, many colonial buildings and two interesting art deco yet defunct cinemas.

A trip to nearby Bokor hill station and Nation Park shows off more of Cambodia’s past splendor. The old hill station has the remains of a French colonial casino and church riddled with bullet holes from Khmer fighting.

Unfortunately, there are grand plans for changing Bokor Mountain into a new billion-dollar casino that is already in the works. You can’t visit these places soon enough before they are changed forever.

Down the road 25 km East you will find the town of Kep, a once popular get away for elite Cambodians and French.

Recently Kep has had a resurgence to get Kep back to its past status as vacation land of Cambodia. It seems to be slowly happening although in truth the actual beach here is little more than a slight crescent of sand in a small bay.

Because of its past reputation, Kep seems to fill up with Khmers and expats from Phnom Penh making for an interesting getaway with locals.

Accommodation in Kep is less backpacker oriented than other Cambodian locations, so keep your budget in mind. However, the laid back nature of the town makes it ideal for just relaxing, pigging out on fresh crab like the locals or taking a day trip to Rabbit Island.

Ko Tonsay or Rabbit Island is an easy boat ride from Kampot or Kep and makes for an excellent day trip to enjoy the beach and go snorkeling. If you’d like to spend the night there are a few options to help you get away from it all.

At the Cambodian border with Thailand is Krong Koh Kong, known simply as Koh Kong.

This is a dusty town mostly important for crossing the border. However, there are incredible beaches on this stretch of the South Cambodian Coast, but you must have your own transportation to explore them. Of course this makes them both difficult to get to and secluded and wonderful once you do!

Also along this stretch of the South Coast you will find the Koh Kong Conservation Corridor, a vast track of land stretching form Koh Kong to just North of Sihanoukville.

Within the Corridor are amazing parks and some of Cambodia’s best natural splendors including the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary, Botum Sakor National Park and the Southern Cardamom Protected Forest; part of the 20,000 square km of incredible biodiversity and breathtaking beauty that are the Cardamom Mountains.