Cambodia has 443 km of coastline on the Gulf of Thailand and around sixty islands. It has been the least-visited part of the country and is changing fast, though not evenly.
Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem
Two hours by ferry from Sihanoukville, Koh Rong has long white beaches, a party strip at Koh Touch and quiet bays elsewhere. Its smaller neighbour Koh Rong Sanloem is calmer, with Saracen Bay for resorts and Lazy Beach and M'Pai Bay for people who want less. Bioluminescent plankton can be seen on moonless nights in the right season. Electricity on both is generator-based and often runs only part of the day.
Kampot
A riverside town of French shophouses two hours from Phnom Penh, and the most relaxed place in Cambodia. The river runs down from Bokor mountain and is used for sunset boat trips and kayaking. Kampot pepper carries a protected geographical indication and the plantations, which nearly disappeared under the Khmer Rouge, welcome visitors; the difference between fresh green peppercorns and what is sold at home is genuinely surprising.
Bokor
The plateau above Kampot at 1080 m holds an abandoned French hill station from the 1920s: a casino hotel, a church and a water tower left in the mist, later fought over by the Khmer Rouge. A sealed road now climbs it and a casino has been rebuilt, which has changed the atmosphere, but the old buildings and the view down to the sea remain.
Kep
Twenty-five kilometres from Kampot, a seaside resort built by the French elite and destroyed in the 1970s, its villas still standing as shells among the trees. Kep is known above all for its crab market, where blue swimming crabs are cooked with Kampot green pepper on the seafront. Rabbit Island, twenty minutes offshore, has simple bungalows.
Sihanoukville
The main port and formerly the main beach town, transformed since 2017 by large-scale casino construction financed from China, much of it halted mid-build. It functions as the ferry terminal for the islands rather than a destination in itself.
Practicalities
The coast is best from November to April; the south-west monsoon from May to October brings heavy rain and rough crossings, and some island boats stop. Buses from Phnom Penh serve Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville, and the coastal road is good by Cambodian standards.