Kampot is one of those places where your list ends up longer than your stay, while nobody here is in any hurry at all. There is more to do than fits into a few days: a mountain of more than a thousand metres, a river full of mangroves, pepper plantations, and a little seaside town twenty-five kilometres away. And at the same time, this is where backpackers most often decide to spend a whole morning doing absolutely nothing.
A few things really belong on the list: out on the scooter early, the water at sunset, and the mountain once. Others come up in everything written about Kampot and fill a spare day nicely, though doing nothing here is just as good. With a bed from €5 and a meal for €2.50, the temptation to hang around is strong anyway.
So where do your Kampot days go, and what do you save for next time?
Want the practical side first, like how many days you need, where to sleep and how to get there? That is all on our Kampot page.
Out early on the scooter: pepper, salt and villages
For us this is the best thing you can do in Kampot, and it is not in a single brochure. You rent a scooter for about €7 a day, set off around seven and just ride out into the countryside. Sort out the licence first: in Cambodia you need a Cambodian one, which you apply for with the 1949 international permit, because without it your travel insurance is not riding with you. Rice fields, salt pans glinting in the morning sun, pepper plantations and villages that barely see a tourist.
The pepper plantations are about twenty kilometres east of town, on the road to Kep. The tour is usually free and they are open daily from 8.00 to 17.00. You see how the peppercorns grow up the poles, you taste the different kinds side by side, and a bag to take home costs from about €5. Kampot pepper has a protected designation of origin, just like champagne, and after one taste you get why chefs make such a fuss about it.
Rather not ride yourself? There is a countryside tour that combines the pepper farm, the salt fields and a hidden lake. But the best thing about this morning is that nothing is fixed: you stop wherever you like and you are back before the heat kicks in.
Our verdict: our favourite morning in Kampot, and the cheapest one too
Kayaking the Green Cathedral
The Green Cathedral is a network of narrow waterways between the mangroves, just outside town. The branches close over your head and the water is so flat you can hear your own paddle. For a lot of backpackers this is the best thing they do on their whole Kampot stop, and you do not need any skill for it.
Paddle it around sunset if you can, because that is when the light drops low through the mangroves and the birds are at their busiest. Beginners are completely fine: the water is calm and the trips are set up for exactly that. You can rent a kayak yourself or join a guided trip.
Keep your life jacket on, including on the stretches where the water is dead still. And stay off the river right after a heavy downpour, because the current gets a lot stronger than it looks from the bank.
Our verdict: a must, and do it at sunset
Bokor Mountain and the abandoned hill station
Above Kampot rises Bokor Mountain, 1,080 metres high, with a French hill station on top that was simply left behind. A casino from 1925, a temple and empty buildings standing half in the mist. It is the kind of place where you walk around for twenty minutes without saying a word.
The road up is thirty-two kilometres of climbing on beautiful tarmac, and that ride is half the fun. With a scooter it is a full day out, or you join a tour, either the classic version or the sunset one. Have your scooter checked before you go and take a rain jacket, because the weather up there has very little to do with the weather down in town.
Make sure you are back down before dark. The hairpins have no lighting, and that is exactly where things go wrong for backpackers on scooters in Kampot.
Our verdict: absolutely, but pick a clear day for it
Kep and the crab market
Twenty-five kilometres down the coast is Kep, a small seaside town with the most famous crab market in Cambodia. The crab comes out of the baskets sitting in the sea right in front of you and goes into the pan with fresh green Kampot pepper. That dish is the best known in this whole region, and you will not eat it better anywhere than here.
You get there in half an hour, by scooter or by bus from about €3. Besides the crab market, Kep has quiet beaches, a lovely stretch of coast and a national park with walking trails, so you can easily fill a whole day. Half a day works too if you are only coming for lunch.
Ask for the peppercorns still on the stem instead of ground pepper. That is the difference between a decent plate of seafood and the reason people ride all the way out here.
Our verdict: go, even if it is just for that one lunch
Sunset on the river, and the fireflies after
At around six the sun drops behind the mountains on the far bank and half of Kampot drifts down to the water. There is nothing to organise: you sit on the promenade or on a terrace by the river, and that is it. It costs nothing and every single evening it is the best thirty minutes of the day.
Want to see it from the water? A sunset cruise goes out from about €5. Those boats carry on afterwards along the banks where the fireflies sit in the trees, and that is the part people remember. A beer here costs sixty cents, so the bill is not something you need to think about.
Do this on your first evening, not your last. There is a good chance you will end up repeating it every night anyway.
Our verdict: the sunset is lovely, but it is the fireflies afterwards that stay with you
Cycling along the west bank
Not everyone wants to be on a scooter, and you do not have to be. A bicycle costs from about €2 a day and the roads along the river are flat, quiet and green. You ride past rice fields, small villages and the water, and along the way you naturally come across spots where you can swim.
Count on half a day out along the river. Go early or late, because between eleven and three the sun here is not your friend and there is hardly any shade on the way.
The mountain is not an option by bike. If you want Bokor, you need a scooter or a tour.
Our verdict: a good half day if you have one spare
The night market
From around five the night market opens, and it is the cheapest way to eat in Kampot. Grilled skewers, local dishes, fresh fruit shakes and a few souvenir stalls mixed in. A meal here costs around €2.50.
It is not a spectacle and it is not a photo spot, but it is where you see how Kampot spends its evening. Walk one full lap past everything before you choose, because the best stalls are rarely at the front.
Our verdict: one evening does it, and you will have eaten well
Got time to spare in Kampot?
Bokor on a clear day
There is often mist on top of the mountain, even when it is bright sunshine down below. That only makes the abandoned casino spookier, but for the view over the Gulf of Thailand you want a clear day. Between May and August Bokor regularly sits in cloud for days at a time, so look up at the mountain in the morning before you leave and move your Bokor day if you need to.
Wandering the grounds on Bokor
Walking around the site gets you the best photos: the casino, the old church and that wide emptiness behind it. Do stay out of the abandoned buildings, because some of them are close to collapsing and nobody is keeping an eye on them. From the outside you see exactly what you came to see.
Your evenings by the river
Kampot has easy-going bars on the water and more than enough travellers to hang out with. This is the place to wind down: a sunset cruise, a beer on the promenade and an early night. Up for a proper party night? Save that for the islands, and let Kampot be what it is best at.
A loop through the centre
The colonial shopfronts and the old market are fun to wander through, and half an hour covers the centre. Fit that loop in on your way to the water or out to the pepper plantations, and you have seen the best of the town in one go.
Our top five in Kampot
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- Out early on the scooter into the countryside, past the salt pans and the pepper plantations
- Kayaking the Green Cathedral, around sunset
- Bokor Mountain and the abandoned French hill station, on a clear day
- Kep and the crab market, with fresh green pepper on the stem
- Sunset on the river, and then the fireflies from the water
Still got time after that? The night market is the best way to eat cheaply, and a rented bicycle makes for a slow morning along the west bank. And if you come between November and April, you have the best chance of the mountain actually showing itself.
So what do you really have to do in Kampot?
Honestly? Nothing on this list is compulsory. Kampot is a place where people book two nights and are still sitting by the river five days later, and that happens precisely because so little here is a must. Do the fireflies, do the pepper plantation, and let whatever happens happen.
If we had to pick just one thing: get up early one morning and ride out into the countryside with no plan. The roads are still empty, it is cool, the salt pans are shining and you pass villages where nobody wants anything from you. It costs you €7 in scooter hire, and it is the bit of Kampot you will still be telling people about a year from now.
And keep one afternoon completely empty. Sit by the river with a sixty-cent beer, watch the sun sink behind the mountains and do nothing else. That is exactly why people stay here longer than they planned.
