Phnom Penh is the city backpackers rush through fastest, and the one where that pays off least. There is more on your list than fits into your days, and that is fine. You do not need to tick off this capital, because the things that stay with you most here cannot be planned anyway.
A few things really belong on the list: the history, the street food and the river at the end of the day. Others are on every list and fill a spare afternoon nicely. Phnom Penh also swings hard between heavy and light, so the order you do things in matters more here than how much you do.
So where does your time in Phnom Penh go, and what do you save for next time?
Below are the places themselves. Where to sleep, how to get around and how many days to plan are all on our Phnom Penh page.
The Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng
This is the reason you come to Phnom Penh, even though it is not a fun day. Choeung Ek and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum together tell the story of the Khmer Rouge years, and they do it without distance or detours. What you see here changes the rest of your trip through Cambodia, because suddenly you understand where the people around you have come from.
The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek are about fifteen kilometres outside the city, and Tuol Sleng is in the centre. Most travellers do both in one morning, on a half day tour that combines the two and picks you up at your hostel. Take the audio guide: it is excellent, and it makes a big difference compared with just walking around.
Plan nothing heavy afterwards. You come out quiet, and that is how it should be: keep the rest of that day deliberately empty and go and sit somewhere by the river in the late afternoon.
Our verdict: go, even if you are not sure you can handle it
Nom banh chok and the rest of the food scene
Phnom Penh has the best food scene in Cambodia, and the best of it happens before eight in the morning. Nom banh chok, rice noodles with a green fish curry, is a breakfast dish here that you buy on the street from a woman with two baskets on a pole. You crouch down, eat it from a bowl and you are done within ten minutes.
For the rest of the day you eat lok lak, beef seared in the wok with pepper, amok trey, fish in coconut curry, and Khmer curry with kroeung. A meal costs about €2.50, so you can happily pull up a stool several times a day. Want the places you would walk straight past? Take a street food tour with a guide: it lasts three to four hours, usually runs in the evening and costs from about €25.
Come hungry if you do that tour, because it is at least eight stops. Do not eat a big meal beforehand that day.
Our verdict: absolutely, and start at breakfast
A sunset cruise on the Mekong
Phnom Penh sits where the Mekong and the Tonle Sap meet, and only from the water do you see how the city fits together. You sail away from the riverside for about two hours, the skyline slides past and the sun drops right behind the temple roofs. It is the cheapest way to fall for this city.
The most popular boat has unlimited beer and soft drinks and a barbecue buffet on board, and it is exactly as sociable as it sounds: within ten minutes you are sharing a table with other travellers. The boats leave from the riverside, so from most hostels you can just walk there.
Do this on the evening of your Killing Fields day. Nowhere does the contrast of Phnom Penh hit harder than when you end that same day with a beer on the water.
Our verdict: the best way to close a heavy day
Kun Khmer at the TV stadium
Kun Khmer is the traditional Cambodian fighting sport and looks a lot like Muay Thai, although no Cambodian would ever put it that way. At the National TV Stadium the fights are broadcast live and the stands are packed with locals who are there for real. There are hardly any tourists, and you notice it in everything.
You watch five fights in one session. It is hard hitting, the crowd goes all in, and between rounds you mostly feel like you are somewhere nobody expected you to be. On some nights you can go with a guide who explains what is happening in the ring and in the stands.
Go if you think two museums means you have seen Phnom Penh. This is the fight night most backpackers miss.
Our verdict: the most underrated night out in the city
Bassac Lane and the rooftops
Phnom Penh has a surprising number of rooftop bars, and they are around the riverside and the Bassac area. From about six you sit up top with the river on one side and the skyline on the other, for about €3 a drink. For a capital that is dusty and loud during the day, it is a welcome change of pace.
Then head down to Bassac Lane, an alley full of small bars south of the centre, with cocktail bars, live music and a few good restaurants. It fills up from about eight and a drink costs from about €2.50. Travelling solo? This is the easiest place in Cambodia to start a conversation.
Keep your phone in your pocket when you walk along the road at night or sit in the back of an open tuk-tuk. That is not overcautious advice here.
Our verdict: go, but start up top and finish in the alley
Silk Island by bicycle
Twenty minutes from the centre lies an island in the Mekong where nothing reminds you of the city: sandy tracks, rice fields, small villages and looms where silk is still really made. You cycle past houses where people are simply at work and nobody tries to sell you anything.
You can do the trip by bike, by e-bike or by tuk-tuk if you would rather not pedal. Along the way you stop at the silk weaving, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds once you see someone at the loom. Count on half a day.
Pick a day that is not scorching. From March to May it gets above 35 degrees here, and then cycling stops being fun.
Our verdict: perfect for a third day, and then make it this one
The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda
The palace dates from 1866 and is still in use, with the Silver Pagoda next to it and gardens around it that are tidier than the rest of the city put together. The Khmer architecture is the real highlight: the roofs, the golden spires and the details you can stare at for half an hour.
Entry is about €9 and it is open from 8.00 to 10.30 and from 14.00 to 17.00. Mind that midday break, because almost everyone runs into it once. Shoulders and knees must be covered, or you simply do not get in.
Go just after eight. The heat is still bearable and you have the courtyards more or less to yourself, and afterwards you can walk straight on to the Central Market.
Our verdict: an hour in the morning is just right
Got time to spare in Phnom Penh?
The Central Market or the Russian Market
The art deco Central Market building from 1937, with that enormous dome, is genuinely beautiful, and the market is free and open daily from 7.00 to 18.00. Walk in, look up and enjoy the building. If you are after souvenirs, street food and the fun of haggling, the Russian Market is more your thing: start there at about half the asking price.
The Killing Fields on a quiet morning
Do Choeung Ek on a morning with nothing else after it, and use that afternoon to recover. A lot of travellers plan it on their departure day and then sit on a bus for six hours, which is the hardest order you could pick. Give it time, and this place does what it is meant to do.
Getting around the city
On the map everything looks close together, but the city is too big and too hot for that. Walk the riverside and the block around your hostel, and use PassApp or Grab for the rest: a tuk-tuk usually costs a euro or two and the price is fixed up front. Keep your phone in your pocket on the way, because bag snatching from scooters does happen here.
Good to know on the street
If someone invites you to a card game or a bet, however friendly the chat starts, thank them politely and keep walking. It is one of the few ways backpackers in Phnom Penh really lose money. Beyond that, this is a city where common sense keeps you perfectly fine on the street.
Our top five in Phnom Penh
Only got a few days? These are the five we would do no matter what:
- The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng, on a morning with nothing after it
- Nom banh chok for breakfast on the street, and everything else you come across
- The sunset cruise on the Mekong, ideally that same evening
- A Kun Khmer fight night at the National TV Stadium
- A rooftop bar at sunset, followed by Bassac Lane
Still got time after that? Silk Island by bicycle is the most beautiful way to leave the city behind for a while. Otherwise, the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda just after opening, followed by the dome of the Central Market and the stalls of the Russian Market.
So what do you really have to do in Phnom Penh?
One thing: the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng. It is not a recommendation in the usual sense, because it is not a fun outing, but it is the reason this city gets under your skin in a way Siem Reap or Kampot do not. Travellers who leave it out have seen Cambodia without understanding what they were looking at.
Everything else on this list is there to help you choose, not a checklist. If you spend the rest of your time pulling up a stool at food stalls, sitting on rooftops and lingering in Bassac Lane at night, you have probably done Phnom Penh better than someone on a tight schedule.
And keep that one evening free for the water. A boat on the Mekong, a beer in your hand, the city slowly drifting past as the sun goes down: that is exactly the contrast Phnom Penh is all about, and the reason you should stay here more than one night.
