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A lot of people focus on visiting Siem Reap while in Cambodia, mainly for its iconic and one of a kind temples. Phnom Penh is often overlooked but if you have the time I definitely recommend it, purely for S21 and the Killing Fields. They have some museums in Siem Reap but we heard of how much bigger and prominent the ones in Phnom Penh were so we didn’t want to miss out.

We spent a total of 3 nights here which I think was plenty for 1 day of exploring s21 and the Killing Fields and another seeing the city. It’s a very eye opening experience and although extremely sad, it’s something that I think many people around the world are not aware of and should be!

Getting Here

Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are the two largest cities in Cambodia so they provide proper airports which are very easy to get into and out of. You can bus into and out of Phnom Penh but the easiest is definitely via plane. Upon arrival it’s very easy to grab a cab or tuk tuk and the city center is only 15-20 minutes from the airport, that is without traffic.

• Flight: Bassaka Airlines -$50

Location

Phnom Penh is a lot busier than Siem Reap so there will be a lot of areas that will provide a lot of variety of restaurants and shopping nearby. I was actually pretty surprised by how modern and busy the city is. You will find that the city is actually quite big and is probably easier to get around via taxis than it is to walk around.

We stayed near the Independence Monument just south of the Mekong River. The area was quite nice with amples amount of restaurant locations and site seeing spots within walking distance including the Royal Palace.

Accommodation: Mad Monkey Hostel

We stayed here because of the great reviews from other travelers. The Siem Reap location as awesome so fully expected the Phnom Penh location to be great as well. Unfortunately during their time they were doing construction on the pool and main lobby area so didn’t get to see the finished product but it looked pretty awesome. Regardless the hostel was nice and clean and had a nice bar and restaurant area. The accommodation and restaurant/bar is up the road from the lobby and pool area.

• Cost per night: $7

Activities

Royal Palace

This is one of the main attractions here although the palace is much smaller compared to Bangkok, which is why we decided not to go inside. However, I do recommend to check it out as it looked quite nice and of course a very cultural site.

Killing Fields

Oh man, wow, this place was something else. A very horrifying and tragic place but completely eye opening and amazing. I totally thought this was an effect from the Vietnam War, however I was completely wrong. The Killing Fields was a genocide. A group of government Cambodians, also known as the Khmer Rouge, who wanted to revolutionize the country killing anyone who denied it no matter what your status was. This absolutely destroyed the country. It’s pretty amazing how far they have come considering this happened very recently back in the late 70s.

The Killing Fields is a haunting place where millions of Cambodians came to get slaughtered and buried. It is a very eerie place but I found it to be extremely influential and a very important part of our world’s history that I think is a must to see while you are here.

• Cost: $6 with audio tour

S21

This place was another part of the Cambodian genocide. It was a school turned into a prison where many Cambodians came to get tortured, many dying here. A bone chilling place but very eye opening and informative on Cambodian history. What is more amazing is how recent this occurred and how little we know of it. We spent about 3 hours here just going through the audio tour and reading the stories of those who survived.

• Cost: $6 with audio tour

National Museum & Wat Phnom

Unfortunately because we spent so much of our time at S21 and the Killing Fields we missed the National Museum and Wat Phnom. We were on a day tour to see all of the sites above but decided to spend a majority of our time at S21 and the Killing Fields. Although we did get to see the beautiful architecture from the outside and if we had more time it would have been nice to see. I do recommend to spend a lot of your time at S21 and the Killing Fields though. You will be completely mesmerized and shocked wanting to learn more so if you can, reserve another day to see the Museum and Wat Phnom.

Food & Dining

Night Markets

The night markets are located near the National Museum and Wat Phnom. They are not as good compared to Chiang Mai or Luang Prabang but really good, cheap food. Highly recommend the coconut ice cream, YUM!

Mok Mony

This spot was just around the corner from our hostel and we loved it so much we came twice. The service was really great and the staff was so nice. The owner was hilarious and actually recommended spiking our drinks! It honestly made our meal more of an experience. The juice was so refreshing here and the dishes were really flavorful.

Nightlife

We pretty much spent our nights at the hostel bar which was actually pretty good. It’s a smaller bar so we got to know our neighbors pretty well. For one of the nights we went to Love Bar which was within walking distance from our hostel. But it was pretty average since it was the same people at the hostel bar just brought over for the music which wasn’t the greatest. But afterwards we hit up a great food truck just around the corner that had amazing burgers, perfect for late night!