In all, we spent just under 1 month in Cambodia (25 days to be precise), which isn’t bad, but it’s very little at the same time. We’re bringing our trip to Cambodia to a close with this article, which includes both our budget and our trip review: back in pictures, our opinion of the country and a few figures!
We took this trip at the end of 2013, but the article was completely revised and updated in August 2023. We’ve updated the prices, given that the cost of living in Cambodia has risen, especially accommodation and activities. As a result, our travel budget would now be higher, +10-20% approx. If you see any price changes or have additional information that might be relevant, please feel free to leave us a comment!
Budget for a 1-month trip to Cambodia
As far as the travel costs are concerned, we have to admit that we were a little surprised. We were expecting to have a lower travel budget than Thailand. In the end, we barely managed to stay in the green figures, but we were much more careful.
Prices in Cambodia have literally exploded in recent years. One guesthouse manager told us that he could easily rent out his rooms at double the price of the previous year! Well, it’s all relative, Cambodia is still an extremely cheap country for those of us with European purchasing power, but things are changing all the same!
In fact, it wasn’t so much the increase in prices that shocked us, but rather the permanent impression of paying a special tourist price. In Thailand, this also exists, but we were much less confronted with it (or we hadn’t noticed it, who knows?).
To give you an idea, here’s our budget for this trip to Cambodia!
In all, we spent 954 euros for 2 people over 25 days. The average daily budget came to 38.2 euros for 2, or 19.1 euros each.
Let’s take a look at the different costs to understand the budget required for a trip to Cambodia.
The food budget in Cambodia
Please note that our food budget is a little higher than it should have been because we celebrated Christmas in Cambodia! For meals on the 23rd and 24th alone, we spent 55 and 65 euros respectively. Well, we like red wine and it was Christmas! It may not sound like much, but we guarantee that for a meal in Cambodia, it’s pure madness. At this price, we drank some good red wine and even ate a cheese platter and a chocolate fondant!
- Average price of Khmer coffee in a street stall (outside tourist areas): 3000 riels.
- A beer in a small bar: $1.
Accommodation costs in Cambodia
Hotel prices are pretty much the same across Cambodia. Just be careful if you go to Kep, where prices are a bit higher than elsewhere.
- Our most expensive night: $15 (the room in Kep with a private bathroom and no hot water).
- Our cheapest night: $5.5 (the room with a private bathroom without hot water).
During our trip to Cambodia, we rarely booked our hotels in advance. If you’re traveling in high season, or don’t want to waste time looking for accommodation when you arrive, backpack on your back, we recommend booking your hotels on Booking or Hostelworld if you’re on a backpacker’s budget!
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Transport cost in Cambodia
Transport in Cambodia is quite cheap, as in the rest of Southeast Asia. Here too, you’ll need to use your best negotiating skills!
One item in the travel budget that can quickly get out of hand, particularly in Angkor, is transportation. We opted for bicycles to tour the temples from Siem Reap. As a result, we only paid $15 for 2 super mountain bikes for 3 days. But if you decide to do the temples by tuk-tuk, you’re looking at at least $15 a day, depending on the number of kilometers you cover and your bargaining power.
- Number of tuk-tuks taken: 9.
- Average number of requests for a tuk-tuk: around 376 per day…
- Cambodian bike rental (no gears): $1 per day.
- Mountain bike rental: between $3 and $5 a day.
Among local transport options, the bus/minivan is the easiest but not necessarily the fastest way to cross Cambodia. Buses are never punctual and road conditions sometimes leave much to be desired, which can cause quite a few scares. If you can choose between the bus and the train, take the rail route!
For train tickets in Cambodia, find all timetables and prices on Royal Railways. For bus and minivan tickets, there are 2 complementary websites covering routes throughout Cambodia: 12go and Camboticket.
Cambodia sightseeing budget
The budget for visits during our trip to Cambodia includes entry to the Angkor temples, our jaunt to Koh Kong and the Cardamom Mountains, and our day trip to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) from Kep.
Unsurprisingly, it’s the stay in Siem Reap to visit the marvelous Angkor temples that pushes up the final budget… At $37, $62 and $72 respectively for a 1, 3 and 5-day pass, it’s a bit of a pain in the wallet! We strongly advise you to take the 3-day pass. It’s hard to do the whole tour in one day!
A few figures
- Cambodian cooking class: $23 per person for the day.
- ATM fees charged by banks in Cambodia: $4-6 per withdrawal. The cheapest with a high withdrawal limit is BRED Bank. Cambodian banks do charge these fees.
- Cambodian visa: $30 for a visa on arrival.
Cambodia trip: our review
Although we experienced some magical moments during our backpacking trip to Cambodia, our final review is somewhat nuanced… We had heard a lot about the smiles of the Cambodians, about their welcome, but also and above all, about the authenticity of this country which is still barely recovering from its recent painful history…
We’ve listed all the positives and negatives we encountered on our trip to Cambodia, to give you an idea of the situation.
Angkor
Wow! How can we not mention the incredible city of Angkor when we talk about Cambodia? So, yes, Angkor is touristy and a bit of a mess, but my God, it’s beautiful! For us, it’s one of the most impressive sites we’ve ever seen! We’ve written a full article about Angkor to help you make the most of this exceptional Cambodian site from Siem Reap.
Khmer food
Never tell a Cambodian that Khmer cuisine is the same as Thai! It would be like telling a Frenchman that his cuisine is the same as a German’s… Achhhh NEIN!
Cambodian food is a blend of flavors that has its origins in several countries. In Thailand, there’s a lot of coconut milk, rice and peanuts. Khmer food, on the other hand, is enriched by numerous spices from India, rice noodles and steamed dishes of Chinese origin, as well as typically Vietnamese soups and broths!
Amok, Kep green pepper crab, Lok Lak beef, and more. So many delicious dishes that will punctuate your trip to Cambodia with gourmet delights.
Thanks to the French influence in Cambodia, the Khmers are also Asia’s biggest consumers of bread! And after 4 months in Asia, we can confirm that this is where we found the best bread. Hallelujah!
The Cambodians
As much as we LOVED the temples of Angkor, and had a great time in Phom Penh with the cooking class, and in Koh Kong and Kep, we were a bit disappointed by the people…
We did meet some nice people, notably a French couple reporting on Cambodia, and some Cambodian children with their super sincere and adorable “heeeellooo”. But we also came across a fine collection of hustlers and tourists with questionable morals…
Scams ($1, $1…)
Our Cambodian trip got off to an eventful start, with us trying to avoid the many scams at the Thai border in Poipet, before setting off to discover the temples of Angkor. In short, a good start!
Another thing that stands out in Cambodia is the extremely commercial nature of its inhabitants. We saw plenty of smiles! But few of them were not followed by a request to buy something. However, special mention must go to this street vendor. His siesta technique made me dream!
Cambodia’s official currency is the riel. The current exchange rate is roughly equivalent to $1 = 4100 riels. What is less well known is that the US dollar is very often used in Cambodia to the detriment of the riel. Well, let’s be honest, it’s mainly a currency used for and by tourists.
During our trip, we had the unpleasant impression of being systematically cheated when prices were expressed in dollars. In Cambodia, there are no cents. So anything you can buy in Thailand or Vietnam for a few cents automatically costs $1 in Cambodia. A bottle of water? Instant coffee? A roll of toilet paper? Well, $1, naturally!
Of course, as soon as you leave the tourist center, you’ll find prices in riels. And it’s no surprise that in a local market, you can get 1 kilo of mandarins, 2 coffees, and a packet of cookies, all for 4000 riels…
In short, it was during your trip to Cambodia that we were most often confronted with tricky negotiation situations…
Sex tourism, the scourge of Southeast Asia
Cambodia and Thailand, the same story?
We often hear about Thailand and its sex tourists, but much less about Cambodia! Honestly, we weren’t expecting it, and we were a bit shocked in some areas… In Thailand, we haven’t been to the south or Pattaya. As a result, we only observed the country’s almost ubiquitous sex tourism out of the corner of our eye.
In Cambodia, it’s a bit like that… Not really present, or at least nothing shocking at the Angkor temples or in Phnom Penh. It’s in the South that it all goes wrong! We visited “only” 3 towns in the south (Koh Kong, Kampot and Kep), and each time, it’s pretty much the same sad story. White men, their stomachs hanging a little, wrinkles in the corner of their eyes, a mischievous look in their eyes. On their arm? A pretty little Cambodian girl who looks 15 (but must be 18 at the very least…).
To illustrate the point, we thought back to a great illustration by Tony that made us laugh.
Our experience in southern Cambodia
It’s a sorry sight, especially as it’s often expatriates who have settled in the area and are enjoying their retirement by getting a new lease on life and collecting chicks… We were treated to a few fine specimens in two of our guesthouses. Every time, we heard the same thing: “It’s cheap here. You can get 4-5 girls without breaking the bank, and they’re docile”.
But what human beings can talk like that? It’s sickening… The worst? They’re as proud as peacocks and brag about it to anyone who’ll listen, including us, when we’re sipping our coffee on the terrace…
I’ll pass on to you the evening when a guy in his forties, on magic mushrooms, explained to me at length that he didn’t like the evolution of the police force… 10 years ago, he could “bang” 13-year-old girls without any problem. Today, he’s branded a pedophile. The poor guy pissed me off. But he was so high that he scared me a little. I was content with one last look at this dark individual before slipping away with a belly full of disgust and hatred…
In short, the human race scares me sometimes, but that’s what traveling is all about. You meet some great people, and sometimes you meet the biggest losers of them all…
Cambodia, a country slowly recovering, but at what price?
Cambodia’s history is recent, and the country is still licking its wounds. Generally speaking, Cambodia gave us the impression that it was ticker over. At least compared to its neighbors, Thailand and Vietnam.
The tourism industry is certainly on the move, but it seems to be struggling to catch on. Siem Reap was off to a good start, but COVID, rising ticket prices and competition have put the brakes on economic growth around Angkor.
But it’s mainly in the south of Cambodia that we got that special feeling. The infrastructure is there, and the guesthouses are multiplying, but despite the high season, not a single guesthouse was fully booked – far from it! Kep, for example, gave us the impression of a ghost town. Either the tourists are well hidden in their resorts, or they’re not there. It’s hard to say, but in any case, the Cambodians have deserted the town because of the higher prices.
But from what we’ve heard from a Cambodian guesthouse owner and a young guide, the boom shouldn’t be long in coming. The Chinese will soon be here!
China is rushing to the door
That’s right! Cambodia has many problems, especially on the economic front. As a result of its recent history with the Khmer Rouge, the country’s economy is virtually non-existent. There are very few industries, let alone factories. Certainly for lack of investment, but also lack of roads! In Cambodia, very few roads are paved! Most roads are still dirt tracks. The country now has railway lines, but getting around and transporting materials is not always easy…
This lack of economic resources has led both the government and private individuals to agree to the sale of land (sometimes even entire islands) and the management of certain sites to foreign investors!
For example, Koh Kong, a small desert island in southern Cambodia, is already owned by… a casino! Not only the Chinese but also the Vietnamese and Koreans are investing heavily in this country. Why are they doing so? Because they see great potential as a vacation destination for “their tourists”, and they look favorably on the beautiful woodlands of Cambodia’s forests, which the locals are trying to protect as best they can…
Angkor? Managed by a Vietnamese company.
Tonlé Sap? Koreans are in charge.
Koh Kong mangroves? The Chinese are in charge!
In short, you can see where I’m going with this.
Unanswered questions
Investment is good for the country, and roads and access routes are being developed. However, it also poses many other problems for Cambodians, not least that of seeing their country “auctioned off” and used as a long-term investment by foreigners.
Will these foreigners really create jobs for Cambodians, or will they suddenly decide to use their own workforce?
Only time will tell… In any case, we can only hope that Cambodia will recover and find its balance. We wish them all the best!
At the Tuol Sleng (S-21) museum in Phnom Penh, I came across a drawing by a young Cambodian schoolboy that I found very touching…
Cambodia has seen a lot of violence, and many Cambodians still remember very well what it means to be hungry and to wake up in fear…
The end of our trip
But don’t misinterpret our opinion. We’re a bit critical, but we wanted to mention those aspects we didn’t like about our trip. It would be a real shame to stop there. Cambodia is a country brimming with magnificent landscapes and resources. It would be a shame to miss out!
Who knows, maybe we’ll come back one day! We’d heard a lot of good things about the north of the country, but for lack of time, we couldn’t make it.
To continue our trip around the world, we headed for Vietnam, where we met up with my dad and some friends from Switzerland to celebrate New Year’s Eve! A breath of fresh air (and good food too) in the Mekong Delta and Mui Ne for a great reunion 😊.
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