Kampot
Kampot grows the pepper European royal households used to buy, in a trade that nearly died twice. A road climbs behind the town to an abandoned French hill station at a thousand metres.
Kampot in a nutshell
Kampot: what to expect
This is what 164,000+ planned stops in Cambodia on Stippl say about Kampot.
Kampot is a river town rather than a beach town, and the distinction is the whole point. It sits five kilometres inland between the water and the Elephant Mountains, in French colonial shophouses that are the reason people photograph it. Kampot pepper has been a protected origin since 2010 and you taste it at the vine. Phnom Bokor is an hour of switchbacks up to an abandoned hill station, a church and a temple standing in mist, and the Green Cathedral is a three-kilometre kayak loop roofed over by trees.
Kampot has a reputation as the town nobody leaves, and the plans do not support it. 42.1% of stays here are exactly two nights, the tightest single length in Cambodia, and fewer than three in a hundred run to five nights or more, against a quarter on Koh Rong. What Kampot does have is the country's only real pairing: Kep turns up on its trips two and a half times more often than chance would put it there.
Spend 2 nights here, and spend them outside the town. The pepper plantations are east and best between January and March, the salt fields are south and worked by hand through the dry months, the Phnom Chhnork cave temple is fifteen minutes away, and Kep's crab market is half an hour on. Skip Kampot if you came to Cambodia for a beach, because there is not one here, and avoid the wet months between June and September.
Who Kampot is for
Enough of the hard sights
arriving from the Killing Fields or three days of temples, Kampot is the stop every source recommends as the decompression, and the reason its typical stay runs longer than Battambang's
Food travellers
a pepper with a protected origin, a plantation you can taste it, crab 30 km away in Kep, and an expat restaurant scene disproportionate to the town's size
Budget travellers
dorms from about USD 5–7, river bungalows from USD 10–14, scooters USD 5–10 a day
Cyclists and scooter riders
the countryside is flat, the roads east are good, and the Bokor road is paved the whole way up
Couples
boutique hotels in heritage buildings and river bungalows at a fraction of the equivalent price in Thailand
Climbers and cavers
a single operator runs half-day climbing and caving trips on the limestone karsts outside town for roughly USD 35–50
Maybe not for you: anyone who came to Cambodia for a beach (there is none, Kep's is small and Otres is a building site), anyone on a tight schedule who cannot absorb a slow town, anyone visiting in June–September when the waterfalls are the only thing improved by the rain, and anyone expecting nightlife beyond a handful of bars
When to go to Kampot
Dry
Nov–Mar
under 130 mm a month and under 30 mm for three of them. Clear views from Bokor, dry cave floors, the pepper harvest, and the salt fields being worked.
Hot
Mar–May
the heat peaks in April at 33.5 °C mean daily max before the cloud arrives, and Khmer New Year empties the businesses and fills the roads.
Wet
Jun–Sep
200–380 mm a month. August is the wettest and it rains on 29 days of it. Waterfalls run, Bokor disappears, and the countryside is at its greenest.
The turn
Oct
still wet at 243 mm but easing through the month, and the cheapest time to be here.
- One guide makes the point that it rarely rains for days on end and dry windows are normal; the difference from Koh Rong is that nothing in Kampot depends on a boat crossing
- Kampot takes 53.0% of its trips in November–February against 50.2% for Cambodia as a whole, and 13.9% across May–August against 17.9%
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What not to miss in Kampot
Photo by Siborey Sean via Unsplash
Photo by Siborey Sean via Unsplash
Photo by Aleksandra B. via UnsplashTour a pepper plantation in harvest season
the town's one globally recognised thing, tasted at the vine, mostly free, and best January to March
Ride to the top of Phnom Bokor
an hour of switchbacks to 1,081 m, an abandoned French hill station, a Khmer Rouge-era hotel, a Catholic church and a Buddhist temple in the mist, with the coast laid out below
Kayak the Green Cathedral
a roughly 3 km loop off the main river, roofed over by arching vegetation, rented from the riverside guesthouses for USD 5–20
Eat crab at Kep's crab market
steamed crab with fresh green Kampot pepper, eaten at tables over the water, 30 minutes east
Phnom Chhnork cave temple
a small brick shrine inside a limestone cave, pre-Angkorian and attributed to the Funan period, 15 minutes from town
Walk the salt fields
flat white pans south of town worked by hand from December to May, reached by bicycle over the old French bridge
The neighbourhoods of Kampot
Riverfront north
Stopping still
Bungalows and river resorts strung along the northern bank, from about 3 km to 9 km out, up to a 20-minute tuk-tuk from town. Swimming, kayaks, hammocks, and you will eat where you sleep.
The reason people overstay in Kampot. Sunset over the river and the mountain behind it.
In town (east bank)
food
The compact centre between Old Market Street and the Durian Roundabout: cafés, restaurants, bars, the museum, the night market and the travel agents. Walkable end to end.
If you plan to eat out more than twice, stay here. Everything else is a tuk-tuk.
Thvi (west bank)
Quiet
Directly across the river from the centre, quieter but still close in. Riverside places north of the bridge, a couple of resorts south.
Town in ten minutes, without town's noise.
Tuek Chhou & Trapeang Sangkae
Rural
Satellite villages east and south-east among the rice fields, salt pans and mangroves. Homestays, over-water bungalows in a fishing village, and one glamping site on the salt flats.
The landscape people come to Kampot for, with nobody else in it.
Andoung Khmer & the south bank
Leafy retreat
Garden bungalows in villages across the river a short ride from town, with local pagodas and no tourist infrastructure.
Quiet without being remote.
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Where to stay in Kampot
The choice is the zone, not the hotel. In town, riverfront north, across the river at Thvi, or out among the salt pans and rice fields, and the four give genuinely different holidays at similar prices
Riverfront north
€10–40
Bungalows and river resorts strung along the northern bank, from about 3 km to 9 km out, up to a 20-minute tuk-tuk from town. Swimming, kayaks, hammocks, and you will eat where you sleep.
In town (east bank)
€25–65
The compact centre between Old Market Street and the Durian Roundabout: cafés, restaurants, bars, the museum, the night market and the travel agents. Walkable end to end.
Thvi (west bank)
€20–55
Directly across the river from the centre, quieter but still close in. Riverside places north of the bridge, a couple of resorts south.
Tuek Chhou & Trapeang Sangkae
€8–35
Satellite villages east and south-east among the rice fields, salt pans and mangroves. Homestays, over-water bungalows in a fishing village, and one glamping site on the salt flats.
Andoung Khmer & the south bank
€15–40
Garden bungalows in villages across the river a short ride from town, with local pagodas and no tourist infrastructure.
What to eat in Kampot
The town's protected-origin peppercorn, sold green, black, red and white. Green is fresh off the vine and only exists in season
Kep's dish rather than Kampot's, but eaten by most people who base here: steamed crab tossed with fresh green Kampot peppercorns
The Cambodian pepper-sauce beef that is the reason the pepper matters domestically
Steamed fish curry in banana leaf, the national dish
Local stalls beside the Durian Roundabout, the cheapest full meal in town
Bakeries, craft beer, wood-fired pizza, cafés, disproportionate to a town this size
A plantation's own novelty, and named unprompted by more than one source
Grilled at the riverside guesthouses, which is where you will eat if you sleep out of town
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Kampot customs and what not to do
The etiquette is national
temple dress, the sampeah greeting, monk protocol, care with feet and heads, and respectful behaviour around Khmer Rouge sites
A working town, not a resort
and it reads as one outside the two or three tourist streets. The salt workers, pepper farmers and fishing families whose landscape you are cycling through are at work
The expats are settled here
which is why the café scene exists and why the town does not feel like a backpacker strip
People live on the river
they use it too. One guide asks visitors explicitly not to kayak topless or in swimwear past the villages on the Green Cathedral loop
Do
- Cover shoulders and knees at Wat Ey Sey, the cave temples and any working pagoda.
- Buy the pepper at the plantation or the Old Market rather than at the airport.
- Take a jacket up Bokor: it is over 1,000 m and genuinely cold at the top.
- Agree the tuk-tuk fare before you get in, or use the app.
Don't
- Don't assume the riverfront is walking distance from dinner.
- Don't ride the Bokor road in heavy rain or cloud; the view is the point and the bends are not forgiving.
- Don't kayak past the villages in swimwear.
- Don't expect the waterfalls to be running in February, they are a wet-season sight.
Daily budget in Kampot
Shoestring
€15–25
Dorm or basic river bungalow, market and street food, a bicycle, one shared tour
Budget
€25–45
Private room in town or a river bungalow, eating out twice, a scooter, a plantation tour
Mid-range
€45–90
Boutique or heritage hotel with a pool, the restaurant scene, a private Bokor and Kep day
Comfortable
€90+
The best of the town's boutique hotels or a river villa, private driver, guided everything
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Fun facts about Kampot
Kampot pepper and Kampong Speu palm sugar were Cambodia's first two protected geographical indications, both registered on 2 April 2010. The EU followed with PGI status in 2016
The pepper trade nearly died twice. It supplied European royal households in the early twentieth century and production collapsed almost completely under the Khmer Rouge
Kampot was the country's principal port before Sihanoukville existed. The deep-water port 100 km west was only built after independence in 1954, which is what ended Kampot's commercial life and preserved its architecture
The town gets barely half the rain of the coast 100 km west. 1,896 mm a year at the Kampot station against 3,217 mm at Preah Sihanouk, the Elephant and Cardamom ranges take the monsoon out of the air before it reaches here
The cave temple at Phnom Chhnork is older than Angkor. A small brick shrine inside a limestone hill, attributed to the Funan period and put at over a thousand years old
Local tips for Kampot
On the only railway
Kampot is on Cambodia's only railway line and that is a genuinely better way. The Phnom Penh–Sihanoukville service stops here; sources describe it as no slower than the bus, similarly priced, and without the road
Rent a scooter
Rent a scooter and the whole province opens up. Every guide treats USD 5–10 a day as the unlock for the plantations, the caves, the salt flats, Bokor and Kep, and the roads east of town are specifically praised
The Bokor road is paved
The Bokor road is paved and manageable on any vehicle: the climb is over 1,000 m of switchbacks and takes about an hour from town, and it is cold at the top
Tuk-tuks are app-hailed here.
PassApp works in Kampot, which matters if you are staying out along the river
Not Sihanoukville
Kampot has no security reputation of the kind Sihanoukville has, and sources that warn hard about the coast an hour west say nothing comparable here. The town is repeatedly described as one of the places expats moved to when they left Sihanoukville
The road is the risk
The road is the risk, as it is everywhere in Cambodia. Scooter hire is the default here and the Bokor climb is a long series of blind bends; the country file's road-safety claims apply in full
Kampot questions, answered
Base in Kampot and day-trip to Kep. It is half an hour down the road, Kep's beds are pricier and thinner on the ground, and the crab market is a lunch rather than a stay. Put Kampot into Stippl as the base and hang Kep, Bokor and the pepper farms off it as separate days.
Two or three nights. Most people give Kampot 2 nights in the plans they build on Stippl, and three is right if Bokor and Kep are going to be proper days rather than a rushed one. The town itself wants an afternoon and an evening, no more.
A base, and one of the strongest in Cambodia. Hardly ever, and 22.9% of Kampot stops planned on Stippl are the exception at one night, low for a town this size, because everything around it, Kep, Bokor, the pepper farms and the river itself, is a day out from here.
Less than most of Cambodia. 21.0% of the trips that include Kampot come together inside a fortnight on Stippl, one of the highest last-minute shares in the country, which fits a town people add once they are already travelling. The riverside places still fill in the dry season.
In town if you intend to eat out, on the river if you intend to stop. The far riverfront runs several kilometres from the centre, which is a twenty-minute tuk-tuk to dinner and another one back, twice a day. The river places are lovely, and choosing one is a commitment.
In the dry season, yes: a paved road climbing a thousand metres to an abandoned French hill station with the whole coast laid out below it. Between June and September it sits inside cloud, and you will have driven two hours to look at the inside of a cloud. Check the weather first.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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