2019 travel costs for Cambodia

I visited Cambodia for the first time in November 2019, and thought it might be useful to share how much it cost (as a solo flashpacker).

First off, Cambodia is harder to do cheaply than neighbouring Thailand. You will often end up paying more to find decent accommodation, and it can be harder to find street food (certainly, the street food is less accessible). Although I found cheap local noodle places in some places, in others those sorts of joints were either few and far between, or seemed (to my fastidious Western eyes) quite decrepit, so I didn't necessarily feel comfortable eating there. Plus all those fancy French restaurants and patisseries are quite tempting....So I ended up going considerably over my budget, and spent an average of  $66.67 USD (£50.61) per day.

Accommodation average $31 per night (£23.59). Siem Reap has an enormous number of hotels and dorms, across all price points. At the price I was paying, expect a nice room in a small hotel with a pool. Phnom Penh has a lot of quite dodgy, cheap places. I splurged for a midrange hotel, so I could be assured a pleasant stay, away from the noise of the city. Sihanoukville should be avoided at all costs (the town has been turned into a massive construction site and garbage dump, with almost all the old backpacker-friendly places gone). The islands are nice, but very expensive (I guess that's supply and demand, now Sihanoukville has been destroyed, there are very few places left for beachgoers to visit). Kampot, Kep, Kratie and Stung Treng have more of the old backpacker vibe going on, with plenty of good-value accommodation available.

• Siem Reap – $24.
• Battambang  – $20 
• Phnom Penh – $34 
• Sihanoukville – $40 – arrived too late to want to go to the islands, so spent a night in town. That was a mistake.
• Koh Rong Samloen – $69 for a perfectly average bungalow joint. Decent place, but about twice what I'd expect to pay for something similar on the Thai islands.
• Koh Rong – $52
• Kampot – $17
• Kep – $20
• Kratie – $15
• Stung Treng – $15

Food and drink: average $17.68 USD (£13.42) per day. A lot of tourist-oriented restaurants, a lot of fancy pastries and croissants, and a few high end meals at expensive restaurants. Sample costs might be:

• $3.50 for a croissant and coffee for breakfast
• $2.75 for an iced coffee in the Angkor archaeological park
• $5-11 for a meal at a tourist-oriented café or small restaurant (ie., a veggie bowl and smoothie, or a sandwich and iced coffee, or a curry and rice). Expect prices at the lower end of the range in the more backpackery sites, and the upper end on the islands or Siem Reap
• $33 for a fancy afternoon tea at a 5 star hotel
• $1.25-$2 for a bowl of noodles at a local place

Sightseeing: Angkor will be your main sightseeing cost, and isn't cheap, but is well worth it. A three day pass will be sufficient for most people, and costs $62 USD. Add on to that the cost of a tuktuk or driver to get you to/from, and around the site. I was told the going rate was $12 a day, but I found the drivers typically asked for $15-20 (I agreed $15 each time, so may have overpaid a bit, but I figure a man should make a decent wage for his time). 

Other sightseeing costs: $8-15 each for the big museums and sites in Phnom Penh, $1 to $5 for small museums and art spaces outside of the capital, $13 plus tips for a pepper plantation tour (including hotel pickup), $20 for a snorkelling trip, $14 for a full-day bus trip up Bokor mountain, and $10 for a half-day cooking class.

Transport is also generally affordable, with a large number of coach companies plying routes between towns. I tended to use the more expensive coach companies (typically $8-15 per trip), with better reputations for reliability and quality of buses, but don't expect too much. Even the more expensive companies frequently break down, or arrive an hour or two late. I moved around a fair amount, and spend an average of $7.50 pd, including the cost of hiring tuktuks for the day to visit Angkor Wat, and a few tuktuk taxis to get across town.

So, that gives you a rough idea how much you might spend, assuming you travel as a solo flashpacker, and like your French pastries as much as I do.