Phnom Penh, Cambodia: A Budget City Guide
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Phnom Penh is a compact, walkable capital, not an endless sightseeing list
Phnom Penh sits at the Chaktomuk confluence, where the Mekong, Tonle Sap, and Bassac rivers meet, and most travelers give it 2 to 3 days before moving on to Siem Reap or the south coast. That’s honestly enough: the royal and museum core, one memorial half-day, and a market circuit cover the city well. Budget $25-40 a day shoestring (hostel, street food, tuk-tuks) or $50-90 mid-range. This guide covers where to go, eat, and stay, plus the practical details that changed recently and matter, the airport moved, and a new arrival form is now mandatory.
Phnom Penh at a glance
| Factor | Detail |
|---|---|
| City-core days needed | 2-3, more time is better spent on day trips |
| Airport | Techo International (KTI), opened Sep 2025, ~45-75 min transfer |
| Entry | e-visa ~$36 (evisa.gov.kh) + mandatory e-Arrival Card (arrival.gov.kh) |
| Currency | US dollar everywhere; Cambodian riel for change under $1 |
Getting there and in
Phnom Penh’s air gateway is the new Techo International Airport (KTI), about 25-30km south of downtown, which opened 9 September 2025 and replaced the old Phnom Penh International (PNH), now fully closed to commercial flights. Budget 45-75 minutes for the transfer into the city. Most nationalities need an e-visa through evisa.gov.kh (about $36 total, 30 days) or a visa on arrival for a similar fee; passports need 6 months’ validity. Separately, every air arrival must file Cambodia’s e-Arrival Card at arrival.gov.kh within 7 days before landing, a requirement since January 2025 and easy to miss if you only prepared the visa.
Where to go
The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda (about $10) sit on the riverfront and enforce a strict dress code, shoulders and knees covered, or entry gets refused. The National Museum next door (about $10, $5 for youth) holds the region’s best collection of Khmer and Angkorian art. Wat Phnom, the hilltop temple the city is named for, is $1; Wat Ounalom, the seat of Cambodia’s Buddhist leadership, is free. Central Market’s yellow Art Deco dome (1937) and the denser Russian Market are both free to browse, and Sisowath Quay, the riverside promenade facing the actual river confluence, is worth a sunset walk or a short cruise. The Independence Monument and the Friday-Sunday Night Market round out a comfortable 2-day core.
The Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek memorials
Any honest guide to this city has to include the Khmer Rouge history, and it deserves a straight, unhurried telling rather than a place on a checklist. The Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia from 17 April 1975 to early January 1979, and an estimated 1.7 to 2.2 million people, roughly a quarter of the population, died from execution, starvation, forced labor, and disease. Tuol Sleng (S-21), a former high school turned prison, held an estimated 14,000-20,000 people; only around 12 are known to have survived. It’s $5 admission (audio guide about $5, worth it), daily 8am-5pm, official details at tuolsleng.gov.kh. Choeung Ek, about 15km south, is where most of those prisoners were taken; the memorial stupa holds more than 5,000 skulls, and about $6 covers entry with an audio guide, daily 7:30am-5:30pm. Most visitors see both in one sober half-day, Tuol Sleng first.
Eating and staying
Fish amok (coconut fish curry in banana leaf) and nom banh chok (cold noodles under green fish curry) are the two dishes to look for; lok lak and kuy teav soup fill in the rest, and bai sach chrouk, grilled pork over rice, is a breakfast-only stall order that mostly stops by 10am. Friends (215 Street 13) and Romdeng both train at-risk youth in hospitality and are worth the modest premium over a street stall. For a base, Riverside/Daun Penh is central and walkable (home to the historic Raffles Hotel Le Royal); BKK1 is the upscale café district (Rosewood Phnom Penh sits atop the Vattanac Capital tower); Tonle Bassac is quieter.
Getting around and staying safe
Tuk-tuks booked through PassApp or Grab skip the haggling a walk-up ride expects; there’s no metro, and the central core is walkable between sights. Hold bags away from the road and keep phones off the street side, motorbike snatching is a real problem on the riverfront and in BKK, and the advice if it happens is to let the item go. Tap water isn’t potable, and dengue is a rainy-season risk. Note that Angkor Wat isn’t here, it’s a separate multi-day trip to Siem Reap, about 300km and 5-6 hours away.
Read more: the 2-day itinerary turns this into a schedule, and the day-trips guide covers what’s reachable beyond the city.