--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Phnom Penh, Cambodia | Wimup" description: "The 10 best things to do in Phnom Penh, ranked: the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, the S-21 and Choeung Ek memorials, the National Museum, the art deco Central Market and sunset on the confluence." url: https://wimup.com/city/phnom-penh type: City guide updated: 2026-10-22 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10 Things To Do in Phnom Penh Phnom Penh, Cambodia · Asia · By Wimup Editorial, 15 min read Phnom Penh sits where the Mekong, the Tonle Sap and the Bassac meet, which is why the French made it the capital of their Indochinese protectorate and why the Khmer court moved back here in 1866. The city reads in layers: colonial villas and a domed market on top of a royal quarter, with the prison a few kilometres south. ## Quick answer The best things to do in Phnom Penh are the Royal Palace with its Silver Pagoda, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the Choeung Ek memorial 15 kilometres south, the National Museum and Wat Phnom, the hill the city is named after. Two days covers all five. A third buys the Russian Market and an hour on the water at sunset. Come between November and February. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** Nov · Dec · Jan - **Ideal length:** 3 days - **Budget per day:** $40–80 - **Language:** Khmer, with English widely spoken in the centre - **Getting around:** App-booked tuk-tuks, plus a flat-fare city bus network - **Tourism board:** [↗ Website](https://tourism.gov.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ## The 10 best things to do in Phnom Penh ### 1. Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda Palace · Samdach Sothearos Boulevard, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh Norodom moved the court back from Oudong in the 1860s and built here at the confluence. Visitors get the ceremonial half: a Throne Hall spired with the four faces of Brahma, and a pagoda whose floor is laid with more than 5,000 solid silver tiles. It closes for state occasions, so check before you set out. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** Ticket - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** Shoulders and knees have to be covered for both the palace and the pagoda. Sellers at the gate will fix that for a few dollars, but bringing a shirt is cheaper. ### 2. Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) Museum · Street 113, Sangkat Boeung Keng Kang 3, Khan Boeung Keng Kang, Phnom Penh Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge turned a suburban high school into Security Prison 21. Estimates of the number held start at 12,000 and almost none survived. The museum has changed very little: classrooms are still divided into brick cells, and one whole building is hung with the photographs the prison took of everyone who arrived. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** $5 - **Best at:** Early - **Tip:** Do S-21 first and Choeung Ek after. The prison explains what the memorial 15 kilometres south is the end of, and the other order leaves the story backwards. Links: [Website](https://tuolsleng.gov.kh/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 3. Choeung Ek Genocidal Center Memorial · Roluos village, Sangkat Choeung Ek, Khan Dangkao, Phnom Penh Fifteen kilometres south, a former orchard is where prisoners from S-21 were brought to be killed. The memorial stupa holds more than 5,000 skulls behind glass, and the path passes the excavated pits. Cloth and bone still surface after heavy rain, which is why the walkways are raised. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** $6 - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** A tuk-tuk out, waiting and back is the usual arrangement, and the run takes around 40 minutes each way in traffic. Take the audio guide. Links: [Website](https://choeungekkillingfield.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 4. National Museum of Cambodia Museum · Corner of Streets 13 and 178, Sangkat Chey Chumneas, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh The terracotta pavilion opened in 1920 and holds the largest collection of Khmer art anywhere: more than 14,000 objects from pre-Angkorian sculpture to the bronze reclining Vishnu from the Western Mebon. Four galleries run around a courtyard of lotus ponds, so you walk out into it rather than through. - **Time:** 1.5 hrs - **Cost:** $10 - **Best at:** Late afternoon - **Tip:** It stands directly north of the Royal Palace, so the two are one walk. Take the museum second, when the courtyard is in shade. Links: [Website](https://www.nmc.gov.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) ### 5. Wat Phnom Temple · Norodom Boulevard, Sangkat Wat Phnom, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh The city is named after this hill and after the woman said to have founded the shrine on it, who legend has finding four bronze Buddhas inside a tree washed up in 1372. At 27 metres it is the highest point in Phnom Penh. A working temple: people come before exams, court cases and business deals. - **Time:** 45 min - **Cost:** Small fee - **Best at:** Late afternoon - **Tip:** Releasing a caged bird is sold at the gate as merit making. The birds are trained to fly back to their handler, so the money buys the ritual rather than the freedom. ### 6. Central Market (Phsar Thmey) Market · Kampuchea Krom Boulevard, Sangkat Phsar Thmei 1, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh Opened in 1937 on a drained lake, and its ochre art deco cross of four arms under a 26 metre dome was the largest market building in Southeast Asia. The plan does the work of signage: gold and gemstones in the rotunda, watches and fabric down the arms. Opening prices are set high and expected to be negotiated. - **Time:** 1 hr - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** Be here before 10:00. The dome vents heat but the four arms do not, and the fabric aisles are unpleasant by midday. ### 7. Sunset on Sisowath Quay Riverfront · Sisowath Quay, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh Two kilometres of promenade along the Tonle Sap, and where the city goes in the last hour of daylight: aerobics classes with speakers, food carts, kite sellers. The confluence is the thing to look at: the Tonle Sap reverses direction twice a year, which is what the Water Festival marks. - **Time:** 2 hrs - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Sunset - **Tip:** Agree the boat price and the duration in cash before you board, and expect to share. Sunset falls between roughly 17:30 and 18:15 depending on the month. ### 8. Russian Market (Phsar Toul Tom Poung) Market · Street 163 at Street 444, Sangkat Toul Tum Poung 1, Khan Boeung Keng Kang, Phnom Penh The name is a leftover from the 1980s and it stuck. Under a low tin roof are the souvenir aisles the city actually recommends: silk, silver, Kampot pepper, carved wood and factory-overrun clothing. The food court in the middle is one of the better cheap meals in the city. - **Time:** 1.5 hrs - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** The aisles are narrow, hot and unmarked. Fix a meeting point at one of the entrances if you are not shopping alone. ### 9. Independence Monument and Wat Botum Park Landmark · Norodom Boulevard at Sihanouk Boulevard, Khan Daun Penh, Phnom Penh Vann Molyvann designed the monument for the ninth anniversary of independence, and it is the clearest surviving statement of New Khmer Architecture: a lotus-shaped tower built to the proportions of an Angkorian prasat. It is floodlit at night and hosts the Independence Day ceremony. - **Time:** 30 min - **Cost:** Free - **Best at:** After dark - **Tip:** The monument stands on a traffic island in a busy junction, so the photograph everyone takes is from the pavement on the northeast corner. ### 10. Koh Dach, the silk island Day trip · Koh Dach, Khan Chroy Changvar, Phnom Penh Fifteen kilometres upriver is a low island the city treats as its weekend: farmland, stilt houses, and households weaving silk on wooden looms set under the floor. Small workshops sell at the loom, and a sandbank beach fills with Khmer families on Sundays. - **Time:** Half day - **Cost:** Ferry fare - **Best at:** Morning - **Tip:** Rent a bicycle on the island rather than keeping the tuk-tuk. The loop is flat and the workshops are spread along it. ## Best restaurants in Phnom Penh Six kitchens covering the range: the restaurant that made the case for Khmer fine dining, two that train former street youth, and a brasserie of the kind the city has kept since the protectorate. 1. **Malis** (Khmer fine dining · Norodom Boulevard): The restaurant most often used to argue that Khmer cooking belongs beside Thai and Vietnamese. Regional rather than tourist: prahok ktis, amok, Kampot crab. 2. **Romdeng** (Training restaurant, Khmer · Street 174): A restored French villa staffed by young Cambodians in training with a social programme. Country Khmer dishes, plus the crisp tarantula. 3. **Friends the Restaurant** (Tapas, same programme · Street 13): The original training restaurant, near the National Museum, working in small plates and fruit shakes. The easiest lunch in the palace quarter. 4. **Khéma** (French brasserie and bakery · Pasteur, Street 51): Charcuterie, terrines, a bread counter and a wine list, at prices unremarkable here and absurd in Paris. The bakery half is the reason to know it. 5. **Eleven One Kitchen** (Modern Khmer, garden seating · Boeung Keng Kang): A small local group cooking Khmer dishes with an eye on presentation, in garden courtyards. Reliable amok and lok lak below the fine dining end. 6. **Sombok** (Traditional Khmer, quiet room · Central): Wooden interiors, a long menu of home-style Khmer cooking and a room quiet enough for a conversation. The food without the show. ## Best markets and shopping in Phnom Penh Five places to shop, from a 1937 art deco dome to the wholesale market where the city actually buys its food. 1. **Central Market (Phsar Thmey)** (Art deco, 1937 · Daun Penh): Gold and gemstones under the rotunda, then watches, fabric and flowers down each arm. Worth walking through for the building alone. 2. **Russian Market (Phsar Toul Tom Poung)** (Silk, silver, Kampot pepper · Toul Tom Poung): The souvenir market the city recommends, and the one with a food court worth eating in. All of it negotiable. 3. **Phnom Penh Night Market (Phsar Reatrey)** (Open air, on the riverfront · Sisowath Quay): An open-air market on the riverfront after dark, with a food section where you eat sitting on mats. Easy to fold into a walk down the quay. 4. **Phsar Orussey** (The market locals use · Prampi Makara): Three floors and almost no visitors. Where the city buys food, kitchenware and hardware at close to wholesale. Come for the prices and the noise. 5. **Aeon Mall Phnom Penh** (Air conditioning and a cinema · Tonle Bassac): The first of the Japanese-owned malls, with a supermarket, a cinema and an ice rink. Where the city goes when the temperature passes 38. ## Best temples and pagodas in Phnom Penh Four working pagodas, all of them among the five the city counts as its oldest. 1. **Wat Phnom** (The hill the city is named for · Daun Penh): A nineteenth-century vihara on a 27 metre mound, and the origin story of the city in one place. Busy with offerings rather than tour groups. 2. **Wat Ounalom** (Seat of the Mohanikay order · Sisowath Quay): Founded in the fifteenth century and the headquarters of Cambodia's largest Buddhist order. Its library was destroyed under the Khmer Rouge. 3. **Wat Botum** (Temple of the Lotus Blossoms · Wat Botum Park): Full of stupas holding the ashes of royalty and senior monks. The quietest of the central pagodas to walk through, and closest to the palace. 4. **Wat Langka** (Founded 1442, open to visitors · Near Independence Monument): Founded in 1442 as a meeting place for Khmer and Sri Lankan monks. It has long run public meditation sessions and is used to visitors. ## Best cafes and bakeries in Phnom Penh Four places to sit out the middle of the day, most of them on the two streets that have most of them. 1. **Enso Cafe** (Melbourne-style, all-day breakfast · Street 240): A large, spare room on Street 240 doing the Australian cafe repertoire properly. The best breakfast in the palace quarter. 2. **The Shop** (Bakery and deli · Street 240): On Street 240 since the mid 2000s and still the bakery the city sends people to. The chocolate shop next door works with Kampot pepper. 3. **Feel Good Coffee** (Roasts on site · Near Independence Monument): A small local roaster working with beans from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand. At one branch the roasting happens in front of you. 4. **Brown Coffee** (The home-grown chain · Across the city): The first Cambodian speciality coffee chain and still the largest. Reliable espresso, hard air conditioning, and on most main streets. ## Best bars and rooftops in Phnom Penh Four ways to drink in Phnom Penh: two towers, one hotel bar of 1929, and a lane of rooms with a dozen seats each. 1. **Sora Sky Bar** (37th floor, cantilevered terrace · Vattanac Capital): A bar on the 37th floor with a terrace that cantilevers over the street and the largest single malt collection in the country. Worth it once. [Website](https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/phnom-penh/dining/sora?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 2. **Eclipse Sky Bar** (23rd floor, open on all sides · Phnom Penh Tower): Twenty-three floors up and open to the sky on every side. Cheaper and less formal than Sora, with a happy hour timed to the sunset. 3. **Elephant Bar** (Hotel bar of 1929, long gin list · Raffles Hotel Le Royal): The bar of Raffles Le Royal, opened in 1929 and restored rather than modernised: rattan, ceiling fans and more than thirty gins. [Website](https://www.raffles.com/phnom-penh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) 4. **Bassac Lane** (A lane of one-room bars · Tonle Bassac): A narrow lane of single-room bars, each with about a dozen seats and its own idea. Three or four in an evening and you never move forty metres. ## Best neighborhoods in Phnom Penh Five districts, and what each of them is for. 1. **Daun Penh** (Palace, museum and the quay · Riverside): The historic and administrative core, holding the palace, the museum, Wat Phnom and the quay. Everything except the memorials is walkable from here. 2. **Boeung Keng Kang 1** (Embassies, restaurants, cocktail lanes · BKK1): Leafy, walkable and the densest concentration of restaurants and embassies in the city. The base most repeat visitors settle on. 3. **Tonle Bassac** (Towers, the mall and Bassac Lane · Central south): The business district south of the palace, where the new towers are and where Bassac Lane runs. Convenient rather than characterful. 4. **Toul Tom Poung** (The Russian Market and its cafes · Russian Market): Built around the Russian Market and now the city's creative quarter: cafes and boutiques wedged between mechanics and hardware shops. 5. **Chroy Changvar** (The peninsula across the water · North bank): The spit of land across the Tonle Sap, with a promenade looking straight back at the palace and the quay. The sunset works from this side too. ## Best day trips from Phnom Penh Five trips within a couple of hours of the capital, from an island in the Mekong to a plateau of pine forest. 1. **Koh Dach (Silk Island)** (15 km upriver, ferry crossing · Mekong): Stilt houses, farmland and silk looms set under the floor. Cross on the ferry, hire a bicycle and ride between the workshops. 2. **Oudong** (39 km northwest, the old capital · Kandal): The royal capital from the early seventeenth century until 1866. A ridge of stupas holding the ashes of kings, up a long staircase. An hour by road. 3. **Tonle Bati** (30 km south, two Angkorian temples · Takeo): Laterite temples of the Angkorian period in a village beside a lake hung with picnic platforms. Far quieter than anything at Angkor. 4. **Phnom Chisor** (43 km south, hilltop temple · Takeo): An eleventh-century temple on a hill 43 kilometres south, up a long staircase, with the plain laid out below. Go early: no shade on the climb. 5. **Kirirom National Park** (A plateau of pine forest · Kampong Speu): Cambodia's first national park, 35,000 hectares of pine forest on a plateau, several degrees cooler than the plain. A long day, so many people stay. ## Festivals & annual events in Phnom Penh (2026) - **Victory over Genocide Day** (7 Jan): A public holiday marking the fall of Phnom Penh in 1979 and the end of the Khmer Rouge government. - **Khmer New Year (Choul Chnam Thmey)** (14 – 16 Apr): The three days that close the harvest, and the point at which Phnom Penh empties: most residents travel home. - **Visak Bochea** (1 May): The Buddhist holiday marking the birth, enlightenment and death of the Buddha. - **Royal Ploughing Ceremony** (5 May): The ritual that opens the planting season. Sacred oxen are offered seven trays, and what they eat is read as the harvest forecast. - **Pchum Ben** (10 – 12 Oct): The fifteen-day festival of the ancestors, and the most widely observed date in the Cambodian calendar. - **Coronation Day** (29 Oct): The anniversary of King Norodom Sihamoni's coronation in 2004, kept as a public holiday with ceremony at the Royal Palace. - **Independence Day** (9 Nov): The anniversary of independence from France in 1953, with a ceremony at the monument and a parade along Norodom Boulevard. - **Water Festival (Bon Om Touk)** (23 – 25 Nov): Cambodia's largest festival: the Tonle Sap reverses its flow and boat crews from every province race past the palace. ## Must-try dishes in Phnom Penh, Cambodia - **Fish amok**: Freshwater fish folded into coconut milk and lemongrass paste and steamed in a banana leaf until it sets. - **Lok lak**: Cubed beef seared hard on lettuce and onion with a fried egg on top. - **Kuy teav**: The breakfast the city runs on: clear pork broth over flat rice noodles with fried garlic and bean sprouts. - **Nom banh chok**: Fermented rice vermicelli under a pale green fish gravy, with raw banana flower and herbs. - **Bai sach chrouk**: Thin slices of pork grilled over coals on broken rice with pickled cucumber and a bowl of broth. - **Num pang**: The Cambodian sandwich: a short baguette split and loaded with pate, cured pork, pickled vegetables and herbs. - **Prahok**: Fermented fish paste, and the backbone of Khmer seasoning rather than a dish. - **Samlor korko**: The thick country soup Cambodians call their oldest dish, thickened with roasted ground rice. ## Phnom Penh transport & airports - **Techo International Airport** (KTI): Cambodia's new main gateway opened south of the capital in 2025, about 20 kilometres out, which is half an hour by road with clear traffic. The Airport Express Bus leaves from outside arrivals. [Website](https://www.techoairport.com.kh/transportation?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Royal Railway** (Rail): The southern line runs to Takeo, Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville; the northern line is suspended. Services are sparse and weighted to the weekend. The 1932 art deco station is worth walking past. [Website](https://royalrailway.com.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - **Tuk-tuks and ride apps** (In town): Two vehicles share the name: a carriage towed behind a motorbike, and the smaller auto-rickshaw the apps send. Book through an app rather than negotiating at the kerb. - **Phnom Penh City Bus** (City bus): A numbered network across the municipality at a flat fare paid in cash on board. Slow, not built for sightseeing, and by a wide margin the cheapest way to cross town. ## Phnom Penh at a glance - **Country:** Cambodia - **Region:** Phnom Penh Capital, an autonomous municipality ranked with the provinces - **Population:** About 2.3 million at the 2024 census, and the largest city in Cambodia - **Founded:** Traditionally 1372. Royal capital from 1434, abandoned later that century, and capital again from 1866 - **Nickname:** The Pearl of Asia, a name it picked up in the colonial period - **Language:** Khmer. English is widely spoken in the centre, and French among some older residents - **Currency:** Riel (KHR). US dollars are used for almost everything, and change under a dollar comes back in riel - **Time zone:** ICT (UTC+7), with no daylight saving - **Calling code:** +855, area code 23 - **Airports:** Techo International (KTI), about 20 km south, open since September 2025 - **Power:** 230V, 50Hz, with type A, C and G sockets all in use - **Emergency:** 117 police, 118 fire, 119 ambulance ## Interesting facts - The city takes its name from Wat Phnom and from Daun Penh, the widow who legend says found Buddhas in a tree floating in the river in 1372. - Phnom Penh has been the capital twice: the court moved here in 1434 after Angkor, lost the role, and returned in 1866. - On 17 April 1975 the Khmer Rouge emptied the city. Two million people were marched out, and it stood empty for four years. - Central Market opened in 1937 on a drained lake, and its 26 metre dome was the largest market building in Southeast Asia at the time. - The Tonle Sap changes direction twice a year: the Mekong in flood pushes it back into the great lake, and in November it drains again. ## Phnom Penh travel FAQ ### How many days do you need in Phnom Penh? Two covers the essentials: the Royal Palace, the National Museum and Wat Phnom on one day, S-21 and Choeung Ek on the other. A third buys the Russian Market, an hour on the water at sunset and the silk villages of Koh Dach. Most itineraries treat the city as a stop, and two nights is the usual length. ### Should you visit Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields? Yes, and in that order. S-21 is the prison and Choeung Ek is where its prisoners were taken, so doing the memorial first leaves the story backwards. Both are hard, both have audio guides narrated in part by survivors, and neither suits young children. Give the pair a full morning and plan something undemanding after it. ### Is Phnom Penh safe for visitors? Bag snatching from passing motorbikes is the common problem, particularly along the riverfront and after dark. Carry a bag on the side away from the traffic, keep your phone out of your hand in the street, and book a tuk-tuk through an app late at night. Violent crime against visitors is rare. ### Do you use dollars or riel in Phnom Penh? Both, often in the same transaction. Prices are usually quoted in US dollars, ATMs dispense them, and change under a dollar comes back in riel at roughly 4,000 to the dollar. Bring clean notes, because torn or heavily marked dollars are often refused. Cards work in hotels and larger restaurants and almost nowhere else. ### When is the best time to visit Phnom Penh? November to February, the cool end of the dry season, when highs sit in the low thirties and the humidity drops enough to walk in the afternoon. March to May is the hot season and April regularly passes 38°C. The rains run roughly May to October, usually as one hard hour in the afternoon rather than all day. ## Nearby guides - [Sihanoukville](https://wimup.com/city/sihanoukville.md): Cambodia · 10 picks - [Can Tho](https://wimup.com/city/can-tho.md): Vietnam · 10 picks - [Siem Reap](https://wimup.com/city/siem-reap.md): Cambodia · 10 picks - [All of Asia →](https://wimup.com/asia): 97 cities Part of the [Cambodia guide](https://wimup.com/country/cambodia.md) · [Asia](https://wimup.com/asia.md) ## Sources - [Phnom Penh tourism board](https://tourism.gov.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) (official site)](https://tuolsleng.gov.kh/en/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (official site)](https://choeungekkillingfield.com/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [National Museum of Cambodia (official site)](https://www.nmc.gov.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Sora Sky Bar (official site)](https://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/phnom-penh/dining/sora?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Elephant Bar (official site)](https://www.raffles.com/phnom-penh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Techo International Airport (official site)](https://www.techoairport.com.kh/transportation?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - [Royal Railway (official site)](https://royalrailway.com.kh/?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.