Our favourite Cambodia tours and excursions

It’s often bemoaned that Phnom Penh is no longer the “pearl” it was in the 1920s — but since when did beautiful equate to interesting anyway? 

Whether it’s 1950s buildings that blend traditional construction with modern materials or colonial-era buildings repurposed by the Khmer Rouge, the messy, unpredictable (and yes, sometimes ugly) architecture of modern Phnom Penh has some fascinating stories to tell. After lunch in the 19th-century headquarters of Messageries Fluviales de Cochinchine (a colonial shipping company), trishaw your way through the French Quarter to conclude with a cruise on the Mekong, where traditional pagodas jostle with contemporary architecture along the riverside.

Gargantuan and yet surprisingly sensitive, an elephant can crack a peanut shell without breaking the seed and react to the touch of a feather on their leathery hides. 

The Mondulkiri Project rescues these highly intelligent animals from exploitation in logging and tourism,and provides them with a safe and happy retirement while educating the local community on elephant welfare. One thing you definitely won’t be doing is riding them – which is good. You can appreciate something without trying to ride it. You will be able to walk with them through the forest: a profoundly humbling experience.

From its source in the Tibetan Plateau to its delta in Vietnam, the Mekong has many different personalities.

In Cambodia, its wide, deep and slow waters make for the perfect cruising conditions, and it’s a fantastic way to see the palm-fringed paddy fields of the countryside if you’re not into trekking or cycling. By boat, you can visit little villages, remote temples, community farms and local workshops that are difficult to access by road — all while travelling in comfort and style. The Mekong also winds through Phnom Penh, which makes a great stop of modern history buffs, and in high water seasons you can make a side trip to the stilt villages of Tonlé Sap Lake.

Greater adjutants, rufous-winged buzzards, Indochinese bushlarks and white-winged ducks: a list of Kulen Promtep’s avian residents reads like a page out of Darwin’s logbook.

Covering an area of over 4,000 sq km of lowland forest and swampland, this wildlife sanctuary is the largest protected area in Cambodia and one of its most important birding sites. Over 150 species have been spotted here, including the extremely rare giant ibis, which is Cambodia’s national bird and thought to be extinct until the late 1990s. Stay at a community ecolodge and you’ll have endless opportunities to get out and spot them.

Recognisable by their distinctive snub-noses and enigmatic smiles, the largest population of Irrawaddy dolphins in the world lives in the Mekong, where — if you’re lucky — you might spot their little dorsal fins dancing about above the water not far from the village of Kampi. 

With just 92 left in the wild, this may be your last chance to see them — though we certainly hope not. Thankfully, conservationists have teamed up with fishermen to run low-volume dolphin-spotting tours, which supplement local incomes and motivate the conservation of these critically endangered (and strikingly cute) creatures.