Our favorite Cambodia tours and excursions

Get an insider’s perspective on daily life in Cambodia with our hand-picked, hands-on experiences, each one designed to get you beneath the surface of the local culture. 

Looking out over the Kampot Pepper Farm

La Plantation pepper farm

Whether you’re a seasoned connoisseur or simply spice curious, you can’t possibly leave Cambodia without a taste of Kampot pepper. 

Practically revered in the culinary world, this musky, eucalyptus-noted peppercorn is widely considered the best of the best – and La Plantation is our favorite place to try it. First, tour the farm, smell and taste the different varieties, and learn to cook some Khmer dishes where pepper is the star of the show. Then check out the shop – stuffed with everything from black to pink and salted pepper, and even (wildly popular) pepper-infused rum. Be warned: you may need another suitcase.

Phnom Penh City Courthouse

The backstreets of Phnom Penh

It's easy to beeline from landmark to landmark, but the tours we really love dove into the life that goes on in between. 

That’s why, on this tour, you're as likely to find yourself glimpsing into local shops and businesses as hearing about the days of colonialism at the Royal Palace — and you’ll spend more time mingling with the locals at riverside parks or back-alley temples than admiring monuments. Phnom Penh’s authenticity and simple, unguarded friendliness make it one of the most rewarding places in Southeast Asia to tap into the rhythms of city life, and this tour is a brilliant way to start your trip.

An old brick archway partially painted provides beautiful views of royal palance in Phnom Penh

Architecture tour of Phnom Penh

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.

Elephants in Mondulkiri

Walking with elephants in Mondulkiri

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.

Dinner cruise on the Mekong

Cruising on the Lower Mekong

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 traveling 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.

Birds in Kulen Prontemp

Bird-watching in Kulen Promtep

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.