Phnom Penh Cambodia 7 Day Itinerary

Phnom Penh changed airports in September 2025. Techo International Airport replaced the old city-adjacent airport and sits about 20 kilometers south of downtown, which means your very first logistical decision, how you get into the city, now takes longer and costs more than any older guide will tell you.

Day 1: Arrival and the riverside

A tuk-tuk from Techo International into the Riverside or BKK1 area runs roughly 10-18 dollars and takes an hour to ninety minutes depending on traffic, noticeably longer than the old airport’s quick hop. Given the distance, a car transfer or ride-hailing app is genuinely worth the extra few dollars here rather than an open-sided tuk-tuk for over an hour in Cambodia’s heat and exhaust. Cambodia runs on US dollars for anything beyond small change, riel comes back as coins for amounts under a dollar, so you barely need to touch local currency the entire trip.

Check in, then head to the Riverside in the evening for a sunset view over the Tonle Sap and Mekong confluence, the actual geographic reason Phnom Penh sits where it does. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, a colonial-era building turned bar and restaurant with a long, slightly mythologized history among journalists covering the region, is the classic sundowner spot, though it leans touristy and pricey by local standards; treat it as an experience rather than a value dinner.

Day 2: Royal Palace and the National Museum

The Royal Palace complex, including the Silver Pagoda with its floor of over five thousand silver tiles, opens 8 to 11am and again 2 to 5pm, closed around midday, so plan your visit for one of those windows rather than showing up at noon. Entry runs about 10 dollars, cash only, and the dress code is strictly enforced: shoulders and knees covered, no tank tops, sarongs available for rent at the gate if you show up underdressed. Follow with the National Museum next door, a terracotta-colored building holding one of the world’s best collections of Khmer sculpture, much of it predating Angkor and giving useful context before any trip further afield to the temples.

For lunch, try Malis for a polished take on Khmer cuisine in a garden setting, or for something rougher and more honest, look for a no-frills local spot like Restaurant 72, where dishes run two or three dollars and the kitchen cooks for Khmer regulars, not visitors. In the evening walk Street 178, the gallery and cafe strip near the museum, before dinner.

Day 3: Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek

This day needs to be approached deliberately, not rushed between other errands. Tuol Sleng, the former high school converted into Security Prison 21 under the Khmer Rouge, costs 5 dollars entry or 8 with an audio guide, and the audio guide is worth the extra few dollars, the testimony adds context the bare rooms alone don’t convey. From there, Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields about 15 kilometers outside the city, costs 6 dollars including its own audio guide, and is open daily from 7:30am. Between 1975 and 1979, an estimated 1.7 to 2 million Cambodians died under Khmer Rouge rule, and these two sites are the clearest, most direct way to understand what that actually meant on the ground, not an abstract statistic.

Opinion: don’t schedule anything cheerful immediately after Choeung Ek. Give yourself the rest of the afternoon to just sit with it, maybe back at the Riverside, rather than pivoting straight into shopping or nightlife.

Day 4: Wat Phnom and the markets

Climb the small hill at Wat Phnom, the pagoda the city is named for, founded according to legend in 1372 by a wealthy widow named Penh who found four Buddha statues in the river; it’s a modest temple by regional standards but the origin story is worth knowing before you dismiss it as a minor stop. In the afternoon, head to Phsar Thmei, the Art Deco Central Market with its distinctive yellow dome, for jewelry, electronics, and street food under one roof, then continue to the Russian Market, Phsar Toul Tom Poung, for textiles, souvenirs, and secondhand goods at prices that reward actual haggling. In the evening, Friends Restaurant, a training restaurant that employs and supports former street youth, gives a genuinely good meal that also funds something worthwhile, not just a feel-good marketing line.

Day 5: Silk Island

Take a short boat crossing to Koh Dach, known locally as Silk Island, a rural stretch just across the Mekong from the city where families still weave silk on traditional looms, a sharp contrast to Phnom Penh’s traffic and noise less than an hour away. Watching the weaving process firsthand, from mulberry silkworm to finished scarf, is more interesting than it sounds on paper, and most workshops sell direct, so prices beat anything you’d find at the Russian Market for comparable quality. Pack a simple lunch or eat at one of the small local restaurants on the island; options are limited and simple by design. Return in the afternoon for a slower evening back in the city.

Day 6: A day trip further out, or a slower city day

If you want to leave the city for a genuinely different landscape, Kampong Chhnang, about two hours northwest, is known for traditional pottery and a floating village community on the edge of Tonle Sap Lake, Southeast Asia’s largest freshwater lake, which swells and shrinks dramatically between wet and dry season. It’s a longer day than Silk Island and better suited to travelers who’ve already covered the essential Phnom Penh sites and want something more rural. If you’d rather stay local, spend the day at a more relaxed pace between markets, a rooftop bar like Eden II for skyline views at sunset, and one more good meal, Cambodian cuisine’s amok, a coconut curry steamed in banana leaf, is worth having at least twice on any trip here, and every kitchen does it slightly differently.

Day 7: Departure

Spend the morning on last-minute shopping at the Russian Market, still the best value for handicrafts and textiles, or revisit a favorite riverside cafe for a final Cambodian iced coffee, strong, sweet, and made with condensed milk. Given the new airport’s distance from downtown, build in real buffer time, at least 90 minutes for the transfer alone before you even factor in check-in and security.

Where to stay: Raffles Hotel Le Royal remains the historic luxury choice, dating to 1929 and steeped in the country’s colonial and wartime history. The Plantation Urban Resort and Spa is a solid mid-range option with a genuine tropical courtyard feel in the center of the city. For budget travelers, Mad Monkey’s Phnom Penh hostel delivers the social, backpacker-friendly atmosphere the chain is known for across Southeast Asia. Be wary of any listing claiming a Mandarin Oriental in Phnom Penh; the chain doesn’t currently operate a property here, and that name shows up erroneously in a surprising number of recycled travel guides.

Transportation: Tuk-tuks remain the default way to get around the city itself, cheap and flexible, but always agree the fare before you get in since meters don’t exist for them. Ride-hailing apps like Grab operate reliably in Phnom Penh now and remove the negotiation entirely, worth using especially for the longer airport run.

One concrete tip: carry small dollar bills everywhere. Tuk-tuk drivers and market stalls routinely can’t break a twenty, and Cambodia’s dollar-riel dual currency system means change sometimes comes back as a mix of both, which catches first-time visitors off guard more than almost anything else in the country.