A shophouse town on a wide river below Bokor mountain, famous for the best pepper in the world and for doing very little, very well.
Kampot has become the place travellers say they meant to stay two nights and stayed five. The centre is a grid of ochre French-colonial shophouses; the river runs wide and slow past it, and the Elephant Mountains rise behind.
The pepper is not a marketing line — Kampot pepper carries a protected geographical indication, and the plantations east of town run tastings and tours.
Up on Bokor plateau, Preah Monivong National Park holds the ruins of a 1920s French hill station, an abandoned casino and a Catholic church, usually wrapped in cloud.
Riverside bungalows west of town are peaceful but you will need a scooter or tuk-tuk for dinner. Staying in the grid puts you walking distance from everything.
November to March. Bokor is often socked in by cloud in the wet season, which is atmospheric but view-free.
Three to four hours by minivan from Phnom Penh, about 45 minutes from Kep, and around 2 hours from Sihanoukville.
A 32 km switchback road up to the old hill station, waterfalls and long views to the sea.
La Plantation and neighbouring farms run free tours and tastings east of town.
Two hours upriver with the mountain going pink behind you. Fireflies afterwards.
Limestone karst caves and a collapsed cavern about 35 km east, often combined with Kep.
Between Kampot and Kep, worked by hand in the dry season.