Cambodia is divided into 24 provinces and the capital municipality of Phnom Penh. These are the ones travellers actually reach — each with what there is to see, when to come, and live availability for everywhere you can stay.
The capital, built where the Mekong, the Tonlé Sap and the Bassac meet — golden spires, a hard twentieth-century history and the best food in the country.
Central · capital Phnom Penh →Red laterite roads, a perfectly circular volcanic crater lake and forest that still holds gibbons — the far north-east, and a long way from anywhere.
North-east · capital Banlung →Cambodia’s highland province and its largest by area — rolling green ridges, waterfalls, and the country’s most credible elephant sanctuaries.
East · capital Sen Monorom →The province that holds Angkor — the largest religious monument on earth, a thousand lesser temples, and the lake that fed the empire that built them.
North-west · capital Siem Reap →Cambodia’s deep-water port and its island province — the mainland beaches, Ream National Park, and the ferries out to Koh Rong.
Coast · capital Sihanoukville (Krong Preah Sihanouk) →The far north on the Lao border, where the Mekong braids into a maze of channels, rapids and flooded forest.
North-east · capital Stung Treng →A quiet Mekong province where a critically endangered population of Irrawaddy dolphins still surfaces in the deep pools upstream.
North-east · capital Kratie →A remote northern province holding two UNESCO World Heritage sites — a cliff-edge temple on the Thai border, and the tenth-century capital of Koh Ker.
North · capital Tbeng Meanchey →Pepper, a wide slow river and a mountain in the mist — the province travellers mean to pass through and end up staying in.
South coast · capital Kampot →The smallest province in Cambodia — blue swimmer crab cooked with green pepper, a national park on the hill, and the ruins of a 1960s seaside elite.
South coast · capital Kep →The wettest, wildest corner of the country — the Cardamom Mountains, a vast mangrove sanctuary and river lodges reachable only by boat.
South-west · capital Khemarak Phoumin (Koh Kong) →The province that holds Sambor Prei Kuk — a seventh-century brick capital in the forest, inscribed by UNESCO in 2017 and older than Angkor by three hundred years.
Central · capital Kampong Thom →The province that wraps entirely around the capital — silk-weaving river islands, the old royal city of Oudong, and the Mekong at its widest.
Central · capital Ta Khmau →Often called the cradle of Khmer civilisation — the Funan-era sites of Angkor Borei and Phnom Da predate Angkor by five hundred years.
South · capital Doun Kaev →Cambodia’s rice bowl and its arts capital, with the best-preserved colonial shophouse architecture in the country.
North-west · capital Battambang →A relaxed Mekong town with a bamboo bridge that is rebuilt by hand every dry season, and two hills wrapped in a folk tale.
East · capital Kampong Cham →The pottery province on the Tonlé Sap — its name literally means “port of pots” — with some of the largest floating villages on the lake.
Central · capital Kampong Chhnang →Palm sugar, pine forest and the cool plateau of Kirirom — the closest thing to a hill station within reach of the capital.
Central · capital Chbar Mon →Marble carving, a floating village that moves with the season, and a back door into the northern Cardamoms.
West · capital Pursat →The northern border province — the Dangrek escarpment, the last Khmer Rouge stronghold at Anlong Veng, and a difficult recent history that is only now being interpreted.
North · capital Samraong →A small gem-mining province on the Thai border, and one of the last places the Khmer Rouge held — now known for rubies, fruit orchards and a hilltop pagoda.
West · capital Pailin →Flat, densely farmed country east of the Mekong, holding Ba Phnom — one of the oldest sacred sites in Cambodia.
South-east · capital Prey Veng →The far south-east, wrapped on three sides by Vietnam, with the country’s busiest land border at Bavet.
South-east · capital Svay Rieng →The main overland gateway from Thailand, and home to Banteay Chhmar — a vast, half-collapsed temple with face towers and almost no visitors.
North-west · capital Serei Saophoan (Sisophon) →Cambodia’s newest province, split from Kampong Cham in 2013 — rubber country east of the Mekong, with prehistoric earthworks at Memot.
East · capital Suong →Individual visitor guides to the places people search for by name.
| Place | Province |
|---|---|
| Wat Phnom | Phnom Penh |
| Royal Palace of Cambodia | Phnom Penh |
| Choeung Ek Memorial — The Killing Fields | Phnom Penh |
| Wat Ounalom | Phnom Penh |
| Chrey Thom Waterfall | Mondulkiri |
| Bayon Temple | Siem Reap |
| Kampong Trach | Kampot |
| Ta Prohm Temple | Siem Reap |
| The Barays of Angkor | Siem Reap |
| Tuol Tompoung Market (The Russian Market) | Phnom Penh |
| Win-Win Memorial | Phnom Penh |
| Prek Thnout Community-Based Ecotourism Site | Kampot |