Sihanoukville Beach

-Sihanoukville is a rather sleepy coastal town around 230 km southwest of Phnom Penh.

Sihanoukville has no past, it was placed on a cleared piece of jungle in the 1950 ties to build Cambodia's only deep water port. Now Sihanoukville has a bright future..the tourist are coming in large quantities.

You will find some useful information on this beach city in Cambodia, a pretty Sihanoukville beach, some Sihanoukville guesthouse and hotel at Sihanoukville. Trips from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh and Angkor should be on every agenda of a Cambodian travel trip. Also a trip from Sihanoukville to the nearby Bokor National Park is a great experience.

The hotels and beach resort are not as sophisticated as some hotels at Angkor in particular as a luxury Angkor hotel. The main reason to visit Sihanoukville is probably to have a great time at the beaches around Sihanoukville and the islands in front of the coast of Sihanoukville.

The islands and coastal beaches are not as developed as lets say Patong beach at Phuket and other beaches in Thailand but this is probably nothing negative, rather positive. Check paradise beach, Victoria beach, independence beach, Hawaii beach Ochiheuteal beach, nightlife is rather quiet if you like it hot try Phuket nightlife.

There are no major Khmer temples and monuments around for this you have to travel to Angkor maybe partly on the Mekong would be a great journey. A good bus service out of the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh makes it easy to go there quickly.

Don't rent a motorcycle in Phnom Penh and do it on your own, its similar dangerous as in Thailand since no one cares about any traffic rules and if you have a accident there is no qualified hospital around where you can be moved to.

A couple of pretty beaches are around the city.

Don't expect a infrastructure like in Thailand, everything is very basic. Only recently has the first upper market beach resort opened the door for business.

The whole area is in a state of flux since many people try to do some business on tourism. The normality is, go there and have a look, all what you need is there, internet, restaurants, accommodations from $5 - guesthouse - to $250 - Sokha

Beach Resort - a interesting nightlife, bars where one can find a companion and so on. But exactly this back to basic has its charm.

Plenty of sea food is available in countless restaurants and the beach is only a couple of meters away, so what else one needs ?

-By any means Sihanoukville Cambodia, is a Great Place to Visit.

'Beach town', 'port community', 'fledgling resort destination' - all describe Sihanoukville, Cambodia's premier beach town. There are plenty of white sandy beaches with several beach resort right in front of the warm waters, a laid back beach atmosphere provide a great little tropical feeling. Enjoy fresh seafood, do a snorkeling

or scuba trip, and generally slow-down, lay back and chill-out. A Sihanoukville daytrip to the area around opens the view on rural Cambodia. Constructed as a port city in the late 1950s, the town is much newer, more urban and cosmopolitan than most Cambodian provincial cities. Nowadays, Sihanoukville is as much a beach town as it is a port town, catering to beach-going weekenders from Phnom Penh as well as a steadily increasing number of foreign visitors. Still, the pace of life in Sihanoukville is very relaxed, cows and other animals wander the main roads sometimes, nobody really cares a lot, people are friendly, they try to sell you all kind of things and services. Take a boat to the islands, have a splendid afternoon there, maybe a picnic, its a great experience in this tropical environ with warm waters and lust tropical vegetation. One important subject is, its not expensive at all, prices are low and you can enjoy that your hard earned money still has some value.

-Sihanoukville has accommodations for every taste and wallet,

town offers a surprising number and variety of restaurants and bars with some nightlife but this cant match Phuket nightlife or Thailand nightlife overall. Fresh seafood and fruit, especially crab, prawns, fish and pineapples, has always been one of the town's biggest draws, but there is also a wide variety of places offering foreign cuisines - Australian, French, Indian, German, Sri Lankan, British, Italian, pizza places, a couple of western bakeries and even a espresso coffee shop. And these days Sihanoukville offers a pretty good night life as well with a wide variety of bars staying open well into the wee hours, especially on Weather Station Hill, in the downtown area. Plus great beach bars on Ochheuteal, 'Serendipity' and Victory Beaches with a beautiful sunset panorama at Sihanoukville.

While there are no regular flights to Sihanoukville, -this might change- it is still pretty easy to get to. Most people travel from Phnom Penh by bus or taxi (3-4 hours)

From the Thai border crossing at Koh Kong, either ferry (4 hours) or taxi (6 hours) to Sihanoukville. Come to this great out of the way holiday town and have a ball without bruising your wallet.! Author  Basil Murdoch.

Sihanoukville, named after a Cambodian King,  isn't easy to get to, but it is worth the hassle. If you're coming from Thailand, the best choice is to cross the border at Koh Kong and grab a boat to Sihanoukville, cruising along some beautiful Cambodian Beaches.

The Cambodia boat takes roughly four hours, but beats taking on Cambodian roads, which are pure hell. If you're coming from any location inside of Cambodia, try to get to the major highway between Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville as it is the only road without potholes, missing bridges, etc.

Sihanoukville bends up and around a point of land on the Gulf of Thailand. The town can best be described as being like a beach resort in Thailand sans the tourist masses.

Rooms in a Sihanoukville beach will set you back five to 10 dollars a night, which isn't much to watch a spectacular light show. During monsoon times lightning and floods come down from the sky.

Starting around nine in the evening, the sky becomes a cascade of rolling thunder and bolts of blazing light. The entire show takes place maybe twenty miles or so offshore, so you get all of the effect without the risk.

The best place to watch Mother Nature do her thing is Ochheuteal Beach. The beach is long and narrow, but lined with little restaurants. The tables for these restaurants consist of small footstools sitting between to beach chairs next to the water. The food is good and you won't find a better seat in the house for the light show.

The light show is incredibly captivating. The entire sky will light up in one blast to then be followed by a trail of lightning strikes moving across the sky. To enhance the impact, the restaurants have a habit of playing music. As the show progresses, one starts to get the feeling the lightning is happening in synchronicity with the music. Hey, maybe Mother Nature likes Pink Floyd! more