Kampong Speu City Guide

At Khmer Nights we do like to get off the beaten track, so what is it like to travel to a small provincial capital? This is the Kampong Speu City guide!

To read our guide to Prey Veng click here

What the Kampong Speu?

Kampong Speu is a province located next to Phnom Penh that borders also borders Sihanoukville and Koh Kong. The province is famously home to a number o nature reserves, some seriously wild animals and even the most expensive “glamping” hotel in the country, The “Shintu Mani Wild”, but in case you don’t have $3k budget for the night, how is the provincial capital?

Kampong Speu City is the capital of the province, much in the same vein as many other provinces and cities in the country. Generally speaking tourists tend to pass through Kampong Speu city, rather than stay here, as evidenced by the infrastructure, which we will get to next.

Touristically though the city has nothing to offer, bar a provincial museum. Also, at 90 minutes drive to Phnom Penh it really does not even break up the journey to anywhere. FYI a Tuk-Tuk costs just $12.50 from Kampong Speu city to the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.

Hotels of Kampong Speu

There’s one hotel, the Kampong Speu City Hotel, which it would appear cannot be booked online. The hotel is very communist in style and also has a “Shinig” element to it.

Still it only costs $15 and while they insist on seeing lots lots cementation is not without some charms. Regardless it is the only hotel in town, so the fact that it is centrally located is a bonus rather than a selling point.

Eating in Kampong Speu City

Restaurant wise Kampong Speu City was a bit of a barren wasteland, at least from a Trip Advisor perspective, with one of the top 3 listings being a highway rest stop. The actual stain on the ground was pretty good though, with there not only being an “expo” in town offering fine food, but also two very vibrant markets.

The main street food scene occurs at the market near the hotel, with lots of onside vendors offering everything from bugs to extremely fine Khmer BBQ.

Kampong Speu Nightlife Guide

And it was the nightlife scene that was to prove the most surprising part of the city. I have done my rounds in places like Takeo and Svay Rieng, where there are literally no bars. I don’t mean few bars, I mean none.

Kampong Speu City on the other hand has a night market, which has clothes and other things you’d expect from a market, such as street food, but also a mini-bar street. There were probably ten bars, or so along the riverside strip and while they did have names like “Singles Bar”, these are not riverside Phnom penh type joints.

And where it was the expo, or the fact that it was Saturday night, or nor the city seemed to party throughout the night and without a care in the world. I did not partake, but I was happy to kept awake, safe in the knowledge that I ha maybe discovered one of the most vibrant provincial capitals in the country.

Is it worth visiting Kampong Speu City? Probably not, but there are certainly worse places you could end up while traveling through Cambodia.

Kampong Speu City Guide

What the Kampong Speu?