Travel Costs: Cambodia Budget Update
We’re continuing to post our spending numbers as a resource for other travelers. Here is a breakdown of what we spent for two people over 20 days in Cambodia, traveling from Siem Reap, to Phnom Penh, Koh Rong (with a stopover night in Sihanoukville), and Kampot.
The currency in Cambodia is the Riel, but most prices are quoted in US Dollars, and this is what ATM’s dispense. Change for anything less than 1 USD is given in Riel at a usual exchange rate of 4000 riel to 1 USD.
Spending Breakdown:
| Activity | $192.98 |
| Food/Drink | $586.68 |
| Lodging | $428.25 |
| Misc. | $22.50 |
| Transportation | $161.00 |
| Immigration | $46.00 |
| Grand Total | $1,437.41 |
This works out to about $72/day for two people.
A few notes on our spending habits:
- Activities included three-day passes to the temples of Angkor ($40/person), a boat charter in Koh Rong ($15/person), a tuk tuk for the day to tour around Kampot ($11/person), and various museum/site admissions.
- For lodging, we booked private double rooms with air conditioning and private bathrooms at local guesthouses ranging in price from $15/night in Kampot to $25/night in Phnom Penh. One exception: our beach-front bungalow with no electricity and shared bathrooms in Koh Rong for $25/night. Still, we averaged about $21/night.
- For food and drink, we spent about $21/day. You could definitely spend less if you stuck to noodle soup stalls. But as mentioned in our Cambodian food post, we generally found the street food scarce or unappetizing. We usually had a large breakfast, small afternoon snack, dinner (with a few beers on weekends), and coffees/fruit shakes in between.
- The transportation figure includes inter-country and inner-city transportation, a combination of buses and tuk tuks, as well as the ferry from Koh Rong ($20/person).
- The miscellaneous category includes laundry and a few small souvenirs.
- Immigration Fees included two $20 tourist visas obtained at the border and $6 in “entry fees” (aka immigration officials’ beer money).
- This includes only our spending in the country. It excludes our airfare here and upfront costs like immunizations, travel insurance, etc.
All told, Cambodia was a place where we could stretch our money and live quite comfortably. We continue to pace well below our target per-day spending for the year, as we expected for this portion of the trip.
Click here for our other budget updates
