Sihanoukville overview

alexuk

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2011
Sihanoukville is the beach destination in Cambodia, miles of sandy beaches.It is also Cambodia's only major port.
There's a lot of tourists here, especially at Khmer/Chinese New Year and other big local holidays,when everything is booked up by the cambodians'
If the sea is clear it's fantastic, but things change, there can be too much rubbish or cloudy water. If the tourist sector can put enough pressure on the officials to keep the place clean like they keep promising, all the new building along the beach should be worth it.
In low season the place can be very quiet, guesthouse prices come down, shops close up, happy hour gets more expensive.June is about start of the low season.

As you come into Sihanoukville, the main road takes you past Victory Hill, then Downtown,by the (3)Supermarkets,banks,gas stations, on to Golden Lions Roundabout. You cant miss it, its got big Lions statues on it. The police are always around in daytime, checking helmets licences etc.
If you take the exit before the last one, Serendipity beach Road(?),it goes up a little hill with the major restaurants etc on both sides, Mick & Craigs,Utopia at the top,Big n Easy,Monkey Republic etc.Also some ATMs if you need more dollars.
If you carry on straight the road goes down to the beach in 500metres.This is the busiest part of town with little parking and bigger prices. Theres more restaurants and hotels until you get to the pier (for boat/island trips) and beach.
If you want to go along the beach you have to walk, it's Ochateul beach,all Beer and BBQ fish at sunset places on the left, for maybe a kilometre
Barracuda, Tuna, Marlin, Snapper etc with salad and potato or chips/rice for $3 upwards. So this is where everyone goes for the sunset,swimming and the bars stay open till past midnight, so I am told,and is more party place

But if you carry on left at the top of the hill,theres a lot more guesthouses, fish restaurants and stores on the road parallel to the beach.Beer is currently cheaper here, at 50cents a glass.Happy Herb Pizza, Moon Shack, etc. so you dont have to eat fish, there are a couple of Indians thrown in too. And on the next road parallel to that,so you can loop back to the Lions Roundabout. And just before the roundabout, is Pub Street, about 20 bars set back from the road,and girls serving cold beer on a hot night.

Other places in Sihanoukville worth visiting-

Otres Beach
If you keep going away from the Lions roundabout parallel to the beach the road takes you over to Otres beach, after a few kilometres. If you are walking its beach all the way for total 9km.
Otres 1 is the first beach the road gets you to,500metres of bars/restaurants and accommodation/dorms,loads of backpackers. Good food,live music in the evenings,even a pharmacy and an ATM. There are some mushroom styled places but not many places now have "Happy" shakes and pizzas on the menus outside

The dirt road carries on for another 2km with just the beach and some trees,often deserted,(crowded on khmer holidays) up to Otres 2.This is a bit quieter than Otres 1, maybe a bit more upmarket.There is quite a bit of construction around here, every spot is being taken.
If you turned away from the beach between Otres 1 and 2,theres a road to a village less than a km away,with stores, restaurants, everything,you see signs at the road junction for guesthouses. If you take a turnoff in the village there is another area with many Ghs, dorms, food etc which seems mostly backpackers.

Downtown
back up the main street from Lions Roundabout a few hundred yards on the right is the Lucky /Ocean Supermarket. After a mile or so, on left is Orange Supermarket. There's a few gas stations along this road. At the next set of lights,the Samudera Supermarket is just round the corner on the right. Carry on up this road to the main market, with some good pharmacies on the corner. But unless you have good bargaining skills, most things except fruit/veg seem cheaper in Samudera

Victory Hill, on the West side of the city, is a small triangle by the main road which has one street full of bar/girls,and the next street is all cheap restaurants with good food and cheapend hotels. I'd go to Mealy Chenda hotel if they have room ($7)

Other beaches
At the Lions roundabout, if you take the last exit,up a small hill you soon come to Sokha beach, a small nice beach next to a "private" beach, the road goes on for a bit then comes to Independence beach,quite nice again, then up monkey hill, where you can watch people stopped in the middle of the road feeding the monkeys. Over the hill and the track on left goes down to Hawaii beach, stalls etc there for drinks like most places.Then the road soon comes to a junction, if you go right it takes you,past Snake House/zoo/restaurant(if it is still open) up the hill and back to the crossroad at Main road near Victory Hill then heads out of town.
 
Theres a good quality motorcycle repair, Sales, rent shop just around the corner from Orange supermarket, called Freeride, run by aussie/english guys. They also have stock of new Helmets, body armour , jackets etc , for road and offroad, and some really good prices
Feriendly guys that know the area
 
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