The sleepy town of Kam­pot isn’t try­ing to be any­thing it’s not. Nat­u­ral­ly beau­ti­ful and effort­less­ly enchant­i­ng, you’ll slip right into a bal­ance of laid back days on the riv­er, and scenic dri­ves over red dirt roads. Rel­a­tive­ly untouched by tourism, its nat­ur­al beau­ty puts you on the fast-track to get­ting back in touch with Moth­er Earth with rock climb­ing, riv­er tours, and expe­di­tions into the jun­gle. Kam­pot also has a rich his­to­ry as it served as the capi­tol city under French rule. Today, trav­el­ers can hop on a motor­bike and explore hand­fuls of aban­doned French colo­nial man­sions and church­es rem­i­nis­cent of Indi­ana Jones-style voy­ages. All in all, Kam­pot is unlike any oth­er Cam­bo­di­an city you’ll find. If you like nat­ur­al adven­ture and his­tor­i­cal dis­cov­er­ies, don’t skip over this hid­den gem of a city.  Let’s explore the best things to do in Kam­pot Cam­bo­di­an Drivers

1. Have an ATV or Dirt Bike Adventure

The jun­gles of Kam­pot are lined with a maze of red dirt roads just wait­ing to be explored. The best way to do so is with some seri­ous off road vehi­cles. Dri­ve through the rice fields with made-for-mud Land Rovers, motor­bike up steep moun­tain inclines to find sprawl­ing views of the city, and thrash about in the jun­gle with ATVs that will get your heart pound­ing. All of Off-Road Kampot’s tours come with a local tour guide that is knowl­edge­able about the area and keen on safe­ty. Cus­tom plan a trip with the pros at Adven­ture Rid­er Asia where you can par­take in day trips or go crazy with 1–2 week explo­rations.

2. Kite Boarding

The first and only IKO (Inter­na­tion­al Kite Board­ing Orga­ni­za­tion) licensed kite board­ing school is right here in the town of Kam­pot. Vil­la Vedi­ci is the place to go if you want to get some seri­ous air on the Kam­pot Riv­er. Vil­la Vedi­ci offers kite board­ing class­es for begin­ners, excur­sions for adven­tur­ers, and gear to rent for advanced board­ers who just want to get out and explore on their own. Come solo, go on a kite board­ing excur­sion as a group, and don’t be afraid to sign your kids up for pro­fes­sion­al lessons with trust­wor­thy instruc­tors.

3. La Plantation Pepper Farm

Fun Fact: Kampot’s #1 export is black pep­per. Food­ies will love the oppor­tu­ni­ty to tour black pep­per farms where guides walk you through var­i­ous stages of black pep­per forests, and let you sam­ple the spicy prod­ucts along the way. Best of all, the tours are free of charge with­out any pushy peo­ple try­ing to make a sale! After the short tour, take a seat in the on-sire restau­rant where you’ll have some extreme­ly fresh dish­es with black pep­per right off the vine. Of course, there are bags of black pep­per to pur­chase at local prices as sou­venirs. Bring your cam­era as the farms are spec­tac­u­lar­ly gor­geous.

4. Jungle Jet on Kampot River

Kam­pot Riv­er is the epit­o­me of beau­ty with wind­ing turns through lush jun­gle and man­groves, is clean enough to swim in, and offers extreme­ly gor­geous sun­set views. The most thrilling way to explore? Strap your­self into a high-speed water jet tour boat that speeds along the riv­er get­ting some air as it reach­es speeds up to 80 kilo­me­ters per hour, doing 360 degree donuts, and mak­ing you scream like a lit­tle girl. Jun­gle Jet Boat tours start as low as $15. Aside from the adren­a­line filled speed ses­sion, you’ll get a chance to immerse your­self in the ecosys­tem of the Kam­pot riv­er and get a glimpse into the life of local fish­er­man who are sure to flash a big tooth­less smile as you zip on by.

5. Bokor National Park

Bokor Nation­al Park offers more than just thick jun­gle, singing birds, and bab­bling brooks; it is also home to mas­sive aban­doned French Colo­nial hous­es and mys­te­ri­ous­ly aban­doned church­es giv­ing this jun­gle an eerie, ghost town vibe. Bring your cam­era, as you’ll want to cap­ture the tow­er­ing Bud­dha stat­ue and insane­ly beau­ti­ful views of the wind­ing val­leys of Cam­bo­dia. The dri­ve itself into Bokor Nation­al Park is worth it in itself with well-main­tained roads and scenery that will have you stop­ping to take pho­tos every 10 min­utes. If you’re com­fort­able on a motor­bike, this is the ide­al way to explore; if not, hire a tuk tuk or ask your hotel about hir­ing a mini van.

6. Go Paddle Boarding

The mel­low sur­face of the Kam­pot Riv­er is the ide­al place for a day of pad­dle board­ing. No wor­ries if you don’t have any expe­ri­ence as SUP Asia offers pad­dle board­ing lessons in the most ide­al envi­ron­ment for learn­ing. Take the board out for an hour or two where you’ll pad­dle down the riv­er sur­round­ed by birds and wildlife, and hop off the board into the water for a refresh­ing swim. If you’re up for a real adven­ture, SUP Asia offers 2–3 day excur­sions where you pad­dle into local fish­ing vil­lages and get a real taste for Cam­bo­di­an cul­ture.

7. Taco Tuesday at Karma Traders Kampot

Serene sun­sets from the rooftop bar back dropped with live music by artists from around the world and tasty tacos to hit the spot- Taco Tues­day at Kar­ma Traders Kam­pot is the place to be. There is a swim­ming pool on site, guest rooms to rent, and a col­lec­tion of fur­ry ani­mals to be cud­dled. How can you pass this up?Not around on Tues­days? No wor­ries. Enjoy hap­py hour every­day on the rooftop bar over­look­ing Bokor Moun­tain from 5–7pm. The friend­ly expat bar­tenders are won­der­ful sources of infor­ma­tion if you’re look­ing to rent motor­bikes or need some advice on where to trav­el to after Kam­pot.

8. Take a Scenic Drive to Kep

An easy ride along a paved high­way beside the ocean isn’t a bad way to spend the day. The ride to Kep is a com­fort­able jour­ney, even for begin­ners, as the traf­fic isn’t too over­whelm­ing and the direc­tions are lit­er­al­ly straight­for­ward. When you reach Kep, park your bike and kick your feet up in one of the many ham­mock filled gaze­bos. Food hawk­ers will come to you sell­ing the famous Kam­pot Pep­per Crab and cold bev­er­ages. On a straw mat below your ham­mocks, you and your pals can have a local pic­nic with the soft ocean breeze and some much need­ed shade. Have a walk around the small sea­side mar­ket where fresh fish are grilling and dried squid are sold on a stick. Sink your feet into the man­made beach and just chill out.

9. Arcadia Water Park Guest House

A guest house sit­u­at­ed right on the riv­er where you’ll wear your bathing suit all day, drink ice cold beers, jump straight from the deck into the fresh water, join in on beer pong tour­na­ments and min­gle with a col­lec­tion of back­pack­ers from around the world- what more can you ask for? Oh, actu­al­ly. What about a float­ing pon­toon with a 3‑meter div­ing off point, an inflat­able blob that launch­es you into the air, a mas­sive water­slide, rope swing, inner tubes and more? It’s always a wild time at Arca­dia. Stay the night or pop by for $7 a day to join in on the water park antics.

10. Kayak on the River

Depend­ing on where you’re rent­ing, you can become a pio­neer of the 30-kilo­me­ter Kam­pot Riv­er on your very own kayak for as lit­tle as $2 an hour. There are tons of guest­hous­es and shops around Kam­pot that offer kayak tours and kayaks for your own explo­rations. Vis­it Green­house Guest House who will help you map out the ide­al kayak­ing route to include man­groves, rapids, bird watch­ing and peace­ful views. Samon Vil­lage Kam­pot rents their kayaks on com­pet­i­tive half day and full day rates and is locat­ed clos­er to town and many guest­hous­es. Choos­ing between the two will be a mat­ter of con­ve­nience.

11. Eat at the Night Market

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiRuMEXgBSq/?taken-at=730945731 Head towards “The Big Duri­an” round­about inter­sec­tion where you’ll find stall after stall of street food to hit the spot. You can try grilled Khmer del­i­ca­cies on a stick, com­fort food in the form of noo­dle soup and beef sand­wich­es, and sweet treats such as man­go sticky rice. There are plas­tic tables and chairs where you can chill out with your crew, tak­ing your time as you go and pick­ing dish­es at ran­dom to cre­ate the per­fect spread. You’ll also find plen­ty of stalls where you can find cloth­ing, shoes, ham­mocks, sou­venirs, and more. You could eas­i­ly spend a cou­ple hours just roam­ing around and prac­tic­ing your hag­gling skills.

12. Rock Climbing at Climbodia

If you like extreme sports that defy grav­i­ty, why not take a shot at rock climb­ing in Cam­bo­dia? The climb­ing pros at Climbo­dia will guide you as you embark on 35-meter top rope climb to reach a cliff side sum­mit with amaz­ing views of salt flats, Bokor Moun­tain, and on a clear day, as far as Phu Quoc in Viet­nam. Not wild enough? Climbo­dia also offers abseil­ing tours where you drop down 30 meters into a hole in the earth with only a head lamp to guide the way. Tours are avail­able all year round, run for approx­i­mate­ly 4 hours and are a bar­gain at around $40.

13. Explore the Local Villages via Motorbike

Some of the most reward­ing days spent in Kam­pot are the days where you just point your­self in a gen­er­al direc­tion and dri­ve. Head towards Nut Hill (Phnom Dung), Fish­ing Island (Koh D’tray), or Kampot’s salt fields to immerse your­self in some incred­i­ble scenery. You’ll dri­ve past small shops offer­ing bot­tles of petrol and cans of beer, as well as local restau­rants serv­ing authen­tic Cam­bo­di­an dish­es and friend­ly com­pa­ny from the locals. Dri­ve slow­ly along the red clay roads as you pass rice fields with cheer­ful Cam­bo­di­an farm­ers, lazy water buf­fa­lo and local kids who will be equal­ly excit­ed and sur­prised to see you. The roads are a bit bumpy so it’s best you go one per­son per bike.

14. Epic Arts Café

Get your cof­fee fix and con­tribute to a well-deserv­ing cause at this NGO run café and art gallery. Epic Arts Café aims to increase work oppor­tu­ni­ties for dis­abled peo­ple in Kam­pot and gen­er­ates rev­enue to put towards local art pro­grams. You’ll find that many of the staff here are deaf, so go ahead and order by tick­ing the box­es on your menu or take a shot at some basic Cam­bo­di­an Sign Lan­guage. Feed your stom­ach and your soul with some Banana & Coconut Pan­cakes, Man­go Sal­ad with Grilled Tuna, or Bacon Pani­nis among oth­er tasty treats. 

15. Spa Day at Banteay Srey

Sor­ry guys, this is a women-only spa in Kam­pot. Ban­teay Srey trains Khmer women, most of whom come from dif­fi­cult back­grounds, in spa ser­vices so that they can advance their qual­i­ty of life. Indulge in tra­di­tion­al Khmer mas­sage, steam mas­sage, facials, and oth­er spa ser­vices that help “women con­nect with women”. You can also join in on the dai­ly yoga class­es and then enjoy some fresh fruit juice to replen­ish your sys­tem. Empow­er your body while you empow­er local women and girls to take con­trol of their lives! After rock climb­ing, motor bik­ing, and riv­er swim­ming, your body will cer­tain­ly be in the need for a lit­tle TLC. https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-kampot-cambodia/

Soon we will re edit­ed it again