Travel guide: Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Is Sihanoukville worth visiting, given how much the city has changed in the past decade? The honest answer is mixed, and it depends on what a traveler is looking for. Sihanoukville is a port city on Cambodia's southern coast, and since the mid-2010s it has undergone a rapid, large-scale transformation driven by casino and resort construction, much of it financed by Chinese investment. That construction boom left the city with a skyline of half-finished towers alongside newly built casino complexes, a genuinely unusual urban landscape that visitors should expect rather than be surprised by. The city itself, once known mainly for a laid-back beach-town reputation, now functions more as a gambling and construction hub than the backpacker destination it was in earlier decades, and travelers drawn by that older reputation should adjust expectations accordingly. What has not changed is the real appeal just offshore: Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem, two islands reached by regular passenger ferries from Sihanoukville's port, still offer genuinely clear water and sandy beaches with a far quieter atmosphere than the mainland city. Most travelers today treat Sihanoukville itself as a transit point, spending a night or arranging a same-day ferry connection rather than lingering in the city center. Sihanoukville International Airport (KOS) handles domestic and a limited range of international flights, giving direct access without a long overland trip from Phnom Penh. Getting around the city relies on tuk-tuks and ride-hail apps, since distances between the port, airport and casino districts are spread out rather than compact. Seasonally, the dry season from roughly November through April brings calmer seas for the island ferries and more reliable beach weather, while the wet season from May through October brings heavier rain and rougher crossings. The honest framing for Sihanoukville is a working port city in the middle of an ongoing construction boom, valuable mainly as the gateway to its offshore islands rather than as a destination in itself.