Kampot travel guide: 3 nights, pepper farms and the river

Choose the town riverside for all three nights

For a first stay, choose the town riverside and keep the same room throughout. Make your first afternoon a walk along the water, with dinner nearby; leave the countryside for the following morning. This is a river-town stay, so a central base is the simplest way to enjoy an evening without adding another transfer.

Rikitikitavi, on Riverside Road, is a concrete room choice here. Its Double Room has a king-size bed, an ensuite bathroom, air conditioning and a patio, and its own booking engine gives a maximum of two adults. Breakfast is included. The rooms sit in a converted wooden-framed rice barn; its restaurant terrace overlooks the river. Choose this for a room and meals at the same property.

The riverside north of Kampot town is the alternative for time on the grounds rather than town evenings. Les Manguiers, which places itself 3 km north of town, is one property example: wooden bungalows with private bathrooms and river-facing balconies or terraces, set among rice paddies. The residence also has rooms sharing a bathroom, so choose the accommodation type rather than booking on the property name alone.

Rikitikitavi publishes no room rate on its own pages, so its booking engine shows the price for your dates. Les Manguiers’ own lodging page lists prices from $14 for a room with a shared bathroom to $105 for a whole house with three large rooms, without saying what they cover. Room costs are not included in the spending section below.

A four-day stay with two full days in Kampot

Keep arrival and departure days light. The pepper visit and the river session each deserve their own space; putting both between intercity journeys makes the stay easier to enjoy.

For the town walk, make a loop between Riverside Road, the Old Market and La Plantation’s town shop across from the market, then return to the waterfront for dinner. The shop occupies a colonial house that retains its original character, and offers a free pepper-and-spice tasting. Its staff can also reserve the following day’s farm visit, making this a useful first-afternoon stop as well as an introduction to the pepper.

• Day 1, 21 November: take the named Phnom Penh bus, transfer from Street 724 to your riverside room, then follow the Riverside Road–Old Market–La Plantation shop loop. Sleep in Kampot.
• Day 2, 22 November: visit La Plantation for the Farm Tour and tasting, then lunch at its restaurant. Return to the same room in Kampot.
• Day 3, 23 November: revisit the town loop or spend the morning on your accommodation’s grounds, then join SUP Asia’s 15:30 River Discovery Tour at Champa Lodge. Return to Kampot for the third night.
• Day 4, 24 November: breakfast, then Giant Ibis’s named 08:30–12:30 service back to Phnom Penh. The three Kampot nights are 21, 22 and 23 November. Put any Phnom Penh night before an international flight in the wider itinerary.

La Plantation: see the pepper growing, then taste it

La Plantation’s Farm Tour takes you through the pepper and spice plantation and fruit garden with one of its guides. The visit explains its organic farming methods and finishes with a pepper and spice tasting, including ideas for cooking with them. That makes this the most useful countryside day for someone who knows Kampot pepper only as a seasoning on a menu. The grounds also contain traditional Khmer wooden houses that the farm has moved and reassembled, and a tropical garden.

On 15 October 2026, the farm listed opening 09:00–18:00 daily, including public holidays, with the last visit at 16:00. Its main booking instructions say to reserve a visiting slot from October to March and to walk in from April to September. Use the Book Here link on its own farm page for a November visit. La Plantation’s visitor programme dated 5 April 2024 described its guided tour and tasting as free of charge; its current farm page lists no fee, so the farm visit is not included in the budget. The town shop can help you reserve the visit. No operator publishes a fixed price or a distance for the trip between town and the farm, so that transport is not included either. For a private car, Cambodia Tour Taxi takes requests for customised Kampot pepper-plantation outings through the tour-request form on its Private Tours page; it publishes no fixed price.

Have lunch before returning to town: the restaurant opens 07:00–15:00, without a reservation, and lists Khmer dishes including Kep crab with fresh green pepper, fish amok and green mango salad. It is part of the farm visit, rather than a separate drive for a restaurant. A cooking class is another way to spend the day; the farm requires at least 24 hours’ advance booking.

A guided river session from Champa Lodge

SUP Asia’s River Discovery Tour is a two-hour paddleboarding lesson and outing on the Kampot River. Its own description takes in palm groves and a fishing village, with views towards the Elephant Mountains. Instruction is part of the visit, so you do not need to arrive as an experienced paddleboarder. This gives the river a place in the trip beyond the view from a restaurant terrace.

When checked on 15 October 2026, the shared tour cost US$20 per person, with a minimum of one and a maximum of six participants. It starts and finishes at Champa Lodge, on the Teuk Chhou River. The lodge says it is 5 km from Kampot centre and that arrivals can ask a tuk-tuk to bring them there. Choose the 15:30 session and request two places through the booking form on the tour page; book it for Champa Lodge, not its sister property Champa Village. No operator publishes a tuk-tuk fare or a return service for this leg, so ask your hotel to book a tuk-tuk that reaches the lodge before 15:30 and collects you at the end of the session. That fare is not included in the budget.

The operator says it has professional life jackets and recommends a private lesson for people who have never swum. Take a water bottle and sun protection, and keep belongings minimal; small dry bags are available. Let the guide decide whether conditions suit the outing.

Keep coast and mountain additions outside the core stay

Use the two full days for the pepper farm and river before adding a coast or mountain excursion. Kep is the alternative when a seafood coast stay matters more than another Kampot day; the Kep guide helps with that decision. A day visit needs a return vehicle from Kampot, so book an operator’s complete return itinerary before replacing the river day.

Bokor is the mountain alternative if forest scenery matters more to you than another afternoon by the river. Thansur Sokha advertises its own Motor Kang Bey mountain tour for views and a separate jungle-trekking programme. Those are a different kind of day from the pepper tasting and river lesson. Skip the mountain on this first three-night stay to keep those two full days; add it only with a current operator route, visitor stops and price. No forest walk is included in this plan.

Phnom Penh buses, the airport and the last mile

For the 21 November 2026 arrival used in this stay, Giant Ibis also displayed 08:00–12:00 at US$10 per seat. It boards at Road 106, Sangkat Doun Penh, Khan Doun Penh, and arrives at Street 724, Krong Kampot, near ABA Bank. These are dated examples, not a promise of the same departure all month. The four-hour scheduled journey leaves the afternoon for checking in and the town walk. No operator publishes a fare for the local ride from Street 724 to your accommodation, so it is not included in the seat price or the budget.

Book Giant Ibis directly on its website, choose your departure and seat, and check the fare for your date before paying.

Arriving by air: use Techo International Airport (KTI) for Phnom Penh. Its own transport page lists standard taxis and Grab, WowNow and PassApp, with an approximate US$10–20 fare to Phnom Penh city depending on the drop-off point, checked on 15 October 2026. Use an official counter or one of those apps, then reach the Giant Ibis boarding address in the city. The airport fare is a city estimate, not a direct Kampot transfer price. An evening arrival calls for a Phnom Penh night before the bus.

For the return on 24 November 2026, Giant Ibis’s booking result listed 08:30–12:30, from Street 724, Krong Kampot, near ABA Bank, to Road 106, Sangkat Doun Penh, Khan Doun Penh. The displayed fare was US$10 per seat, plus the same US$1 per passenger online service charge: US$22 for two adults, checked on 15 October 2026. Book this direction separately on the operator’s website.

On 15 October 2026, the UK FCDO advised against all but essential travel within 20 km of Cambodia’s land border with Thailand; Germany warned against travel within 20 km, and France formally advised against travel within 30 km on the Cambodian side. France’s Thailand advice uses 50 km on the Thai side. Our routes keep at least 50 km from the border and use flights from Bangkok; the land crossings are closed. Check your own government’s advice before booking.

Spending for two adults: published amounts and what is not included

For two adults sharing one room on 21–24 November 2026, the amounts below were published when we checked on 15 October 2026 and add up to US$100.25. Everything else is listed once as not included.

• Both intercity buses: (2 × US$10 seats + 2 × US$1 online service charge) × 2 directions = US$44, for 21 November into Kampot and 24 November back to Phnom Penh.
• River Discovery Tour: 2 × US$20 = US$40 for the shared two-hour session.
• One dinner at Rikitikitavi: one Loc Lac at US$8.75 + one chicken Amok at US$7.50 = US$16.25 from the restaurant’s linked August 2024 menu; the menu does not say whether tax or service is added.
• Published total: US$100.25 = US$44 + US$40 + US$16.25.
• Not included: the three room nights; the La Plantation visit and the trip between town and the farm; local rides (Street 724 to your hotel, the hotel to Champa Lodge and back, and the return to the bus); all other meals and drinks, including lunch at the farm; airport transfers and any Phnom Penh night.