How to go to Sihanoukville from Siem Reap by bus

   I rowed from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville! No, I'm kidding. I heard Sihanoukville has beautiful and clean beaches. Sihanoukville province is located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's south-west at Gult of Thailand. Sihanoukville is closed to Thailand. Sihanoukville however is closer to Southern Vietnam then Thailand. Anyway we will go back Ho Chi Minh City, Southern Vietnam and we are in Cambodia now. For me, I'm Vietnamese. I can visit Cambodia without a visa but Robert has to pay 30 usd for visa on arrival at the Siem Reap International Airport. Robert should use Tourist visa as well so we traveled to Sihanoukville after Siem Reap.

   There are only 2 ways to travel from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville because the train isn't a popular option for tourists!

1.With airplane: Sihanoukville has a small airport served by a few flights daily by the following airlines: Lanmai Airlines, Bayon Airlines, Cambodia Angkor Air, Hahn Air Systems...The averange travel time is 1 hour. If you book flights early, you may get a good price like 30 usd. But the price can be as expensive as 100 usd if you book late. You may compare prices on flights with Skyscanner before you book flights. Robert did not know about Sihanoukville so we didn't book flights in advance. So we chose a 2nd way.

2.With bus: Of course, travel time of bus is longer. It is 12 hours. We searched online and decided to travel with Mekong Express Buslines Company. If you don't trust this company, you can choose other busline companies because there are many options are on Tripadvisor. The routes however are same. 

   The Mekong Express Buslines Company is an example. The ticket cost 12 usd per stage. We have 2 stages: from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. So the bus cost a total 24 usd per person from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville. The travel time is 6 hours from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. We had short wait time and combined with others at the Mekong Express bus station in Phnom Penh. We continued travelling to Sihanoukville after that. That travel time is 4 hours. We departed at 7:30 am in Siem Reap and arrived at 8 pm in Sihanoukville. Also the bus company provided free tranfer service to our hotel!

   I would like to give more tips such as:

• The road is narrow from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. You should sit behind the first row of seats if you aren't brave. Drivers are careful but they drive fast and pass frequently. 
• The bus lines also offer other routes such as: Phnom Penh to Bangkok (Thailand), Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). Then you can travel between Thailand - Cambodia - Vietnam! When we went back to Ho Chi Minh, we booked same busline company.

   I hope with this quick guide, you can travel around Cambodia easily. Thank you for reading and please stay with us for our next post about our Sihanoukville experiences.