A cool half or full day out of Kampot
Bokor National Park (Preah Monivong Bokor National Park) is a protected area of about 1,544 square kilometres above Kampot in southern Cambodia. Its sandstone plateau, about 1,000 metres high, holds the ruins of a 1920s French hill station, the cliff-top Wat Sampov Pram pagoda, the 29-metre Lok Yeay Mao statue and wide views over the Gulf of Thailand. It is reached by a 30 km sealed road from near Kampot, about an hour's drive.
September 2026
Photo: Myrmux, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
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Bokor National Park rises straight out of the plain behind Kampot to a sandstone plateau about 1,000 metres high. Up there sit the ruins of a French hill station abandoned twice over, a cliff-edge pagoda, a rebuilt palace hotel and some of the widest views on the Cambodian coast. It is the classic half-day or full-day trip from Kampot, and the cool air alone makes the climb worthwhile.
The official name is Preah Monivong Bokor National Park, after the king who loved the mountain. Most people simply call it Bokor, or Bokor Mountain. Expect a strange and memorable mix: moss-covered colonial stone, a working Buddhist monastery, a giant modern statue, a casino resort and genuinely wild forest, often all wrapped in drifting cloud.
The French built Bokor as a place to escape the heat of the lowlands, in the same spirit as Dalat in Vietnam. The cost was brutal. The road and buildings were raised by forced labour in remote, malarial country, and according to widely cited accounts about 900 people died in nine months during construction.
That last chapter divides opinion. The ghostly, empty hill station that backpackers remember from the 2000s has gone, and parts of the plateau now feel like a construction zone. The old buildings and the forest are still there, though, and the road that replaced the old rutted track makes the mountain far easier to reach.
The main sights are spread out along the plateau road, several kilometres apart, so you need wheels for the day. Most visitors see them in roughly this order on the way up.
A royal summer residence, now an empty shell of weathered concrete in the grass below the summit. Walk through the open rooms for glimpses down to the sea through the window frames.
A 29-metre seated figure of Lok Yeay Mao, a protective spirit revered by fishermen and travellers along this coast. Locals stop here to pray and leave offerings, so keep your voice down.
A small red-stone church on a lonely rise, often in cloud. It is the single most photographed ruin on Bokor, with bullet damage from the war years still in the walls.
The grand colonial hotel at the heart of the old station. Long a derelict shell, it has been restored and reopened by the developer, so access depends on its current operation.
The “Five Boats” pagoda, named for rock formations nearby, sits right on the plateau edge. On a clear day the view drops away to Kampot, the coast and the islands of Vietnam.
A two-tiered waterfall on the plateau stream, reached by a short walk. It runs strongly in the wet season and can dwindle to a trickle late in the dry season.
The modern resort. Around the old station you will also see the casino hotel, newer villas and landscaped areas. You can stop for coffee or lunch there, which is useful because there are few other places to eat on the top.
Bokor is not only about ruins. The park covers about 1,544 square kilometres of the southern Elephant Mountains, and much of it is still forested. The flat top is quite different from the lowland jungle, with stunted trees, low scrub and bare sandstone shaped by wind and rain.
The park’s wildlife list includes Asian elephant, pileated gibbon, gaur, banteng, dhole and Asian black bear, as well as green peafowl among the birds. You are very unlikely to see any of the large mammals from the road. Birdwatchers and early risers do better, especially along quieter stretches of the climb.
Development is the park’s biggest pressure. Studies cited on Wikipedia record a loss of about 9 per cent of primary forest between 2001 and 2019, and a master plan sets aside large areas of the plateau for building. Visiting responsibly means staying on paths, taking your litter down with you, and supporting local Kampot guides rather than package operators.
The plateau makes its own weather. Kampot can be sunny while the top is buried in cloud, and conditions can change in minutes. That mist is part of the atmosphere, especially around the church, but it can hide the view entirely.
| Park entry | No park entrance fee at the time of writing; confirm locally, as arrangements on the private road can change |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | The road is open in daylight; plan to be off the mountain before dark |
| Distance from Kampot | About 8 to 10 km to the park gate, then about 30 km of switchbacks to the plateau |
| Drive to the top | About an hour from Kampot town by car or scooter |
| Time needed | Half a day for the main sights; a full day with the waterfall and lunch |
| Temperature | Noticeably cooler than Kampot, and cold and damp inside the cloud |
| Food | Cafés and restaurants at the resort area; few other options on the top |
The turn-off is on National Road 3 a short way west of Kampot town. From there a single sealed road climbs the mountain in long hairpins, with viewpoints at several bends. From Kep, allow an extra 30 to 40 minutes each way; from Phnom Penh, it is a very long day and much better done from a base in Kampot.
Your options are a private car with driver, a guided tour, a tuk-tuk (slow on the climb, and cold on top) or a rented scooter for experienced riders. A car with a local driver is the most comfortable choice, and lets you stop where you like and change the plan if the cloud comes in.
Bokor pairs naturally with the rest of the Kampot area. Spend the next morning at the Kampot pepper farms, then head on for a long crab lunch at the Kep crab market. A sunset boat trip on the Kampot river rounds off the stay nicely. If you like your sightseeing active, have a look at our adventure experiences too.
We arrange Bokor with a local Kampot driver-guide who knows the mountain’s history and its weather, and who will turn a cloudy morning into a good day rather than a wasted one. It features on our Pepper Coast & Islands journey and our Temples to the Coast dirt bike expedition itinerary, and we can add it to any trip that passes through Kampot. Tell us your dates and we will plan the day around the clearest weather.
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