By air
Techo International, Phnom Penh (KTI), ~3.5 h by road
Southeast Asia · Cambodia
Kep, Cambodia
Crab shacks and a sleepy seaside
Getting there
Best time to visit
November to April — dry season
Don't miss
Kep Crab Market
Kep National Park
Kep Beach
Koh Tonsay
Things to do
The crab market
The Kep National Park loop
A boat to Rabbit Island
Where to eat
Sources: Photo: Martpan · CC BY-SA 3.0
What to pack
Swimwear, sunscreen
A quieter corner
Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay), a short boat ride away
Questions travellers ask
What should I eat in Kep?
Crab with green Kampot pepper at the crab market.
Can I visit Rabbit Island from Kep?
Yes, Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay) is a short boat ride away. Pack swimwear and sunscreen.
How long does it take to reach Kep from Phnom Penh?
About 3.5 hours by road from Techo International, Phnom Penh (KTI).
Which months are dry in Kep?
November to April, the dry season. Do the Kep National Park loop while you're there.
About Kep
- Coastal
Where it is
Kep is a small seaside town and province on the Gulf of Thailand in southern Cambodia, near the border with Vietnam, backed by the forested hills of Kep National Park and facing islands such as Koh Tonsay.
History
The French founded Kep-sur-Mer as a seaside resort in 1908, and in the 1950s and 1960s it became a favourite retreat of Cambodia's elite, with modernist villas along the shore. Its heyday ended in the early 1970s, and although many of its villas now stand abandoned or in ruins, Kep is today one of Cambodia's fastest-developing tourist areas.
People
Kep's people are mostly Khmer fishing and farming families, and the crab market is the town's heart, where sellers pull their catch from bamboo traps in the shallows and cook it with green Kampot pepper. Khmer is the main language.
Known for
- The Kep Crab Market
- Crab stir-fried with green Kampot pepper
- The forest loop of Kep National Park
- Boat trips to Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay)
- Ruined modernist villas
Did you know?
Kep is both the smallest and the least populous of Cambodia's provinces, with only 16 km of coastline on the Gulf of Thailand.
We haven't written a guide for this place yet — you can still plan a trip here.