Koh Rong Samloem Island, Cambodia

11

Nov, 2025

Koh Rong Samloem Island, Cambodia

Koh Rong Samloem is an island off the coast of Cambodia and is not to be confused with the similarly named Koh Rong island, which is 4 kilometers north of Koh Rong Samloem. To get to this island you must take a boat from the beach town of Sihanoukville which takes around 45 minutes (by speed boat).

Koh Rong Samloem is a deserted island paradise; so deserted that the show ‘Survivor’ filmed 2 seasons here and has a permanent base camp on the island for the production team to stay in.

If you had gone to this island 10 years ago you would have only had one choice in accommodation and very limited amenities. With each passing year, more and more bungalows are popping up, making the most of what is essentially an ‘island paradise.’

The island is known for its white sand beaches and crystal clear blue waters. Many areas claim to have these traits but when you show up the water is dark and the sand is yellow but this island truly has the white sand and crystal clear waters!

What makes this island special is the lack of development making it a tranquil place to relax and although this island used to only draw the backpacker crowd due to the ‘basic’ accommodation the recent fast growing development on the island is drawing more visitors than ever before but don’t worry, the ambiance has not been lost……yet. The future of Koh Rong Salmoem is not looking good. The island was leased out for 99 years to the Royal Group who plans to push out the bungalows on the island and build Asia’s first environmentally planned resort and I am guessing to stay at this soon to be resort will cost more than a pretty penny so now is the time to go before the development starts.

The island is not for…..for the lack of a better word ‘diva’ as it is completely off the electrical grid with most bungalows only offering electricity for 4-5 hours a day, usually between 6-11 pm but there are a few bungalows now that offer electricity 24 hours a day. Hot water is I believe in only one or two ‘hotels’ on the island and there are no ATM’s, no vehicles, no medical clinic and very limited Wifi but who needs wifi when your in paradise! There are very small villages here as well that you can visit and hang with the locals.

A favorite activity to do here at night is swim with the bioluminescent plankton. You can either take a boat about 5 minutes off the coast or just walk out into the ocean until you see the plankton light up! The plankton do bite and it is not necessarily a throbbing pain but can become quite the nuisance to the point that you can only spend about 5 minutes in the water before getting on the boat and that is why I suggest not going on a boat and just find a dark spot on the island (which there are many) and walk out until you are about stomach deep and then start moving your hands and feet and you will see the plankton light up. The movement in the water makes the plankton light up and if you bring a mask and snorkel this would be ideal. It is not necessarily the bioluminescent plankton that is so awe-inspiring but a combination of things. Since the island has very little light pollution and is far from the main land the stars are in the sky number in the thousands. You will see more stars in the sky then you have ever seen before! So the combination of the starry sky, the bioluminescent plankton, secluded beach in warm waters makes for a pretty amazing moment and this is why Koh Rong is top on my list of things to see in Asia.

If you are looking for places to stay we suggest Saracen Bay Resort. If you plan on going in peak season November to February we suggest booking way ahead of time as rooms can fill up fast as many of the bungalow hotels only have 4-10 bungalows to rent so very limited. Saracen Bay Resort does have 24 hour electricity but no hot water and fan only. The restaurant on the premises is probably the best on the island and the rooms are really well appointed compared to most other bungalows that are more for backpackers with basic amenities.