Battambang Trips & Tours

Battambang Trips & Tours

Rural and lovely, let Battambang tempt with its pretty buildings and laidback scenes.

Strip away the crowds of Siem Reap, and the beeping and buzzing of Phnom Penh, and you’ve got yourself Battambang. An elegant, riverside town (Cambodians call it a city and still argue over whether it’s the second or third largest in the country– it’s all relative!), the pace of life is permanently set to laidback, there’s absolutely no hurry to enter the 21stcentury, and exploration is a real delight. A wander in the centre will reveal pretty French buildings, shutters flapping in the breeze and shining mustard walls, a handful of Angkor-era temples and wats, and a burgeoning arts and culture scene that, some say, is leading the post-genocide cultural renaissance across the country. Away from the town and the countryside is a bucolic mix of villages and hilltop temples, ripe for exploration on two wheels (or two feet). Then, on one of the last hills, you’ll find the notorious Ghost Caves, a stark reminder of the troubled days of the Khmer Rouge but worth a visit to confront the history of the country head-on.