Koh Trong Travel Guide

This small community is on an island in the Mekong River. The river splits and wraps around an oval-shaped island with a small village at its center. It’s a surprisingly vibrant community despite the fact that it’s a small island in the middle of a river rather than a sea.

This rustic island is an ideal place to glimpse traditional Cambodian life, but locals are familiar enough with tourism to provide adequate services. It’s possible to charter carts pulled by horses or oxen, while some tourists prefer to rent a bicycle and pedal their own way around the island. The full island loop is about eight miles long.

Most accommodation consists of humble guesthouses, which have more of a home-stay atmosphere than anything else. There are also a few houseboats moored in the river, and some of them offer no-frills sleeping arrangements. Other houses are on stilts to contend with the rainy season.

Few tourists know about Koh Trong though the government is trying to promote it as an authentic cultural experience. Facilities are still limited, but the authenticity definitely shines through. Anyone looking for that quintessential countryside experience will find it here in a laid-back and non-intimidating environment. The fact that you’re on a fixed, finite space can be comforting, too.

In brief

What is it? An island village in the middle of the Mekong River.


Opening hours: 08:00 to 18:00, daily.


Entrance fees: no entrance fee.


Address/website: www.snvworld.org/en/countries/cambodia/ourwork/Pages/KohTrongIsland.aspx.

Where: immediately east of Kratie town on the Mekong.

How to get there: take a ferry from the riverside to the island. Kratie is accessible from Phnom Penh by boat or bus in 3 hours.