Bokor Hill Station Historical Site

Overview Bokor Hill Station is a former French colonial hill station and resort on the Bokor Plateau within Preah Monivong Bokor National Park in southern Cambodia, known for abandoned colonial buildings and mountain views. It was developed as a resort by the French in the 1920s.

What visitors find Visitors encounter ruined French-built structures including an old hotel and casino, a church and other colonial-era buildings set on the fog-prone plateau, plus panoramic views over coastal plains and the Gulf of Thailand. The plateau’s cooler climate and scenic drive are part of the attraction.

History Constructed by the French in the early 20th century as a hill-top retreat, Bokor Hill Station remained in occasional use through mid-20th-century Cambodian history before long periods of abandonment. More recent decades have seen redevelopment interest and visitor access managed within the national park.

Location The hill station sits on the Bokor Plateau in Preah Monivong Bokor National Park in Kampot Province, southern Cambodia, rising to roughly 1,000-1,100 metres above sea level and overlooking the southern coastal plain and sea.

• High-elevation hill station: Situated on the Bokor Plateau at roughly 1,000-1,100 metres elevation, the site was developed by the French in the 1920s as a cool-season hill station and resort.

What to See#

• Old hotel and casino ruins: The colonial-era hotel and casino ruins built by the French in the 1920s, now an atmospheric ruin open to visitors.
• Colonial-era buildings and church: Several religious and administrative buildings from the colonial period including an abbey/church and government structures clustered near the summit.

Bokor Hill Station sits inside Bokor National Park above Kampot. The usual approach is by paved mountain road from Kampot town - the drive from Kampot to the hill station typically takes under an hour (around 30-45 km depending on exact start point) on the Bokor mountain road. From Phnom Penh you first drive to Kampot (along National Highway 4, roughly 150 km) and then follow the road up to Bokor; most visitors use a car, taxi or guided tour.

• Drive or take transport up from Kampot early in the day to reach viewpoints before the clouds and crowds; the hill's foggy, cool microclimate makes sunrise and early morning especially atmospheric.
• Approach by the main road from Kampot (National Road up to Bokor Plateau) and allow time to walk around the old French-era structures (the Palace Hotel, the church and the casino) rather than just stopping at a single viewpoint.
• Include nearby natural attractions (Popokvil Waterfall, the plateau viewpoints) in the same trip - many visitors focus only on the ruined buildings and miss the park's short nature trails and waterfalls.
• Watch the weather forecast: fog and low clouds can roll in quickly and obscure views, so if clear vistas are important adjust timing or plan a backup day.

Bokor Hill Station was built to order by the French as a cool-climate resort escape from the capital, but its atmosphere betrays a far less idyllic later history. It was one of the Khmer Rouge’s fiercely defended strongholds in the 1970s, and its vacant buildings are still scarred with bomb craters and machine-gun bullet holes.

Today not a single person lives or works here, and many parts resemble a ghost-town film set, so much so that the station has stood in for one in films such as City of Ghosts and R-Point. The ruins of the palatial Bokor Palace Casino still stand, and adventurous visitors can step inside its crumbling walls to sense what the resort once was, a place where French colonial grandeur and the bitter fighting of wartime now sit side by side.