Sihanoukville town sits in the center of a small peninsula that juts into the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand. Several fine white sand beaches, easily accessible from the town, line the coast around the peninsula. All of the main beaches are lined with little beach bars and restaurants offering cold drinks, beach umbrellas and chairs, seafood BBQ, evening parties, water sports and more.
Ochheuteal and Serendipity Beaches (map of Ochheuteal Beach)
Ochheuteal Beach, known as ‘UNTAC Beach’ in the early 1990s, is the most popular beach in Sihanouk Ville. Ochheuteal is long, sandy and narrow, with ‘Serendipity Beach’ at the arcing northern end, a development project at the southern half, and a cluster of hotels, guesthouses and restaurants stretching along the the middle. On the beach, little shack-style seafood restaurants and bars line more than a kilometer of the sand’s edge from ‘Serendipity Beach’ to the development project. A few, such as Chiva Shack, Chaimoy and Bar Ru are open into the late night and throw regular beach parties and BBQ’s The Ochheuteal area has a good selection of near beach accommodations ranging from mid-range hotels through budget guesthouses, most along the three roads that run parallel to the beach.
The mid-section of Ochheuteal Beach is the busiest, most popular beach in town, offering a pretty even mix of mid-range and budget hotels and guesthouses. Golden Sand Hotel and the Seaside Hotel are two of the best hotels in this area. Bungalows and guesthouses in the mid-Ochheuteal area also include the affordable New Christmas Guesthouse, Sbov Meas and Ponleu Reas Thmey Hotel. Toward the other end of the beach, the Orchidee Guesthouse, Markara Guesthouse and the Jasmine Hotel all offer affordable fan and a/c rooms. In the early evening, several roadside BBQ restaurants get going along 23 Tola Road a block off of the beach near the Golden Lion Hotel, all offering fresh seafood skewers, grilled meats, poultry and lots more. Angelo’s and Pim’s Restaurant are both getting particularly good reviews from customers right now. Pim’s offers regular traditional Khmer performances during the high season and has just installed Sihanouk Ville’s first mini-golf course behind the restaurant.
At Ochheuteal’s extreme northern end, the area commonly known as ‘Serendipity Beach’ offer bungalows and guesthouse rooms right on the sand as well as amongst the rocks on the side of the hill overlooking the ocean. Little beach bars and restaurants line the sand and there are often beach parties late into the evening. Serendipity offers several budget and mid-range places including the Malibu Bungalows, Le Jardin aux Hibiscus and Diamond; Cloud 9's well-known bungalows; and Tranquility at Serendipity right at the sea’s edge. A growing number and variety of businesses are popping up along the road from the Golden Lions Monument down to Serendipity Beach - small hotels and guesthouses ranging from budget digs like Monkey Republic, Thida’s Inn and Mick & Craig’s Guesthouse to comfortable mid-range accommodation at Reef Resort and Beach Road. To get to Serendipity Beach follow Ekareach Street straight through the Golden Lion Traffic Circle, over the hill and down to the beach.
Victory Beach
(map of Victory Beach area and Weather Station Hill)
The Victory Beaches are two long beaches divided by a rocky point and a small hill. The southern section is known as ‘Hawaii Beach’ (also ‘Lem-keray Beach’ and ‘King’s Beach’) The northern section near Weather Station Hill is the most popular with travelers, known as ‘Victory Beach.’ The sands at the port end of the beach are called ‘Port Beach’ and ‘New Beach.’
‘Victory Beach’ sits at the base of the very popular Weather Station Hill near the Vietnam-Cambodia Monument (‘Victory Monument’). Victory is a nice little beach, only a few hundred meters long but wide at points, offering a variety of beachside services and one of the best sunset views in town. The distinctive Airport Club sporting a full sized Antonov AN-24 twin engine airplane sits near the entrance to the beach - a beachside restaurant/bar by day, a discotheque by night. Next to the club, boats for hire operate off of the new boat dock. Check the bulletin board at the dock for boating information. A few meters north along the beach past the Airport Club are several little beachside seafood shacks clustered together along the sand’s edge. All offer the usual beach chairs and umbrellas, inner tubes, cold drinks, seafood barbeque, Cambodian food and even some western dishes. Farther north along Victory the beach narrows and two or three upscale oceanside seafood restaurants hug the water’s edge including the long popular Chhner Molop Chrey.
Above Victory Beach, Weather Station Hill (a.k.a. Victory Hill, Port Hill, The Hill) is a budget traveler and bar/nightlife area that offers a real variety of places. Budget and backpacker places, bungalows and guesthouses dominate the side of the Hill above Victory Beach overlooking the ocean. Everything on this side of the hill is within a couple of hundred meters of Victory Beach. Hilltop, the main road from Ekareach Street is lined with restaurants and bars, internet cafés, CD shops, and come evening, several sports bars, hostess bars and other drinking establishments. Many of the bars stay open well into the early morning hours. The top of hill is one of Sihanouk Ville’s nightlife hotspots.
‘Hawaii Beach’ is also known as ‘King’s Beach,’ ‘South Channel Beach’ and ‘Lamherkay Beach.’ Like the other major beaches, Hawaii Beach is lined with umbrellas and chairs and little beach shack bars and seafood restaurants, though no where near as densely as Ochheuteal. It’s also less crowded than Ochheuteal and tends to be much more popular with the locals than tourists. Come the weekend, Hawaii can get quite busy with holidayers down from Phnom Penh. Access the beach from the small road at the curve in the road at the southern end of the Victory Beaches.
Otres Beach
Otres Beach is the next beach south of Ochheuteal and resembles Ochheuteal in many ways - a three kilometer crescent of near white sand facing the southwest. Otres is far less touristed by comparison to Ochheuteal - a relaxing change from the busy Ochheuteal area. There are now several beach shack bars and restaurants along the length of the beach, seemingly a couple more umbrellas on the sand every time I visit. At the near end of the beach several beach bars are clustered together including Cantina Del Mar , a congenial place serving great fish tacos. A little further up the beach, Otres Nautica offers water sports equipment - boats, Hobie Waves, kayaks, etc. And Golden Sunset near the far end offers kayaks for rent and a pleasantly secluded stretch of beach. To get to Otres: 1) The road from Ochheuteal along the beach and over the hill through Queen Hill Resort allows easy motorcycle access to Otres but is blocked to cars. 2) By car from Ochheuteal Beach: follow 1 Kanda Street to the end and turn left, cross the bridge and proceed about 1km to the next right turn. Turn and follow the road about 1km to the beach. 3) By boat from Ochheuteal: Cindy’s Boat Taxi offers regularly scheduled boat taxi between Ochheuteal and Otres for only US$1, departing every couple of hours in each direction. Check at Cinderellas Coffee Shop just off Ochheuteal Beach for schedule. 4) At time of printing the Omui Street route from downtown was obstructed by construction.
Independence Beach
Independence Beach gets its name from the historic 7-storey The Independence Boutique Resort and Spa (originally named the Independence Hotel) that sits atop the rocky point at the north end of the beach. The beach, generally referred to as ‘Independence Beach’ by English-speakers, is called ‘otel pram-pul chann (‘hotel 7-storeys’) by the locals and it is labeled ‘7-Chann Beach’ on the in-town street signs.
Independence Beach is more than a kilometer long, but the sandy area is a bit narrow, making the beach best when the tide is lower...if it was open. Due to a new development project, most of Independence Beach has been closed to the public. Only small sections of beach at the north and south ends remain open. At the southern end of the beach, near Sasha Guesthouse, a small slice of beach is open, offering a quiet, lightly touristed corner of sand with just a few drink and seafood snack vendors cluster together under the trees. At the northern end, the beach is accessible from Independence Resort, which sits on the headland overlooking the ocean. A small fresh water lake that serves as the source of the Sihanouk Ville’s fresh water also sits at the base of the hill (and is rumored to contain crocodiles.)
Sunset Points
Sihanouk Ville offers several excellent spots to watch sunset. Most people opt for the beaches. Victory is the most ideally oriented beach for sunset. The view from the other beaches is sometimes partially obstructed depending on the time of year. Of the restaurants, Bungalow Village, Chez Claude, Chez Mari-yan, Nika Guesthouse and Mealy Chenda offer some of the best ocean views. Perhaps the best sunset point is at the top of Sihanouk Ville Mountain. The rocks at the top face west offer a beautiful view of the town, port, ocean and islands.
