Visas and entry

The three ways in

Both paid options give you the same thirty days. The e-visa is worth the small extra charge purely because it removes queueing and cash-handling on arrival after a long flight.

What you need before you apply

• A passport valid for at least six months beyond your arrival date, with at least one blank page.
• A digital passport photo, plain background, taken within the last six months. The system rejects photos with hats, glare or a busy backdrop.
• A card for the fee, and the ability to print or download the approval letter.
• For visa on arrival: one printed passport photo and USD 30 in clean, unmarked notes. Torn or heavily marked dollar bills are refused at borders across the region.

Children need their own visa regardless of age, including infants travelling on a parent's passport where that still applies.

Extensions, overstays and the rules people get wrong

A thirty-day tourist visa can be extended once, in Phnom Penh, for another thirty days. The tourist class cannot be extended repeatedly; people who stay longer switch to the ordinary (E-class) visa, which is a different application.

Overstaying costs USD 10 per day, payable at the airport on departure. It is enforced consistently, it is recorded, and long overstays lead to being barred. Diary the date your permission expires rather than counting from your arrival stamp in your head.

If you leave and re-enter, for example on a side trip to Bangkok, a single-entry visa is spent. Ask for multiple entry at the time of application if your route needs it; adding it afterwards is not possible.

Health and insurance, briefly

Cambodia has no compulsory vaccination requirement for travellers arriving from most countries. Your doctor will have a view about hepatitis A, typhoid and tetanus; that conversation is theirs, not ours.

• Malaria risk is low in the places most visitors go and is real in remote forested areas near the Thai and Lao borders, including parts of Mondulkiri and the Cardamoms. Dengue is present year-round and rises in the wet season. Repellent, worn in the evening, is the practical answer to both.
• Drink bottled or filtered water. Ice in restaurants and hotels is factory-made and fine; we still avoid it at roadside stalls in the hot months.
• Medical facilities are good in Phnom Penh, adequate in Siem Reap, and thin everywhere else. Serious cases are evacuated to Bangkok, which is why insurance matters more here than the risk of illness suggests.
• Travel insurance is a condition of booking with us. We ask for the policy number before departure and we do not check the policy's contents, which are your business.

If you have a condition that affects walking or heat tolerance, tell us at enquiry stage. Temple days involve uneven laterite, steep original staircases and long distances between shaded points, and there are routes we would build differently.

Money, since it belongs with entry

Cambodia runs on two currencies at once. Prices are usually quoted in US dollars, change under a dollar comes back in riel at a flat 4,000 to the dollar, and both are accepted everywhere without comment.

Bring dollars in good condition and in small denominations. Since the small-note clean-up several years ago, banks handle one, two and five dollar bills differently from the way they once did, and market stalls simply cannot change a fifty. ATMs in towns dispense dollars, typically charging USD 4 to USD 6 per withdrawal, so take out larger amounts less often.

Questions travellers ask most

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