Top 3 Places to Retire in Cambodia
Why Should You Listen to Me
Three Different Ranking Criteria
Top 5 Places to Retire in Cambodia for Cultural Explorers
Top 5 Places to Retire in Cambodia for Active Adventurers
Top 2 Places to Retire in Cambodia for Rural Self Reliance
Best Retire Cheap in Paradise Locations in the World
Top 3 Places to Retire in Cambodia
This is Dan of Vagabond Awake, the Youtube Channel for Vagabond Buddha.
We just completed touring around Cambodia. We surveyed the top spots in Cambodia where western Expats like to live or retire cheap. Today, I will tell you my top 3 favorites. After I tell you my top 3, I will explain why they made my top 3. Then I will explain how and why others may rank them differently than me.
Okay, here we go. Here are my top 3 favorite places to retire cheap in Cambodia.
Number 1: Siem Reap
Number 2: Kampot
Number 3: Battambang
Now that you know my top 3 favorites in Cambodia, let me explain why they are my favorites. I have ranked these 3 according to my preferences as a cultural explorer. But you might be more interested in other criteria, like action adventures or rural self-reliance. In that case, I recommend other destinations below. But first, a little about why you should listen to me.
Why Should You Listen to Me?
I saved and invested heavily in real estate and was getting near early retirement when the market crashed in 2008. Within a year, my real estate had dropped by 40%. Early retirement looked hopeless.
Luckily, my job allowed me to travel the world for the last decade. 65 countries so far. As I traveled, I identified places around the world where I could retire for half as much money as I thought I would need in the USA. I call these places the best retire cheap in paradise locations in the world.
I learned that I could live on half as much money as I thought I would need in the USA. But even better than that, I learned that living internationally 11+ months of the year was more exciting, more interesting, and more fun than hanging out in my home country.
So, in 2016, I started Vagabond Buddha to share this information with you. I have already published more than 50 retire cheap in paradise reports.
Although my retire cheap reports are worldwide, one of the places I have been visiting almost every year is SE Asia. Additionally, I just spent the last year touring around SE Asia including Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia. I travel all over the world and pick the best places in the world to retire cheap. No matter where we go in the world, I rank everything by the same criteria.
Today we are ranking the best place to retire in Cambodia. Next week I will share my favorite places to retire in all of SE Asia. Next month, I will share my best places to retire in the world for 2020.
I am now showing you videos and photos I took last month touring Cambodia, while I talk about how I picked the best places there, But don’t write anything down. Everything I discuss in this video is in writing. Just click the “More Information” link in the notes below this Youtube video for Google Maps and links to everything I discuss Cambodia, SE Asia, and the rest of the world.
Here is why you may need to refer to the “More Information” link below.
Your favorite place in Cambodia might be different from mine. What attracts me to one place may not be interesting to you. So along with my ranking of favorite places, I have included a link to my detailed reports about each. If you know each report’s reasoning, you will be able to adjust my favorites more closely to your own unique style and needs.
Also, there are Youtube videos embedded in each report. In the videos, you will see me walking around each place and talking about what I like about each, or not.
I intend to give you enough information, so you can reorder my favorites based upon your needs, not mine. By bubbling the best ones to the top, you will be able to eliminate many from your shortlist. That will save you time and money when you take a retirement tour to investigate further.
Let me explain the three different ranking criteria I use to bubble the best ones to the top.
Three Different Ranking Criteria
I am more of a city guy that loves culture. I like museums, art galleries, live music, international foods, street art, youth culture, the university atmosphere, and public transportation. I prefer to live in areas where cultural experiences are walkable. I call someone like me a cultural explorer.
Other people prefer action sports like mountain/rock climbing, surfing, wind or kite surfing, riding horses, zip lines, snowboarding/skiing or skydiving. I call someone like that an action adventurer.
Other people enjoy growing their own organic food, living in rural areas with some distance from their nearest neighbor, and studying survivalist techniques. I call this rural self-reliance.
We are not all the same. So I am providing information to help you find your own best personal place in Cambodia. Okay, now that you know my criteria for ranking the best place, here are the retirement places we ranked in Cambodia.
Here are the places we ranked for best retirement in Cambodia: Kep, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap. These are the places we rank below for you. If we missed anywhere of interest to you, please let us know for future visits.
Here are the ones that didn’t make the list.
Kratie: Kratie has pink clear water stub-nosed dolphins that Qiang Hui wanted to see. When we come back to Cambodia with more time we will visit here. It is better for long weekend exploration but unlikely to be a retirement tour choice.
Koh Rong: Expensive resort Island with very little normal life infrastructure. You could spend up to a week or even two here for glorious expensive relaxation. But it is unlikely to have enough going on for most people to consider it as a retirement destination.
Sihanoukville: This is a large (relatively) newer coastal town with no colonial-era character like Phnom Penh. The pace of construction seems to place unmanaged foreign-influenced development above the daily quality of life of its residents. So will not recommend it for your retirement consideration. However, you may find yourself here as a means to transfer to Koh Rong Island.
Next time we are in Cambodia, we may take a glorious unbounded-time tour around the rest of Cambodia and stop and enjoy a day or two whenever the mood strikes at the above places and maybe others. But this report focuses on finding the best place to retire in Cambodia.
So after our feasibility research, these five made the list. We spent just over 3 weeks investigating them.
Cambodia (Kep, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap): Here is a link to the Google Map of our Cambodia tour.
We crossed into Cambodia from Vietnam on the southernmost border crossing at Ha Tien Border Crossing. We crossed into Cambodia after we completed our retire cheap research, reports, and videos of Vietnam.
We save money by moving slowly on the ground across a country and cross borders by land instead of airports whenever possible. I do not leave a country until I have seen everything I want or my Visa runs out, whichever happens first.
For example, after seeing everything we wanted in Vietnam, we crossed into Cambodia at the land border. By avoiding airports in our world travels, we reduce our carbon footprint and we save money on travel. I have written a report that teaches how to tour the world for less than it costs to stay home.
So once you have shortlisted your best places to retire cheap in whatever country, grab any retire cheap reports we have for that country. Here are the reports published so far. They will teach you the cheapest way to move around the world so you can conduct site visits to your most likely retirement destinations before you making a final decision. Here are the retire cheap reports for Cambodia: Kep, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap.
Okay, now that you know where we visited in Cambodia, I will rank the top places according to my criteria described above: Cultural Explorer, Action Adventurer, Rural Self-Reliance.
Here are the three separate lists of best places in Cambodia to retire cheap for cultural explorers, action adventurers, and rural self-reliance.
If you are interested in two criteria, look for a place that ranks well on both lists. Also, please share any ideas you have with me about how to improve my ranking system.
Since I am a cultural explorer, I will start my ranking with that criteria. I do enjoy action sports from time to time. However, that is more for isolated experiences than a continuing lifestyle choice. I rarely select where to live or travel based upon action sports. I do visit rural destinations sporadically, but it is more for temporary experiences, such as jungles, mountains, wine country, etc.
Okay, here are my favorites in Cambodia for Cultural Explorers.
Top Places to Retire in Cambodia for Cultural Explorers
(#1) Siem Reap (Retire Cheap Report): With nearby Angkor Wat, Siem Reap is a culturally rich area of Cambodia adjacent to the largest temple complex in the world. The Siem Reap old town city center is a delight for cultural explorers with an abundance of international restaurant choices, grocery stores with imported foods and booze, and one of the highest per capita incomes in Cambodia. There are many English (and many other languages) speakers trained to serve the needs of the 2.6 million tourists that come to see Angkor Wat each year. Yet, local salaries have remained low compared to many other parts of SE Asia, meaning, you will find many restaurants outside the city center serving delicious Khmer foods to locals at about the same price as you would see other parts of Cambodia. The Siem Reap Retire Cheap Report shows where to get furnished western style apartments in the ranger of $300 to $500 per month. There is a larger more diverse nightlife than many parts of Cambodia but you can still find $0.50 draft beers sold in a frozen mug. There are Expat Facebook pages that will help you adjust to life in Siem Reap. There are malls, restaurant exploration, a beautiful walkway on the riverfront, arts and crafts markets, cheap open-air markets to buy groceries, riverside food carts, and a nearby lake with cultural aspects likely to keep this town fairly interesting for a cultural explorer like me.
(#2) Kampot (Retire Cheap Report): My second choice as a cultural explorer would probably be Kampot. Kampot also seemed to be the first choice for many ex-pats living in Cambodia. Siem Reap seemed like it had more temporary tourists just there to see the temples. It may have had a bunch of ex-pats living there but it was hard to tell with so many tourists walking around. Whereas, Kampot had a bunch of foreigners that had moved there and started businesses in the city center area. So the community had more of a permanent international influence than other parts of Cambodia. Plus, it had westerners walking around the city centers that you could just strike up a conversation with. ”Where are you from?” “How long have you been here?” The city center is small and compact so you could walk everywhere in town. But it is next to a large mountain range where you can hike and there is a large river where people go kayaking. Yet culturally it was interesting because the world is living there. There are ex-pats from all over the world living in harmony with the locals so it felt very rich and diverse in culture even though it didn’t have all the temples nearby like in Siem Reap. Kampot is one of the most relaxing places I have ever been to. Finally, you can catch the bus to Kep Beach for $3 USD and be there in 40 minutes.
(#3) Battambang (Retire Cheap Report): Battambang is almost as slow and easy as Kampot. But it doesn’t attract as many tourists as Siem Reap or as many ex-pats as Kampot. With what seemed to be fewer foreign ex-pats starting restaurants in Battambang as compared to Kampot, you would think the international food choices would be highly limited. But there are at least 10 restaurants that we found on restaurant row (and nearby) that had large international influences. You will have to pay a little more for the international food choices but the prices seemed a little lower than in Siem Reap. There seemed to be more temples here than Kampot and there was a university influence in the city. Overall, the cultural influences felt more pure Cambodian and less international which could be a good thing if you want to immerse yourself in a local culture less influenced by all the ex-pats and tourists. You will need to integrate with the locals and define your own fun in this town. But that just might be your cup of tea. Read the Battambang Retire Cheap Report for more details.
(#5) Phnom Penh: In terms of culture, Phnom Penh is second only to Siem Reap. But unlike Siem Reap, Phnom Penh has all the challenges of a large city. The pollution is excessive, the roads are a mess at rush hour, and the poverty can be in your face in some areas of town. It is also typical of larger cities in SE Asia in terms of crime and prostitution. Rents also have a huge range from $200 to $1000 per month. The street food seems a little more expensive than other parts of Cambodia too. Some of the ex-pats that call Phnom Penh are not retired but are here on work permits. The city is also a little spread out and the buses don’t seem to run as close by or as often as you would need for efficiency. But you can get Cambodian tuk-tuk so go everywhere for a few dollars using smartphone apps. I almost made Phnom Penh my last choice for Cambodia, but I think I rather live here than Kep Beach. Because there is much more going on in Phnom Penh in cultural opportunities and international food. Plus, I could live in Kampot and only be a short $3 bus ride from Kep which I would prefer over living in Kep also.
(#4) Kep Beach (Retire Cheap Report): Kep would be my last choice for retiring in Cambodia. It is just a little short on culture for my test. It is just a little village on the beach. It would be fine for a few days away from Kampot or Phnom Penh, but there is not enough going in there for a cultural explorer.
Okay, here is how I believe an Active Adventurer would order the best places to live in Cambodia.
Top Places to Retire in Cambodia for Active Adventurers
I picked where to tour in Cambodia based upon my interest in cultural exploration. So to find out the relevance of each place with respect to popular adventure sports, I did some research.
Here are the results of my online research.
Here are the best places for Active Adventurers based upon the above table.
(#1) Kep Beach (Retire Cheap Report)
(#2) Kampot (Retire Cheap Report)
(#3) Siem Reap (Retire Cheap Report)
(#4) Battambang (Retire Cheap Report)
(#5) Phnom Penh (retire Cheap Report)
It was only after I did not find any mention of surfing, scuba, and white water rafting online for the five places we visited in Cambodia that I decided to see if there was anywhere in Cambodia that reported these activities.
Of course, if you are only interested in one or two of these activities, you would focus only on the places in Cambodia where they are occurring.
Also, you may have heard that Cambodia is a dangerous place for land mines. Please do further research on that issue before wandering off and doing outdoor activities. Here are my thoughts on the final criteria, rural self-reliance.
Top Places to Retire in Cambodia for Rural Self Reliance
If you go drive outside either Kampot or Battambang for more than 5+ kilometers, you will find areas of great seclusion. I would recommend finding a place with river access or proven well. Both of these places have great soil, distance from your neighbors, and a bunch of privacy. The reason I picked Kampot over Battambong is that you would be just one of the hundreds of other foreign ex-pats in and around Kampot. Having many other foreigners around the area means you will be able to have the sort of privacy that anonymity provides. But they are both great if that is not a concern.
(#1) Kampot (Retire Cheap Report)
(#2) Battambang (Retire Cheap Report)
Conclusion:
Here are all the retire cheap reports we created for Cambodia: Kep, Kampot, Phnom Penh, Battambang, and Siem Reap. You can use these to save money as you tour Cambodia, even if you are not touring for retirement consideration.
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This is Dan of Vagabond Buddha. Thank you for stopping by. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?