Where the hotels are...

Hotels and guesthouses are spread across the city, though there are concentrations of tourist oriented places certain parts of town. Most of Phnom Penh's main attraction are located city center and in the riverfront area. The airport is 9km from the city center (30-60 minutes,) and though there are a few hotels near the airport, they are not convenient to the city center. Always bustling, the riverfront area is probably the most popular tourist area the city, with dozens of hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops lining the river side road and radiating streets. There are several hotels along the riverfront, most mid and upper range. In the blocks just off the riverfront dozens of mid and budget range hotels and guesthouses dot the streets. Now that the old Boeung Kak Lake has been completely filled budget travelers scene is pretty much a thing of the past, a couple of comparatively new clusters of budget oriented businesses are taking up the slack, including some former lakeside guesthouses, especially along Street 172 behind Wat Ounalom just a block off the riverfront, and another on Street 258 near the Cambodiana Hotel. The popular Boeung Keng Kang 1 (BKK1) area a couple of kilometers southwest of the riverfront area is also dotted with a mix of restaurants, bars, spas and accommodation but sports a somewhat different atmosphere - a bit more relaxed and drawing more NGO and IO workers, expats, travelers and other foreigners. The hotels at the northern end, especially along Street 278, cater to long term stayers. There is also a growing number of upper range boutique hotels as well as more budget oriented places catering to the traveler crowd. Other hotel areas of note include the areas around Toul Sleng Museum and Phsar Toul Thom Poung where a number of new boutique and mid-range hotels have recently appeared. And also the neighborhood between Street 105 and 141 just north of Sihanouk, where several traveler-oriented, budget hotels line the streets.