Good to know
Good to Know
- Cambodia's economy is heavily dollarized, so almost every bar, club, and rooftop lounge in Phnom Penh prices and accepts payment directly in US dollars; Cambodian riel is mostly used for small change under $1.
- Nightlife is spread across distinct pockets rather than one strip: Bassac Lane/Bassac Quarter and Street 308 in BKK1 for cocktail bars and dive bars, Street 51 for classic clubs, Sisowath Quay/Riverside for rooftop and tourist-friendly bars, and Toul Tom Poung (Russian Market) for a more laid-back, bohemian rooftop and bar scene.
- Some side streets off the main Riverside strip (e.g. Streets 130 and 136) are known for hostess bars, a distinctly different scene from the cocktail/rooftop/club venues listed here.
- Most mainstream bars and clubs close around 2am, but a handful of late-night institutions on Street 51/172 stay open into the early morning.
- Cambodia's festival calendar is dominated by cultural/religious events (Khmer New Year in April, Pchum Ben in Sept/Oct, and the Water Festival in November) rather than dedicated music festivals — plan around these for atmosphere, but expect transport disruption and business closures during the biggest ones.
- For a mid-sized capital, Phnom Penh's dedicated live-music-festival scene is genuinely small and grassroots; nomads seeking a big festival experience should look to Bangkok, or Cambodia's own beach-town scene in Kampot/Koh Rong for more festival-style gatherings.
- Event dates for newer festivals (Sipsip Fest, Dakini Sky) are announced close to the date and can shift, so cross-check listings like local event calendars shortly before planning a trip around one.
Dive Bars
Red Bar
- Neighborhood
- Street 308, BKK1
- Verified Age Skew
- Long-time expat regulars, not a student hangout.
- Description
- An unpretentious, upmarket dive bar that often has live music.
Price Notes
Beer
- Beer
- KHR 4,100
Frozen Margarita Jug
- Frozen Margarita Jug
- KHR 41,000
Brass Monkey
- Neighborhood
- Street 308, BKK1
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult expat/local crowd.
- Description
- A friendly, local-feel bar good for people-watching, serving craft beers and cocktail jugs, with an in-house gin still on the mezzanine.
Garage Bar
- Neighborhood
- Just off the Riverside promenade
- Verified Age Skew
- Expat regulars and occasional tourists, skews adult rather than backpacker-youth.
- Description
- An American-style bar known for sous vide burgers, a strong soundtrack, and letting patrons request or DJ their own music.
Welsh Embassy
- Neighborhood
- Bassac Quarter, BKK1
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult expat crowd.
- Description
- A tiny beer-focused bar that holds about six people at a time, part of the tightly packed Bassac Lane bar cluster.
Dance Clubs
Pontoon
- Hours
- Late night, roughly 10pm-5am, and functions as the city's default late-night after-other-clubs-close destination.
- Neighborhood
- Street 172, off Street 51
- Verified Age Skew
- Genuinely mixed-age crowd of long-term expats, tourists, and locals rather than a student/under-25 dominated venue, though it does draw younger backpackers too.
- Notes
- Attracts a mixed crowd of backpackers, expats, and sex workers; there is generally no entrance fee, though weekend/special events can carry an $8 cover that includes a drink.
- Description
- A long-running nightclub with a large dance floor; music runs from Top 40 to EDM to electro house.
Heart of Darkness
- Neighborhood
- Street 51, Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Longstanding institution with a broad-age mixed local/expat clientele, not youth/student-dominated.
- Notes
- Has a mixed crowd of locals and expats and a notable gay-friendly scene, open to all types.
- Description
- A Phnom Penh institution that has been operating since 1993, playing loud Top 40 dance music, with areas to sit and drink as well as dance.
Rooftop Bars
Sora Sky Bar
- Hours
- 5pm-12am daily, last order 11:45pm; venue states an 18+ minimum age.
- Neighborhood
- Rosewood Hotel, Vattanac Capital Tower, Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Upscale hotel-bar crowd, largely 30s+, first-date/business-dinner vibe.
- Notes
- Sora has been honored with the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2025 and ranked No. 65 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025.
- Description
- On the 37th floor of the tallest tower in the city, Sora is widely regarded as Phnom Penh's premier rooftop bar, with a cantilevered terrace and city-wide views.
Price Range
- Amount USD Low
- 5
- Currency Local
- KHR
- Amount USD High
- 20
- Amount Local Low
- 20500
- Amount Local High
- 82000
Le Moon Rooftop
- Neighborhood
- Amanjaya Hotel, Riverside
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed locals, expats and tourists, generally 25+.
- Description
- Offers views of the Royal Palace, Wat Ounalom, and the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers.
Sundown Social Club
- Neighborhood
- Toul Tom Poung (Russian Market)
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed expats and locals, skews professional/adult rather than backpacker-young.
- Description
- A tropical-themed rooftop bar and kitchen overlooking the Russian Market, with rattan lounge chairs and a bohemian-chic terrace.
Eclipse Sky Bar
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh Tower, Monivong Boulevard
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult local/expat crowd.
- Description
- An open-air rooftop known for being one of the tallest sky bars in the city center, open from 5pm until 2am.
FiveFive Rooftop Bar & Lounge
- Neighborhood
- Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh, level 14
- Verified Age Skew
- Hotel-bar crowd, mixed adult professionals.
- Description
- A sleek indoor-outdoor rooftop with views of the Mekong River and Royal Palace, serving classic cocktails with a local twist.
Tonle Sap Bar
- Neighborhood
- Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel and Residence
- Verified Age Skew
- Hotel-guest and adult local/expat crowd.
- Description
- A large rooftop bar offering 360-degree panoramic views of the city and the Tonle Sap River.
Khmer Funk Sky Bar
- Neighborhood
- TRIBE Phnom Penh hotel, Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult hotel/expat crowd.
- Description
- An industrial-chic rooftop dining and bar space serving locally-inspired dishes alongside inventive cocktails and craft beer.
Cocktail Bars
Prei
- Neighborhood
- Street 214, Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult/professional crowd, not youth/backpacker-oriented; a date-night and expat-professional destination.
- Notes
- Prei claims to offer the largest classic craft cocktail menu in Cambodia, with reimagined classics and bespoke cocktails.
- Description
- A speakeasy hidden behind what looks like a shuttered liquor-store front, run by a husband-and-wife team; velvet chairs, vintage Cambodian posters and records.
Elephant Bar (Raffles Hotel Le Royal)
- Neighborhood
- Daun Penh, near Wat Phnom
- Verified Age Skew
- Older, affluent, and tourist/expat professional crowd; not youth-oriented.
- Notes
- Past patrons reportedly included Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin, and Jacqueline Kennedy; famous for the Femme Fatale cocktail.
- Description
- The historic bar of Phnom Penh's oldest luxury hotel (opened 1929), considered the city's first proper cocktail bar.
Writers Bar (Raffles Hotel Le Royal)
- Neighborhood
- Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Older, hotel-guest and professional crowd.
- Description
- Colonial-style lobby bar/lounge within the same Raffles property as the Elephant Bar, more low-key and coffee/cocktail focused earlier in the day.
Metro Hassakan
- Neighborhood
- Riverside
- Verified Age Skew
- Popular with fashionable locals and well-heeled foreigners rather than a student/backpacker crowd.
- Description
- A Riverside restaurant serving Asian fusion tapas by day that becomes a trendy cocktail bar at night, known for its lychee martini.
Mawsim
- Neighborhood
- Street 108, Daun Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Niche spirits-enthusiast crowd, skews adult.
- Description
- A hidden, second-floor Japanese-style gin bar reached via a dimly lit staircase in an unassuming building; makes its own gin from water hyacinths and local botanicals.
White Rabbit
- Neighborhood
- Bassac Lane/Bassac Quarter, BKK1
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed expat/local professional crowd.
- Description
- An upscale, chandelier-adorned bar with a loose Alice in Wonderland theme; menus delivered with a magnifying glass.
Seekers Spirits
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh (gin distillery)
- Verified Age Skew
- Spirits-enthusiast, adult crowd.
- Description
- The city's first gin distillery, offering tours alongside its own signature gin cocktails.
Samai Distillery Bar Night
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh
- Verified Age Skew
- Distillery/craft-spirits crowd, skews adult.
- Description
- Primarily a rum distillery, but on Thursday nights it opens as a bar among its wooden barrels and moody lighting.
Live Music Venues
FCC Phnom Penh (Foreign Correspondents' Club)
- Neighborhood
- Riverside, Sisowath Quay
- Verified Age Skew
- Older expat/professional and journalist crowd.
- Description
- A colonial-era building overlooking the Tonle Sap river, long a hub for journalists and expats, offering river views and occasional live music.
Alchemy GastroPub
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh (central)
- Verified Age Skew
- Adult live-music/rock crowd, not youth-dominated.
- Description
- Known for its rock-and-roll vibe and late-night live jam sessions.
Oscar's on the Corner
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh (central)
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult crowd.
- Description
- A live music venue regularly cited among the city's best spots to catch local and international acts.
Show Box
- Neighborhood
- Phnom Penh (central)
- Verified Age Skew
- Mixed adult crowd, music-enthusiast oriented rather than student-dominated.
- Description
- A dedicated live music venue hosting bands playing everything from traditional Khmer music to rock and jazz.
Long After Dark
- Neighborhood
- Tuol Tom Pong/Russian Market area
- Verified Age Skew
- Whiskey/vinyl enthusiasts, skews solidly adult.
- Description
- A cozy bar with a collection of more than 50 whiskeys and an extensive vinyl record selection, giving it a hipster-yet-serious-drinker vibe.
After Hours Late Night
Pontoon
- Hours
- Roughly 10pm-5am.
- Description
- Functions as the city's classic after-everything-else late-night destination, with a large dance floor drawing a big crowd of foreigners and locals into the early morning hours.
Heart of Darkness
- Hours
- Late night, typically until the early morning.
- Description
- Runs late into the night on Street 51 as one of the two anchor late-night clubs in the city, with a mixed local/expat crowd and a notable gay-friendly following.
Festivals
International Music Festival Phnom Penh
- Genre
- Western classical music
- Typical Timing
- Early November, annually
- Attendance Scale
- Small, venue-based (hotel ballroom/concert hall scale, not a mass outdoor festival)
- Notes
- Explicitly framed as a platform for developing young Khmer classical musicians and cultural exchange between Western and Khmer traditions.
- Description
- A long-running annual classical music festival now in its third decade, staged at venues such as Raffles Hotel Le Royal, presenting Western classical repertoire (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss, etc.) performed by international and Khmer musicians.
Bon Om Touk (Water Festival)
- Genre
- Not a dedicated music festival, but features free public concerts, fireworks and performances alongside its main draw of boat races
- Typical Timing
- Three days in November (dates shift with the lunar calendar; 2026 edition scheduled 23–25 November)
- Attendance Scale
- Massive — draws crowds from across the country to the riverfront; the single largest public gathering in Phnom Penh's calendar
- Notes
- Not primarily a 'music festival' in genre terms, but it's the closest thing Phnom Penh has to a mass-attendance live-event weekend, and it includes free concerts.
- Description
- Cambodia's biggest annual public festival, centered on traditional longboat races on the Tonlé Sap and Mekong rivers with illuminated parades, live performances, and fireworks along Sisowath Quay.
Sipsip Fest
- Genre
- Contemporary/indie live music (mixed local lineup)
- Typical Timing
- Late June (2026 edition: 27 June)
- Attendance Scale
- Small-to-mid, venue-based
- Notes
- Part of a growing crop of small independent festivals hosted at Factory Phnom Penh.
- Description
- A newer local live-music festival held at the Factory Phnom Penh creative/industrial venue complex.
Songwriters Festival
- Genre
- Singer-songwriter/acoustic
- Typical Timing
- Newly established annual event (recent editions running in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap)
- Attendance Scale
- Small, intimate venue circuit rather than one large outdoor stage
- Notes
- Driven largely by the city's small expat-and-local original-music community documented by outlets like LengPleng.
- Description
- A grassroots annual festival highlighting the local and touring singer-songwriter and acoustic scene, run in parallel in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
Dakini Sky Music Festival
- Genre
- Pop, K-pop, and hip-hop
- Typical Timing
- Announced for March 2026
- Attendance Scale
- Unclear/unproven — this is a newly marketed event without an established attendance track record
- Notes
- Treat as speculative/emerging; lineup and scale were still being announced at time of research.
- Description
- A newly promoted multi-genre festival branding itself around pop, K-pop and hip-hop acts, positioned as a platform for both international and rising local artists.
Adult Entertainment
Charlie Chan's Gentleman's Club
- Format
- Western-style gentlemen's club with stage dancers, DJs, and full bar
- Neighborhood
- Street 136, Riverside/Old Quarter
- Notes
- A large, purpose-built club located in the heart of the Street 136 entertainment strip near the riverside. It operates as a bar/club with two stages for dancers, DJ sets, and standard seating including sofa booths — a legitimate licensed nightlife venue rather than a brothel. It relaunched under this name in 2024 and is one of the more Western-branded 'gentleman's club' format spots in the city, distinct from the more numerous small local hostess bars nearby.
The Factory 104
- Format
- Large hostess bar (Cambodia's dominant 'girlie bar' format, akin to a hostess-bar/KTV hybrid)
- Neighborhood
- Street 104, near the riverside/Old Quarter
- Notes
- Located on Street 104, one of Phnom Penh's main hostess-bar strips a short walk from Sisowath Quay. It is a large, recently renovated venue with multiple bar counters, private seating areas, and a rooftop-style balcony overlooking the street. This 'hostess bar' format — small-to-large bars staffed by hostesses who sit and drink with customers — is the standard local equivalent of Western adult-entertainment venues in Phnom Penh; there are no legal, licensed strip clubs with nudity or a Western-style go-go bar scene here, and commercial sexual services connected to these venues fall in a legal grey area that is tolerated but not formally licensed by authorities.
Phnom Penh's bar scene has shifted markedly in the last decade from a rough-edged, dive-heavy scene to a more sophisticated mixology culture, while still retaining classic dive bars, colonial-era institutions, and long-running dance clubs. Nightlife clusters in a handful of walkable pockets: Bassac Lane/Bassac Quarter (BKK1), Street 308 (BKK1), Street 51 (Daun Penh), the Riverside/Sisowath Quay strip, and the Toul Tom Poung (Russian Market) area.
Phnom Penh does not have a single flagship international music festival on the scale of Southeast Asian neighbors, but it has a small, growing grassroots live-music and festival scene alongside a long-running classical music festival and the massive (mostly non-music-genre) national Water Festival.
Grassroots And Recurring Nightlife Events
Grassroots And Recurring Nightlife Events
- Smaller one-off or recurring club/EDM party nights (e.g., DJ-led dance parties in the BKK1 nightlife area) supplement the formal festival calendar and are usually promoted week-to-week rather than as fixed annual dates.
- The Kampot Readers and Writers Festival (KRWF) occasionally brings musicians alongside novelists and artists to Phnom Penh as a satellite stop, blending literary and live-music programming.
- One-off local original-music showcases (e.g., past events combining live bands, DJs and 'live-painting' art shows) have periodically been staged at outdoor venues like Koh Pich (Diamond Island), though these have not consistently recurred as fixed annual festivals.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
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Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.