2.56/5
686 reviews
Photo by allPhoto Bangkok via Unsplash

Cost of Living in Siem Reap

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locals

pub

street

tuk

food

angkor

wat

pretty

good

country

wifi

village

walk

night

nice

plenty

Siem Reap is an easygoing place that feels more like a large village than a city. Many visitors comment on how friendly and laid-back the locals are, and making new friends is fairly easy whether you're a tourist or an expat. It's also a good place for anyone looking for affordable living, with low prices on food, accommodation, and mobile data. Internet quality is reported to be surprisingly good, both via Wi-Fi and mobile LTE. Coworking spaces are available, and the weather and atmosphere make it suitable for short stays or working holidays up to 1–2 weeks.

Pub Street is considered the hub of nightlife with plenty of bars and clubs, and it's active during high season. There are diverse food and drink options, and getting around by bike or on foot is easy thanks to new infrastructure. There are meaningful local initiatives and social ventures if you're looking to do more than just tourism.

On the downside, some travelers found the city overly touristy, with interactions often feeling like sales pitches. Others noted that apart from Angkor Wat and Pub Street, the city can feel limited after several days. Despite this, it remains a solid destination for a short stay with good value.

AI-generated summary of reviews
25 days ago

The worst place that I've been to in Asia (& I've been to quite a few).

Every interaction with a local is a sales pitch for something. Tuk tuk, massage, weed, food, prostitution, you name it. People look at you as a customer and nothing else. This is very different in other countries in South East Asia. I've had plenty of authentic, non-sales-pitchy interactions with locals in Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines or Thailand. None of that here.

It feels like this place only exists to extract as much money from foreigners as possible. Come here if you want to see Angkor Wat. But even there the entry fee (37 USD) is greedy compared to temples in other countries.

Hard pass.

2 years ago

Agree with the people below plus would say Cambodia and Siem Reap are wonderful places to visit if you like super friendly locals, amazing food and an easygoing lifestyle.
There are a bunch of expats here, and a lot them are involved in social projects. If you're looking to do something good beyond experiencing a country, it's a good place to start.
WiFi is totally usable everywhere. Mobile data is cheap and fast.
Siem Reap has tons of options for food and drinks. It's very easy to get around or foot/bike now because they built a new, fit for purpose road with a CYCLE LANE all along the river.
I disagree that's there's not much to do - there's plenty in and around the city. The circus for me is a must-see. Angkor Wat is obviously amazing - take a bicycle because you get more out of it. Definitely go and see Apopo - they train rats to find landmines and it's such a good initiative. I liked the lotus farm too.

Places to stay - would recommend the Bygone. You could easily live there for a month. The owners are super chilled and friendly. They're also using the business to support charity so totally worthwhile.

3 years ago

I like Siem Reap, I like Cambodia. The whole city here has a "Large Village" feel. Wi-Fi here is pretty decent and a lot more stable than other places in the region I have tried, meaning connections won't always randomly drop. The whole country of Cambodia feels like it's a country heading in the right direction. I walk around, I see shops and eateries that have actual local Cambodian/Khmer people inside them enjoying them. I walk around, yeah, I'm getting random solicits for a ride but no one is overly pushy, "no" is accepted as an answer for the first time. It's manageable and I am not having things shoved in my face every 5 minutes pressured to buy stuff. I can walk and relax and not be so guarded. I also when I sit down at a place, notably pub street, workers here don't appear desperate or anxious, they all seem relaxed and when not serving people are visibly joking and smiling.

Even in a western facing area like pub street, locals are in the bars and restaurants and every place is owned by a local, makes me feel like money I spend here is being used to improve the local's every day living.

A week even seems a little much as after a few temples, having a night on Pub Street, and Angkor Wat being the highlight of any trip here, Siem Reap doesn't have much to see otherwise. It's a nice village feel, locals seem pretty relaxed and chill, which is fine for chilling and working for a week, maybe two if I really don't feel like doing much and staying in. I'd love to come back to Cambodia and see their capitol city of Phnom Penh at a later date.

3 years ago

Siem Riep has a nice suburb feeling. At first sight it seems there's not much to do besides Angkor Wat and Pub Street, but you can go swimming, do bicycle tours, floating village day trip...

I don't have best social skill, but in Siem Reap it was so easy to make new friends. Locals and tourists!

I've worked at Garage Society Coworking Space. Pretty nice place.

I don't understand the cons of slow internet. I've bought an LTE 4G Sim card for 10 USD with 10 GB. There's also free and mostly fast wifi at almost every cafe, restaurant, bar and hotel.

And about cost of lining: I've met some locals. First local was a single mom with 3 kids living 10 minutes away from pub street by tuk tuk. She is spending only 100 USD for 1 room studio apartment including water and power and 50 USD for food for her and the kids (I've been at her home). Second local was another girl who earned 120 USD per month by working at a hotel. So 400 USD cost of living for a local is waaay too high as it is mentioned here.

And night life is pretty awesome (at least it was before Covid 19). Bars and clubs everywhere at pub street and really crowded every night in high seasons. Temple Bar was awesome.

5 years ago

✅ Very friendly people

✅ Fast internet

✅ Very affordable

✅ Good nightlife

✅ Easy to meet people

✅ Good for biking and walking

✅ Affordable to live

✅ Pretty safe

✅ Warm now

✅ Warm all year round

✅ Perfect humidity now

✅ Good air quality on average

✅ Many Nomads.com members have been

✅ Spacious and not crowded

✅ Very easy to make friends

✅ LGBTQ+ friendly

✅ Not many people smoke tobacco

❌ Too tourist-focused

❌ Limited things to do after a week

❌ Freedom of speech is weak

❌ No democracy

❌ Pretty slow internet

❌ Not much to do

❌ Nomads.com members didn't like going here

❌ Not many Nomads.com members right now

❌ Difficult to do business

❌ Quality of education is low

❌ Hospitals are bad

❌ Roads can be dangerous

❌ People don't speak English well

❌ Not safe for women

❌ Not family friendly

❌ Marijuana is illegal

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Feels (median)

30°C / 86°F warm

33°C / 91°F hot

44°C / 111°F scorching

43°C / 109°F scorching

47°C / 117°F scorching

45°C / 113°F scorching

39°C / 102°F hot

47°C / 117°F scorching

37°C / 99°F hot

40°C / 104°F hot

37°C / 99°F hot

31°C / 88°F hot

Real (median)

28°C / 82°F
very warm

30°C / 86°F
very warm

34°C / 92°F
hot

32°C / 90°F
hot

34°C / 92°F
hot

32°C / 90°F
hot

30°C / 86°F
very warm

33°C / 91°F
hot

29°C / 84°F
very warm

30°C / 86°F
very warm

30°C / 85°F
very warm

28°C / 82°F
very warm

Humidity

nice
67%

nice
61%

nice
69%

sweaty
77%

sweaty
78%

sweaty
82%

sweaty
87%

sweaty
83%

sweaty
93%

sweaty
91%

sweaty
84%

sweaty
71%

Most common

☀️ Clear

☔️ Rain

☀️ Clear

Rain

dry
1mm

dry
9mm

dry
34mm

rainy
99mm

rainy
151mm

rainy
95mm

rainy
143mm

rainy
188mm

rainy
253mm

rainy
263mm

rainy
67mm

dry
16mm

Cloud

pockets
24%

pockets
15%

pockets
20%

pockets
49%

pockets
48%

cloudy
51%

cloudy
56%

cloudy
62%

cloudy
55%

pockets
48%

pockets
39%

Air quality

bad
127 US AQI

okay
90 US AQI

okay
80 US AQI

okay
62 US AQI

okay
56 US AQI

okay
57 US AQI

okay
59 US AQI

okay
62 US AQI

okay
63 US AQI

okay
91 US AQI

okay
79 US AQI

bad
114 US AQI

Sun

avoid sun
9 UVI

avoid sun
10 UVI

avoid sun
11 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

avoid sun
6 UVI

avoid sun
7 UVI

Remote workers

1,457 people

1,350 people

1,354 people

771 people

662 people

646 people

533 people

575 people

673 people

717 people

1,400 people

1,415 people

Green is good. Red is bad. Values shown are the medians of all daily highs in a month based on past few years, not necessarily current numbers. Remote worker count is estimated based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members.

If you'd like to filter destinations based on their climate, try Nomads.com's Climate Finder

Based on Siem Reap's cost of living, here's selected remote jobs that would cover your costs:

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Help pick the best photos for Siem Reap and improve this page's look by tappingclicking on them and the site saves your feedback Vote photos

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$995 / mo

12 Mbps

Bangkok

Thailand

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌧 Feels 39° 102° 33° 91° 🥵 AQI 69 😷

✈️29min

$1,556 / mo

26 Mbps

London

United Kingdom

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😳 Extremely expensive

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 24° 75° 24° 76° AQI 34

✈️13h

$6,086 / mo

22 Mbps

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked mediocre

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

☀️ Feels 34° 93° 29° 84°

✈️1h

$1,861 / mo

🌇 Also went here261 people

Hanoi

Vietnam

⭐️ OverallAll

Indonesia

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 25° 77° 25° 77° AQI 50

✈️4h

$2,438 / mo

🌇 Also went here250 people

Canggu, Bali

Indonesia

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 😙 Affordable

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked bad

👮 Safety good

Tap to open

🌦 Feels 29° 84° 26° 80° 🥵 AQI 50

✈️4h

$1,997 / mo

🌇 Also went here245 people

Tokyo

Japan

⭐️ OverallAll

💵 Cost 🧐 Pricey

📡 InternetWiFi 🙂 Good

👍 Liked good

👮 Safety great

Tap to open

🌤 Feels 39° 102° 33° 92° 🥵 AQI 57 😷

✈️6h

$3,105 / mo

🌇 Also went here265 people

Paris

France

Members who will be here soon

Members who have been here

Values shown are estimated visits by traveling remote workers based on the total amount of trips logged by Nomads.com members. Visits to a place are only counted once per year per user, even if they visit more in that year. Visits are also normalized by overall trips added per month on the site, so if site usage goes up or down it does not affect trends. Not all digital nomads are on Nomads.com, and not all Nomads.com members log their trips. So the data is only indicative.

The chart below shows visitors by nationality normalized for population size. This means we take all trips logged on Nomads.com, check which country of origin the user is from, then divide that total visit count by the country of origin's population. If we didn't, it'd just show the big countries like US, Brazil and India always on top. Instead, this shows which nationalities worldwide proportionally visit more or less, which is more useful.

⭐️ Total score	2.56/5 (Rank #378) 686 reviews
❤️ Liked by members	👍8 liked it 👎1 disliked it
👍 Quality of life score	Okay
👶 Family score	Okay
🎒 Community score	Okay
💵 Cost	😙 Affordable: $1,167 / mo
📡 Internet	😡 Slow: 8 Mbps (avg)
😝 Fun	Okay
⛅️ Temperature (now)	🥵 Too hot: 33°C92°F (feels 40°C104°F)
💦 Humidity (now)	😊 Comfy: 64%
💨 Air quality (annual)	🌱 Good: 63 US AQI
👌 Safety	Good
👩 Safe for women	Bad
🌈 Safe for LGBTQ+	Okay
🤮 Food safety*	Okay
👮‍♀️ Lack of crime*	Good
🎓 Education level*	Low
⚡️ Power grid	Great
🌊 Vulnerability to climate change	Bad
💰 Income level*	Very low: $106 / mo
🙊 English speaking*	Bad
🚶 Walkability	Great
🚦 Traffic safety*	Bad
✈️ Airline scores*	Great
🧳 Lost luggage*	Great
😄 Happiness*	Bad
🍸 Nightlife	Bad
📶 Free WiFi in city	Bad
🖥 Places to work from	Great
❄️ A/C or heating	Bad
😁 Friendly to foreigners	Good
🗯 Freedom of speech*	Okay
🎅 Startup Score	Bad

🌍 Continent	Asia
🚩 Country	Cambodia
🗓️ Average trip length	6 days
📡 Internet speed (avg)	8 Mbps
⛅️ Weather (now)	🌧 33°C 92°F + 😊 Comfy (64%) = feels 40°C 104°F
💨 Air quality (annual avg)	👎😷 63 US AQI
🔌 Power	230V 50Hz
🚕 Best taxi app*	Grab
🚑 Travel medical insurance	Safetywing
💸 10,000 KHR in USD	USD 2.49
🏧 Suggested ATM take out:	KHR 1,000,000 = USD 249
💳 Cashless	💵 No, cash only (esp. for foreigners)
💻 Best coworking space	Angkor HUB
💻 Best alt. coworking space	The 1961
🚰 Tap water	🚫 No, not drinkable
♻️ Return rate	5% of visitors return
📸 Visitors per year	2,337,600 visitors
📸 Tourists now	44,800 tourists
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Population	190,000 people
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 GDP per capita*	$1,270 / year
👫 Gender ratio (nomads)	👨 80% 👱‍♀️ 20%
⛪️ Religious government	Religious
✈️ Best short-haul air carrier	Air Asia
✈️ Best int'l air carrier	Vietnam

💵 Cost of living for nomad	$1,167 / month
💵 Cost of living for expat	$810 / month
💵 Cost of living for family	$1,462 / month
💵 Cost of living for local	$418 / month
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$396 / month
🏡 Airbnb (median price)	$1,185 / month
🏠 1br studio rent in center	$374 / month
🏠 Median home price	$24,446
🏨 Hotel (median price)	$19 / night
🏠 Airbnb (median price)	$39 / night
🏢 Coworking hot desk	$196 / month
🍛 Dinner	$4
🥤 Coca-Cola (0.3L)	$1
🍺 Beer in cafe (0.5L)	$2
☕️ Coffee in cafe	0
👩‍🏫 International school	$0 / year
📱 Mobile data (~10GB)	0 / month
🚕 Taxi price (avg trip ~3km/2mi)	0 / trip