Thailand to Cambodia in 2026: Why You Must Fly (Land Borders Closed) for Americans

The short answer: you fly, because the land borders are shut

If you are planning a Thailand-and-Cambodia trip in 2026, the most important thing to know up front is that you cannot drive, bus, or walk between the two countries. Every Thailand–Cambodia land border has been closed since June 2025, and as of mid-2026 none of them have reopened. That means the well-worn backpacker route — overnight bus from Bangkok, queue at Poipet, tuk-tuk into Siem Reap — simply does not exist anymore. The only way across is in the air.

For most American travelers this is genuinely good news once the surprise wears off. The land crossing was always the worst part of the old Indochina loop: long bus rides, a notorious border-scam strip at Poipet, and hours lost at immigration. Replacing it with a one-hour flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh is faster, cleaner, and removes the single biggest headache from the itinerary. You just have to plan for it instead of assuming you can wing it overland.

This guide covers which flights actually run, what changed at the border and why, the Cambodia eVisa you need before you board, and how the new Techo International airport fits in. If you want the live status before you book, our explainer on whether the Cambodia–Thailand land border is open keeps the closure tracked, and when you are ready you can apply for your eVisa in a few minutes. Our Cambodia visa hub for US citizens pulls cost, documents, and entry points into one place.

1. 1
   Pick your airport

   Fly Bangkok to Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI) for the temples or Bangkok to Phnom Penh (Techo International, KTI) for the capital — each about an hour.

2. 2
   Get the Tourist eVisa first

   Apply for the $80 USD all-in Tourist eVisa, approved in 3 business days as a printable PDF — it gives a single 30-day stay valid 3 months from issue.

3. 3
   File the e-Arrival Card

   Submit the separate, mandatory e-Arrival Card — 14 fields, $5 USD verified through us — within 7 days before your flight.

4. 4
   Board with both ready

   Airlines check for your approved, printed eVisa at the Bangkok gate, so have the PDF in hand before check-in.

5. 5
   Clear arrivals by air

   At SAI or KTI, present your printed eVisa, e-Arrival confirmation, and passport at immigration, then collect your bags — no land-border crossing involved.

What happened to the Thailand–Cambodia land borders

All seven official Thailand–Cambodia land crossings have been closed to travelers since June 2025. That includes Poipet–Aranyaprathet, the busiest crossing by far and the one almost every Bangkok-to-Siem Reap bus used, and Cham Yeam near Koh Kong, the coastal crossing people used for the Trat-to-Sihanoukville beach route. The remaining five smaller posts are closed as well. This is not a single checkpoint having a slow week — it is the entire land frontier.

The closure has held firm through 2026. There is no published reopening date, and the practical reality for anyone planning a trip is simple: do not build an itinerary around an overland crossing, do not buy a through-bus ticket that promises to deliver you to Siem Reap, and do not believe a tout or a forum post claiming one of the borders quietly reopened. As of this review, every one of the seven remains shut to tourist traffic.

Because the situation has shifted before, treat any specific reopening claim with skepticism and check a current source rather than an old blog. The U.S. Department of State maintains an active travel advisory for Cambodia, and we keep our own status page updated — our guide on what to do now that the Thailand–Cambodia land borders are closed walks through the air alternatives in detail.

Flying from Thailand to Cambodia: Bangkok to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh

With the land route gone, the air route is straightforward. From Bangkok you have two main destinations, and which one you choose depends entirely on what you want to see first. Both are short hops — about an hour gate to gate — and both run multiple times a day on a mix of full-service and budget carriers.

Bangkok to Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI) — for the temples

If Angkor Wat is the reason you are crossing into Cambodia, fly into Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI). It is the closest airport to the temple complex and replaced the old in-town airport, so it is the natural arrival point for anyone whose Cambodia trip is built around Angkor. The flight from Bangkok is roughly an hour, which compares to what used to be a full day of bus and border on the old overland route.

Bangkok to Phnom Penh (Techo International, KTI) — for the capital

If you are heading to the capital first, you fly into Techo International Airport (KTI), which opened in September 2025 and replaced the old Phnom Penh airport. It is a larger, newer facility further out of the city, and it is now the main international gateway to Phnom Penh. The Bangkok-to-Phnom Penh flight is also about an hour. From either airport you can connect onward within Cambodia by short domestic flight or road once you are inside the country.

Whichever way you go, the key planning point is that your eVisa has to be sorted before you fly — you present an approved, printed visa at check-in and again at the Cambodian airport. Our walkthrough on flying Bangkok to Siem Reap instead of the land border covers schedules and carriers, and our breakdown of the eVisa-accepted entry points confirms SAI and KTI both honor the eVisa.

The Cambodia eVisa you need before you board

Flying in from Thailand does not change the visa Americans need — it is the same Cambodia eVisa whether you arrive at Siem Reap or Phnom Penh. The Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in, approved in 3 business days, and delivered as a printable PDF by email. It gives you a single 30-day stay and is valid for 3 months from issue, so you can apply now even if your Bangkok-to-Cambodia leg is a few weeks out.

The critical timing point is that you need the eVisa before you board the flight, not on arrival. Airlines check for an approved visa at the Bangkok gate, and Cambodian Immigration expects a printed PDF when you land. Because approval takes 3 business days, the safe move is to apply at least a week before your flight — apply the moment your dates firm up and you remove the only thing that can actually stop you boarding.

A quick note for anyone whose plans involve more than one country: the Cambodia eVisa is single-entry. If you fly Bangkok to Phnom Penh, then plan to pop back to Thailand and return to Cambodia, that second entry needs its own visa, because there is no longer a land border to slip across and re-enter on the same trip. For a straightforward Thailand-then-Cambodia trip ending with a flight home, a single Tourist eVisa is all you need.

If you are running a multi-country Southeast Asia trip, it helps to plan the visas together. The Vietnam pairing is the one most people add to a Cambodia trip, and on price Cambodia sits in the middle of the regional pack for US travelers — worth comparing before you lock your route.

The e-Arrival Card and what arrival actually looks like

There is a second, separate step that catches travelers off guard, and it applies to every air arrival regardless of where you flew in from: the Cambodia e-Arrival Card. It is not part of the visa. It is a short digital arrival declaration — 14 fields across three sections — that you submit within 7 days before your flight. Verified through us it is $5 USD. The visa proves you can enter; the e-Arrival Card is the arrival form the airport expects.

When you land at Siem Reap-Angkor or Techo International, the flow is the same: you present your printed eVisa, your e-Arrival confirmation, and your passport at immigration, then collect your bags and head out. There is no land-border scrum to navigate, no tout pulling you toward an unofficial counter, and no surprise stamping fee — the arrival experience by air is considerably calmer than the Poipet crossing it replaced.

Treat the e-Arrival Card as a deliberate second task rather than an afterthought, because a single mismatched date or a misread field is the most common reason Americans get sent back at the kiosk. Our step-by-step walkthrough of the Cambodia e-Arrival Card for US citizens covers the timing and the fields that trip travelers up, so yours goes through clean the first time.

Planning the combined Thailand and Cambodia trip in 2026

Now that flying is the only option, the trip actually gets easier to plan, not harder. You no longer have to build in a buffer day for a slow border, worry about which bus company is reputable, or budget for the small bribes that used to grease the Poipet crossing. You book a flight, sort your eVisa, file your e-Arrival Card, and show up at the airport.

A sensible 2026 structure looks like this: spend your Thailand days first, fly into Siem Reap to see Angkor, then either fly home from Siem Reap or hop down to Phnom Penh or the coast before flying out. Because the eVisa is single-entry, plan a route that enters Cambodia once and exits once — a loop that bounces back into Thailand mid-trip means a second Cambodia visa, which is rarely worth it now that you cannot do it overland.

One more thing worth flagging: the auto-extension that used to let tourists stretch a 30-day stay ended in November 2025. If you want longer than 30 days in Cambodia, you either plan to leave and return on a fresh visa or look at the Business eVisa, which is the only Cambodia visa you can extend in-country. For a typical two-to-three-week Thailand-and-Cambodia trip, the standard 30-day Tourist eVisa is comfortably enough.

If your route involves Vietnam as well — a very common third leg — the land border between Vietnam and Cambodia at Bavet is a different situation from the Thai frontier and is worth understanding separately. Our guide to the Vietnam-to-Cambodia land border at Bavet for US citizens covers that crossing, which remains a working overland option in a way the Thai borders no longer are.

Putting the Thailand-to-Cambodia route together

Here is the whole picture in one line: all seven Thailand–Cambodia land borders are closed in 2026, so you fly — Bangkok to Siem Reap-Angkor for the temples or Bangkok to Phnom Penh’s Techo International for the capital, each about an hour — with a Cambodia eVisa sorted before you board and an e-Arrival Card filed in the week before. The Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in, approved in 3 business days as a printable PDF. If you want the live border status, our Cambodia–Thailand land border explainer stays current.

When your dates are set, apply for your eVisa early — the 3-business-day approval is the only part of this trip with a clock on it, and there is no document pack to assemble first. Most Americans finish the form in under ten minutes, and once your visa lands as a PDF, the rest of the Thailand-to-Cambodia leg is just a short, easy flight.

Next steps and related reading for Americans: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when your flights are booked, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for US citizens as the single canonical reference, check the live status in our Cambodia–Thailand land border guide, and plan the air leg with our Bangkok to Siem Reap fly-instead walkthrough.