Is the Cambodia-Thailand Land Border Open? 2026 Status for US Travelers
No. All seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025, and there is no confirmed reopening date in 2026. Here is what that means for US travelers, why the old Poipet route no longer runs, and how to plan your trip around it.
Is the Cambodia-Thailand land border open for US travelers in 2026?
No. All seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025, and they remain closed in 2026 with no confirmed reopening date. You cannot walk or drive across from Thailand into Cambodia on any visa right now — that includes the Poipet crossing on the Bangkok-to-Siem Reap road and Cham Yeam near the coast. This is a border closure, not a problem with your eVisa: the visa is perfectly valid, there is just no open Thai crossing to present it at. If your trip pairs the two countries, connect them by air. Bangkok to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, or Sihanoukville are all short, frequent flights, and your Cambodia eVisa is accepted the moment you land at the Cambodian airport.
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- No — every one of the seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders has been closed since June 2025, and the closure is still in force in 2026 with no confirmed reopening date.
- The classic overland route — Bangkok to Siem Reap by minibus across Poipet — does not run in 2026. You connect the two countries by air instead.
- The closure is a border issue, not a visa issue. Your Cambodia eVisa is valid; there is simply no open Thai crossing to use it at.
- Vietnam and Laos land crossings remain open and eVisa-eligible, so a broader Indochina loop is still doable overland — only the Thailand legs are off the table.
- For air entry, your eVisa works at Techo International (KTI), Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI), and Sihanouk (KOS) — plus a separate, mandatory e-Arrival Card, 14 fields, $5 USD verified through us, filed within 7 days before you fly.
The short answer, and why it changed in 2026
If you are reading older guides or message-board threads, you will find a confident, well-worn route: train or bus from Bangkok, cross the land border at Poipet, carry on to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat the same day. For years that was one of the most popular overland trips in Southeast Asia. In 2026 it does not run. Every Thailand-Cambodia land border has been closed since June 2025, and the closure has held steady ever since.
This catches US travelers out because nothing about it is obvious until you are standing at the crossing. Your flights into Thailand are normal, your Cambodia eVisa is approved and sitting in your inbox, and on paper the plan looks fine. The problem is purely the border itself — it is physically shut to overland tourist traffic, so there is nowhere to present the visa even though the document is valid. Plan around the old map and you can lose a day, a connection, or the whole leg of your trip.
I head the Cambodia Airports & Arrivals desk here, and the Thailand land closure is one of the most frequent surprises I field from Americans mid-planning. This guide lays out exactly which crossings are affected, why the closure happened, what it means for your itinerary, and the air-and-overland routes that do work in 2026. When you are ready, you can apply and have your eVisa as a printable PDF before you finalize a single booking. For the full picture, our guide on the Cambodia eVisa entry points for US citizens maps every airport and crossing your visa actually works at, and the main Cambodia visa for US citizens hub pulls the rest together.
All seven crossings, and which ones you were probably planning to use
When the border closed in June 2025, it closed in full. This was not a single checkpoint going dark while others stayed open — all seven of the official Thailand-Cambodia land crossings shut to ordinary tourist traffic at the same time. If your route depended on any one of them, it depended on a crossing that is currently not operating for travelers entering Cambodia by land.
Two of them are the ones US travelers almost always have in mind. Poipet, opposite Aranyaprathet, is the big one — it is the crossing on the Bangkok-to-Siem Reap road, the gateway that carried the backpacker overland route for two decades. Cham Yeam, near the coast opposite Hat Lek, is the second most common, used by travelers running the Bangkok-to-Sihanoukville or Koh Kong beach route. Both are closed. The remaining crossings are smaller and more regional, but the rule is uniform: none of them are open for tourist land entry into Cambodia in 2026.
The important nuance is that this is geography, not paperwork. Your Cambodia eVisa is a valid single-entry document the day it is approved — the closure does not touch the visa at all. There is simply no open Thai land crossing where you can hand it over right now. That distinction matters because the fix is not a different visa or a workaround at the border; it is a different way of getting into the country. Our breakdown of
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Is the Cambodia-Thailand land border open in 2026?
No. All seven Thailand-Cambodia land borders have been closed since June 2025 and remain closed in 2026, with no confirmed reopening date. You cannot cross overland from Thailand into Cambodia on any visa right now, including the Poipet crossing on the Bangkok-to-Siem Reap road. If your trip pairs the two countries, fly the leg — Bangkok to Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, or Sihanoukville are all short flights, and your eVisa is accepted the moment you land.
Can I cross into Cambodia by land from Thailand with an eVisa?
No, but not because of the visa. Your Cambodia eVisa is valid; the Thailand land crossings are physically closed to tourist entry, so there is no open border where you can present it. The fix is not a different visa — it is to fly the Thailand leg into one of the three Cambodian airports (KTI, SAI, or KOS), where your eVisa is accepted on arrival.
Why did the Cambodia-Thailand border close?
The closure stems from a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia that escalated in mid-2025, after which both sides sealed the land crossings to ordinary travelers. For tourists the politics matter less than the practical result: the gates have been shut for about a year and there is no confirmed date for them to reopen. Plan as though they will stay closed for your trip.
Is the Poipet border crossing open?
No. Poipet, opposite Aranyaprathet on the Bangkok-to-Siem Reap road, is the busiest of the seven crossings and has been closed along with all the others since June 2025. The old overland route from Bangkok to Siem Reap through Poipet does not run for tourist entry in 2026. Fly Bangkok to Siem Reap instead — it is about an hour and lands you right by the temples.
How do I get from Thailand to Cambodia in 2026?
By air. Bangkok connects directly to all three Cambodian airports: Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI) for Angkor Wat, Techo International (KTI) for Phnom Penh, and Sihanouk International (KOS) for the south coast. The flights are short and frequent, and your Cambodia eVisa is accepted on arrival at each one. There is no open land route between the two countries at the moment.
Can I still do an overland Indochina loop through Cambodia?
Yes, with one adjustment. The Vietnam and Laos land crossings remain open and eVisa-eligible — Bavet and Kaam Samnor from Vietnam, Trapeang Kriel from southern Laos — so a Vietnam-to-Cambodia or Laos-to-Cambodia overland leg works fine. The only segment off the table is the Thailand land border, which is closed. Fly that leg, and the rest of the loop is still doable by land.
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