Cambodia Solo Female Traveller: 2026 First-Trip Guide for Aussie Women

Why Cambodia is a sensible first solo trip for Aussie women in 2026

If this is your first proper solo trip out of Australia, Cambodia is one of the smoother places to start. It is a slower, gentler country than the comparisons people will throw at you back home. The hustle in Phnom Penh is real but it is not aggressive in the way the rougher pockets of Delhi or Mexico City can feel — and outside the two big cities, the pace drops to something close to coastal NSW. Tourist infrastructure has been built around solo travellers and small groups for two decades, so you are not the first Aussie woman to walk into a Siem Reap hostel on her own. You will not feel like an oddity.

The other thing worth saying up front: English is widely spoken in every place you are likely to go on a first trip. Hostel staff, tuk-tuk drivers, temple guides, restaurant servers, pharmacy staff — almost all of them have working English in Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Kampot, and Battambang. You can navigate the country with no Khmer at all, which removes the single biggest stress point of a first solo trip in Asia.

This guide assumes you are sorting the paperwork first. Cambodia eVisa is $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in, Approved in 3 business days, Delivered as a printable PDF by email, with Aussie-timezone support if anything needs to be re-checked. If you are still working out whether you actually need a visa, the pillar on whether Australians need a Cambodia visa covers it end to end, and the first-trip planning checklist is the bigger sister of this article if you want the country-wide overview. Our Cambodia visa requirements for Australians pulls all the pieces — cost, documents, processing — into one place.

The honest safety reality for a solo Aussie woman

Let us be specific instead of vague. Cambodia is not Switzerland, but it is also not the place your nervous relative thinks it is. The threats a solo female traveller will actually encounter on a typical 10-to-14-day Cambodia trip are: opportunistic phone-snatching from passing motorbikes (most common in Phnom Penh's BKK1 and riverside areas), bag-grabbing from tuk-tuks if you ride with the bag on the open side, and the occasional pushy tout outside Angkor Wat. Violent crime against tourists is rare. Verbal harassment is uncommon and usually mild when it does happen.

Compared to other beginner Asia options, Cambodia sits very near the top of the safety table for solo women. It is generally calmer than parts of India (less staring, less photo-taking without consent, less crowding into your personal space), and a long way safer than the higher-risk Latin America benchmarks Aussie women sometimes consider for a first trip. It is broadly comparable to Vietnam and Laos, slightly softer than the Philippines in the cities, and similar to rural Thailand outside the party zones.

The Smartraveller advisory currently sits Cambodia at 'exercise normal safety precautions' — the lowest tier on the four-step Australian Government scale, the same level as Japan, the UK, and most of Western Europe. That is the headline number to take to your family if they are worried.

Female-friendly hostel anchors for the first three nights

A solo first-trip works better if your first three or four nights are at a known-quantity hostel rather than a random booking. You want female-only dorms or affordable private singles, 24/7 reception, secure lockers, a working bar/restaurant on site so dinner does not require leaving the building, and a critical mass of other solo female travellers to make friends with. The four below are the ones Aussie women repeatedly recommend.

Phnom Penh

Mad Monkey Phnom Penh sits in the BKK1 area, which is the safest and most walkable inner-city neighbourhood — coffee shops, small bars, and the Australian Embassy are all within a 15-minute walk. The rooftop bar is the de facto solo-traveller meeting room of Phnom Penh. They run female-only dorms and small private rooms, and the reception is staffed around the clock. Realistic rates are $9–14 USD (~$14–21 AUD) for a female dorm bed and $35–55 USD (~$53–84 AUD) for a private. The chain is Aussie-founded, so the vibe leans familiar.

Onederz Phnom Penh is the quieter, more design-led alternative two streets over — a converted French colonial townhouse with a small rooftop pool, female-only pod dorms with lockable curtains, and a lobby cafe that opens at 6am for the early Angkor-to-Phnom-Penh bus arrivals. Rates $11–16 USD (~$17–24 AUD) for the female dorm, $45–70 USD (~$69–107 AUD) for a private. Slightly more grown-up energy than Mad Monkey if you want to sleep before midnight.

Siem Reap

Bloom Garden Guesthouse is the gentle landing spot in Siem Reap — a small family-run property a 10-minute tuk-tuk from Pub Street, with a leafy garden, a long pool, and a kitchen that does the best Khmer breakfast in town for $4 USD (~$6 AUD). Private singles run $25–40 USD (~$38–61 AUD) and they will arrange a trusted tuk-tuk driver for the Angkor day. Not technically a hostel but the same solo-friendly social atmosphere.

The Siem Reap Hostel is the louder, more social option closer to Pub Street if you want the standard backpacker-meets-Angkor experience. Female-only dorms with proper privacy curtains, a pool, and the morning Angkor tuk-tuk pickups all leave from reception so you do not need to negotiate at 4:30am in the dark. Female dorm $7–12 USD (~$11–18 AUD), private $30–45 USD (~$46–69 AUD).

Tuk-tuks, Grab, PassApp — how to actually move around

Cambodia has two ride-hailing apps that work the way Uber does in Australia. PassApp is the local one, dominant in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, with the largest tuk-tuk and remorque fleet. Grab is the Southeast Asian regional app, smaller fleet but useful as a backup. Both let you pay by card or in-app credit, both log the trip, both rate the driver. Install both before you fly out of Sydney or Melbourne — Cambodian SIM and the apps work on Aussie phones with no fuss.

The booking-from-the-app rule matters more after dark. Street tuk-tuks during the day are fine and often cheaper, and the drivers parked outside the major hostels are vetted by the hostel. The risk is the late-night tout who appears outside a bar or restaurant offering a 'cheap' fare — that is when the bag-grab and overcharging scenarios concentrate. Stick with the apps after 9pm and the realistic problem set drops to almost nothing.

Inter-city transport between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is the Giant Ibis bus ($15–18 USD / ~$23–27 AUD, 6 hours, three departures a day) or the Cambodia Angkor Air or Sky Angkor flight ($65–95 USD / ~$99–145 AUD, 45 minutes). Solo female travellers tend to prefer Giant Ibis for the daylight crossing — wi-fi on board, a single rest stop, drop-off at the central Siem Reap office not a kerbside on the outskirts. The Cambodia airports guide covers KTI (the new Phnom Penh airport), SAI (Siem Reap), and KOS (Sihanoukville) end to end.

Dress code at Angkor and beyond — what actually works

Angkor Wat and the main temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park enforce a covered-shoulders-and-knees rule. The guards at Phnom Bakheng (the sunset temple), the upper level of Angkor Wat, and Ta Prohm will turn you away if your shoulders or knees are exposed, or if your fabric is see-through. They do not bargain on this. Aussie women in singlets and short shorts are the most common turn-aways at the ticket gate — do not be that person.

What works in the heat: a light long-sleeve linen shirt (white or stone-coloured), loose linen or cotton pants that hit below the knee, and closed-toe walking shoes or sturdy sandals. A sarong or large light scarf packed in your day-bag is the universal backup — wrap it over shorts to cover the knees, or over shoulders if you forget the long-sleeve. This is also the smart sun-and-mozzie kit, and the look that does not scream 'first day in country' at the temple touts.

Outside the temples and the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh (which has the same dress code), Cambodia is much more relaxed than the dress rules suggest. Hostels, restaurants, bars, beaches, Pub Street — wear what you wear in Bondi or St Kilda in summer. The conservative dress only matters at the religious sites and at the Royal Palace, not on the street.

Visa logistics — the simplest part of the trip

The eVisa is the easy bit of a first solo trip. One online application, three uploads (passport bio scan, passport photo, and your itinerary), and the PDF lands in your email a few days later. The headline numbers: $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in, Approved in 3 business days, Delivered as a printable PDF by email, single-entry, 30 days stay, valid for 3 months from issue.

The process is the same for solo travellers as for couples or families — no special solo-female form. Apply on the name printed on the MRZ (machine-readable zone) of your Australian passport, upload a passport-style photo on a white background, and the eVisa PDF that comes back gets printed twice (one in your day-bag, one in your check-in). The Australian application walkthrough takes you field-by-field if you want the longer version.

Every application is Checked end-to-end before it reaches Immigration, with Free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction — the most common one is a photo that does not quite hit the white-background rule, which is fixed in a few minutes by sending a re-take rather than starting over. Aussie-timezone support means the desk replies during AEST hours, not the small hours of the morning.

Putting it together — a realistic 10-day solo shape

The clean first-trip shape: 2 nights Phnom Penh (Mad Monkey or Onederz), Giant Ibis bus to Siem Reap, 4 nights Siem Reap (Bloom Garden or The Siem Reap Hostel) including the full 3-day Angkor pass, then a flight or bus down to Kampot or Koh Rong for 3 nights of slower pace, then back to Phnom Penh for the flight home. The 7-day itinerary for Aussies is the leaner version, the 14-day itinerary stretches the same shape across two weeks if you have more time.

A final note on the bigger picture for solo Aussie women. Smartraveller's Cambodia page is worth a five-minute read before you book — particularly the section on petty theft and on the southern islands, which run on small-boat schedules that tighten in green season. The Thailand–Cambodia land borders remain closed for 2026, so every Aussie itinerary now starts with a flight in and out, not an overland loop. If you have any edge-case worries (medical, lost passport, name mismatch), the Aussie edge-case guide covers them.

Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa after approval for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.