Getting from Koh Rong Samloem to Sihanoukville: A traveler review

The islands just off the south coast of Cambodia, Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem, are incredibly popular with tourists and backpackers. However, they’re also pretty expensive, which is why we decided to just head there for the day.

We’d already paid a brief visit to Koh Rong from Sihanoukville and then we’d spent a few hours on Samloem, but now it was time to head back to Sihanoukville via another Buva Sea High Speed Ferry. 

Ferry impressive

After a few hours exploring the beautiful white sand of the Koh Rong Samloem beaches, we made our way to Orchid Pier just before 3:00 pm in time to get the boat back to Sihanoukville.

While usually I’m pretty anxious to get to bus stations very early when travelling via land in Southeast Asia, I was reluctant to leave the beautiful beach in Samloem so we waited as long as we could before heading to the pier.

I showed the Buva Sea staff member our booking confirmation number, and as we didn’t have any bags, we promptly sat down at the side of the pier and waited a few minutes until it was time to go.

We were pleasantly surprised that it was a much smaller boat than the one we’d taken from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong, which meant we weren’t packed in like sardines for this journey as there wasn’t nearly as many people; this is always a bonus if you struggle with seasickness!

Pro tip: It’s a good idea to pick up some anti-sickness tablets if you’ll be travelling via boat a lot in Southeast Asia as the sea can get quite choppy and most of the boats are very hot as there’s usually so many people packed into one small, confined space. 

At 3:00 pm sharp, we hopped on the boat with numerous other travellers and it was so nice to know that it was all running on time; yet another bonus and something that doesn’t often happen when travelling in Cambodia!

The boat journey itself was remarkably pleasant. There were barely any waves on the day we travelled so we were very lucky that the boat didn’t rock too much. The weather was a little cloudy however, so the sea views weren’t quite as picturesque as they usually are, but it was still nice enough anyway.

If the journey hadn’t gone so quickly, I could have very easily dozed off as we sailed through the sea. We made it back to Sihanoukville in just over half an hour so the wind definitely must have been on our side!

The boat pulled into Serendipity Pier in Sihanoukville (also known as Ou Chheuteal Beach) just after 3:30 pm and we swiftly disembarked the boat and made our way back towards the city.

We were originally planning on getting a tuk tuk via PassApp back to our accommodation in Sihanoukville but we couldn’t find any free Wi-Fi and the local tuk tuk drivers were trying to charge four times the price of booking one via PassApp so we decided to walk instead.

Pro tip: Consider picking up a local SIM card in Cambodia so that you always have access to data in order to book a tuk tuk via PassApp. We didn’t get a SIM card in Cambodia but I’m sure it would have made things a lot easier for us! 

Overall, I really couldn’t believe how quick and easy the Buva Sea High Speed Ferry was from Koh Rong Samloem to Sihanoukville. It went by in a blink of an eye and was definitely one of the best and quickest boat journeys we’ve experienced in the last 10+ months of travelling.