Koh Russey, Cambodia

Koh Russey Resort

Price per night from$146.33

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (USD146.33), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Teak sleek villas

Setting

Bamboo Island idyll

An emerald isle off the coast of Cambodia, Koh Russey Resort is high-spec hideaway close to the forest-flanked mountains of Bokor National Park. It’s a short speedboat ride from the mainland to this private paradise, which was once a navy outpost, though nowadays the sailors are long gone and discerning travellers are in on the secret. The airy pavilions and villas are teak-lined temples – the latter have private pools – with outdoor lounges and direct access to the beach. No detail has been spared – head up for a bird’s-eye view of the terraced pools in the shape of Angkor Wat…

Smith Extra

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Gourmet set dinner for two

Facilities

Photos Koh Russey Resort facilities

Need to know

Rooms

63, including 13 villas.

Check–Out

11am; earliest check-in, 2pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability and an additional charge.

Prices

Double rooms from £143.05 ($181), including tax at 23.42 per cent.

More details

Rates include a la carte breakfast at the Horizon restaurant.

Also

The hotel can pack you off with a gourmet picnic to have on your own patch of this island paradise – or do it yourself after enrolling in a Khmer cooking class.

At the hotel

Beach, gym, yoga, watersports. In rooms: free WiFi, air-conditioning, free bottled water, tea-making kit, Nespresso coffee machine, flatscreen TV and local bath products. Villas also have a pool deck with loungers and a cabana with a sunbed, and a pantry.

Our favourite rooms

Every room has some serious design credentials, especially the honeymooner-approved one-bedroom beachfront villas, designed for indoor-outdoor living with private pools, a deck and a lanai; you can see the sea and the sand is just steps away; they also have huge bathrooms. Pavilions are differentiated by view and storey – beachfront and ocean-front options edge ahead with easy beach/garden access on the ground floor, plus an outdoor bath tub with your ensuite. There are two-bedroom villas for families and four-bedroom villas for groups.

Poolside

There’s an infinity pool by the beach, with loungers, palm trees and parasols, as well as some Angkor Wat-referencing architecture (open 7am–6pm).

Spa

The spa has five treatment rooms, including one for couples, for rituals that blend the best of Asian and Western therapies, such as Balinese massage, Khmer-inspired herbal detox scrubs and avocado-based hair treatments.

Packing tips

This is a case of desert-island chic: bring castaway classics and marooned must-haves.

Also

The hotel isn’t easily navigable for wheelchair users.

Pet‐friendly

No pets are allowed at this upscale island stay. See more pet-friendly hotels in Koh Russey.

Children

Welcome: under-12s are charged as children. The hotel can provide cots and baby monitors, but there's no kids club or crèche.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel is set among established plants and trees, carefully conserved by the grounds team. There's no single use plastic at Koh Russey: bath products are full size and refillable, drinks are in glass bottles or cans (both then recycled). Lights in public areas work on an (energy-conserving) timer system, and wood in some areas has been sourced from fallen timber or driftwood. The hotel works with regional suppliers for food and drink where possible and used cooking oil is sold for upcycling.

Food and Drink

Photos Koh Russey Resort food and drink

Top Table

The tables closest to the pool at Horizon are the perfect perch for watching the sun go down.

Dress Code

Barefoot luxury

Hotel restaurant

There are two: the poolside Horizon has a Khmer/Asian focus with some international dishes: many of the ingredients are plucked straight from the hotel’s organic garden, and you can also expect the local fishermen’s daily catch to be on the menu. Breakfast at Horizon is a daily changing, diverse affair, whether you fancy huevos rancheros, bread pudding or Middle Eastern puff pastries. If flame-charred seafood paddles your kayak, head to thatch-roofed Beach Shack, where a bar in the sand centres around the seafood grill with a choice of more typical Western comfort food (burgers et al) and salads also on offer. To mark a special occasion (or just for the romance of it), you can also a seafront private dinner at a pagoda on the sand. Children are welcome in both restaurants, where you’ll find dedicated menus and highchairs but no changing facilities.

Hotel bar

Beach Shack is the best place for sundowners with a sandy floor.

Last orders

Horizon opens for breakfast, 7am–10am; lunch, noon–3pm, and dinner, 6pm–9.30pm. Beach Shack is open for lunch and dinner between noon and 3pm, then 6pm–9.30pm.

Room service

A dedicated room service menu is available

Location

Photos Koh Russey Resort location
Address
Koh Russey Resort
Russey Island, Ong Village
Prey Nup District
18108
Cambodia

You’ll find Koh Russey Resort on the island of Koh Russey, a short boat ride from the Cambodian coast.

Planes

The closest airport is Sihanoukville, a 10-minute drive away, followed by a 10-minute boat trip; shared transfers are US$60.5 round trip per room; private transfers are US$80 a round trip. You can also land 200 kilometres away in Phnom Penh. There are direct flights between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville daily; the flight time is 45 minutes. Please note that speedboats have a 20-person maximum capacity. Transfer times are as follows: 1.30pm and 2.30pm from the mainland to the resort; 10am and 11.30am from the resort to the mainland.

Trains

Sihanoukville’s railway station is a 45-minute drive away; Royal Railways runs services to other cities across the country, including Kampot and Phnom Penh. Private transfers from Sihanoukville can be arranged for US$60 for a round-trip booking.

Automobiles

The centre of Sihanoukville is 45 minutes away by car. You won’t need a car to get around the island, and if you arrive in one, you’ll have to leave it on the mainland (the hotel car park is on Ream Beach, from where it’s a speedy 10-minute speedboat trip to Koh Russey).

Other

Regular boat shuttles cross the waters to Ream, where you can get around by taxi, tuk tuk, motorbike or bicycle. Private boat transfers are available for $80 each way, and the team can arrange helicopter transfers.

Worth getting out of bed for

There’s lots to see and do on this private island, whether you fancy standing up on a paddle-board or slumping at the spa. The hotel has an outdoor cinemayoga studio and an organic garden to check out. The concierge can also arrange trips to the other islands in the archipelago, and back to mainland ReamTake a day trip to the mountain-flanked Kampot Town to see the colonial shophouses on the riverside, then head east through the countryside to visit the Phnom Chhngok Cave Temple, a seventh-century Hindu shrine surrounded by limestone caves and an eagle-shaped rock formation. Ascend to the French hill station within the peak-filled, jungle-covered Bokor National Park; these colonial buildings were used as a Gallic mountain retreat in the 1920s. While you’re there, don’t miss the staggered Popokvil Waterfall. Crustacean fans should check out the Kep Crab Market in the namesake quiet coastal town, where the various stalls will cook the freshly caught arthropods just the way you like them. Find peace (and great views) at the Ream Pagoda.

Local restaurants

You’re marooned in paradise, so it’s the resort’s restaurants or a trip to the mainland for dinner.

Reviews

Photos Koh Russey Resort reviews

Anonymous review

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this luxury hotel in Cambodia and unpacked their swimsuits and snorkels, a full account of their beach-side break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Koh Russey Resort in Sihanoukville

If you’re looking for spectacular modern architecture, you’ve come to the right place. Jaws will hit the floor regularly on Koh Russey, or ‘bamboo island’, whether it’s at the open-air reception’s lattice shroud, the Angkor Wat-shaped terraced pools or the water-feature-edged Horizon restaurant. Inside, the flat-roofed villas have hardwood floors, volcanic stone and wooden screens, with white walls, gunmetal-grey accents and colourful ikat cushions. Outside, the lush landscape largely pre-dates the resort, so you can expect huge old palm trees and plenty of jungle to explore. There’s a whole island to adventure around, whether you want to pack up a picnic and find a secluded patch of sand, practise yoga, enrol in a Khmer cooking class or dine under the stars. Koh Russey once belonged to the navy, but the sailors have moved on. Now it’s all yours…

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Price per night from $146.33