Holiday Palace Hotel and Casino was extremely nice in my opinion. A classy place near Victory beach with an ocean view for only $15 a night. $18 or $20 on weekends.

Here is the view from my $15 room.


I thought the location was good because it is only a short distance from the beach and is somewhat midway between the port district with the Chicken Village brothel area and downtown with the Blue Mountain area. You will need a taxi or motodop to reach either area though but it is an inexpensive ride from here. It would be dangerous to leave the hotel at night on foot but security is extremely good in the hotel. No worries at all. Taxies and reliable motodops are constantly available very inexpensively. Have the doorman summon you a taxi or motodop and this insures your safety. Most local taxi drivers or motodops will steer you away from this place and usually recommend you get a place Ochheuteal beach. This is because the hotels at Ochheuteal beach pay big commissions to taxi drivers or motodops for bringing customers. It is true that Ochheuteal beach is a much nicer beach for swimming but and there are some very nice hotels there as well but they are much more expensive for the same quality and are a long ride to the mongering venues. The ride from Ochheuteal beach is dangerous at night as well. Best to ride to Ochheuteal beach for swimming during the day and stay closer to the action at night.

The building is very modern and nicely decorated in a classy decor. There is allot of beautiful woodwork that is no doubt the result of clear cutting miles of rain forest. The lobby is very nice an has 24 hour security, doorman, safe deposit boxes, and a nice restaurant. The elevators work better than most I have seen in Asia and there are actually 2 of them which is quite amazing to me after the really crappy slow elevators I keep running into in Pattaya.

Rooms are newly furnished and in excellent condition. For $15 you get Refrigerator, Satellite TV with HBO, nice bathroom, good air conditioning. I got a room with two beds which I later pushed together to create a large play area.





There seems to be no guest policy. I paraded in 2 girls every night and never got more than a wink from the security guard.

There is also a Casino downstairs which I never checked out because I'm not a gambler.

Your safety is assured because they have very strict rules at the casino.

Wow quite a deal Sancho. This looks a lot less third world than I thought. I went to Phnom Pehn and Siam Reap only and didn't go to snookie.

My $15 hotel in Sihanoukville was actually much nicer than my $25 hotel in Phnom Pehn. Of course neither match the "quaint third world charm" of my $3 hotel in Koh Kong. Sihanoukville was a mix of third world and modern conveniences. This hotel and others in the city meet or exceed western standards but driving around town you don't forget you are in a third world country.

3rd world even beats the local Motel 6.

I stayed here again. This is a very nice hotel. I would give it an honest 3 stars by western standards and even fussy travelers will be comfortable here. My only complaint this time was the bed was as hard as a rock which seems to be an Asian preference and is common in Cambodia. This time I arrived on a weekend and also a Cambodian holiday so it was $20 a night instead of $15. Still well worth it. If you are playing around in Chicken Village it is also the closest nice hotel to the port but is a bit far from downtown. I rented a motorcycle this time and was more or less comfortable making the run from the port/chicken village alone late at night. True I wound that little Honda Dream scooter out as fast as at would go and wasn't stopping for nothing but it was not to treacherous even at night.

DO NOT come from downtown approaching from the east headed west on the road the hotel is on late at night. There is serious crime on that dark stretch of road and a lone motorcyclist may get a brick in his face going by. Motodops know this and will take the main road west from downtown and then come back to the hotel headed east on the road the hotel is on, so if you use a motodop there are no worries. But if you rent a motorcycle, understand the roads before you take them late at night. DO NOT go down isolated, dark roads alone, late at night. Security at the hotel is very good and no worries there. I made the run to downtown late at night a couple of times alone and was comfortable but I know the correct, safer, long route and rode as fast as I could go.

Excellent free breakfast buffet. Very good food. My only complaint there, is for some reason they only had instant coffee.

Most of the clientele are well to do Asian gamblers, there for the casino. The parking lot is full of Lexus SUV's and if you rent a motorcycle it will be quite safe parked there at night.