Phnom Penh: Tuol Sleng & Choeung Ek Killing Fields Tour

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/22

Duration4h

GroupUp to 20

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Two Sites, One Day: Understanding Cambodia's Khmer Rouge History

You're picked up from your hotel and driven to Choeung Ek Killing Fields, where your guide explains the Khmer Rouge's execution of around 2,000 prisoners on the site. After that, you return to Phnom Penh to tour Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former prison where 20,000 people were tortured and interrogated. Hotel drop-off is included at the end of the day.

Step-by-step itinerary

Visit Killing Fields and Genocide Museum

Pick up from hotel
Drive to Choeung Ek Killing Fields
Explore Choeung Ek Genocide Center
Return to Phnom Penh
Visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
Return to hotel or guesthouse

The Experience

A guide hands you a photograph at the entrance—a black-and-white mugshot pinned to the wall of what used to be a high school. That's Tuol Sleng, or S-21 as the Khmer Rouge called it, and the person in the photo was one of 20,000 imprisoned there between 1975 and 1979. Your driver picks you up from your hotel in Phnom Penh and takes you first to Choeung Ek, about 9 miles south, where the killing fields sit quietly on what was once an orchard. The scale of it doesn't hit until you're standing there—2.5 million people were massacred and buried across Cambodia over three years, and this place holds the weight of that history in a way no number can quite capture.

At Choeung Ek, your English-speaking guide walks you through the grounds, explaining how the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot's leadership, turned a Chinese cemetery into an execution site. Around 2,000 prisoners were killed here. There's a memorial stupa filled with skulls—a physical reminder of what happened. It's heavy, and it's meant to be. After spending time there, you return to Phnom Penh to visit Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, the former high school that became a torture prison. The classrooms still have the metal beds where prisoners were chained, the photographs of victims line the walls, and the interrogation rooms are preserved as they were left. Your guide answers questions throughout the day—people often have them, and there's space for that.

The tour includes hotel pickup and drop-off, air-conditioned transportation, and cold water during the drive. It's a full day of difficult history, but it's also one of the most important ways to understand Cambodia's recent past. The guide doesn't rush you through either site; you set the pace.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup and drop-off in Phnom Penh, air-conditioned transportation with cold water, a professional English-speaking guide and driver, and entry to both Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and Choeung Ek Genocidal Center. The guide is available to answer questions throughout the tour covering Cambodia's history from 1975 to 1979.

Good to know

Easy physical levelWheelchair accessibleAccessible transportInfant seats availablePublic transport nearbyInfants must sit on laps

Operated by The Killing field and Toul Sleng genocide museum S21 Tour

Is this one for you?This tour is for anyone wanting to understand Cambodia's Khmer Rouge history without arranging transport, museum entry, or navigating the sites alone—the guide's presence and knowledge make the difficult history more comprehensible and respectful.