Raffles Hotel Le Royal

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  • Rooms

    17.0

  • Service

    19.0

  • Public Spaces

    18.5

  • Overall

    18.0

• 2 Guest Reviews

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Style: Contemporary Classic

Atmosphere: Secluded

208 Rooms

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Don’t laugh. Phnom Penh is a tourist destination once again. It is not a town for the faint of heart, however—it is dusty and challenging and strange - just ask the weary expat journalists who prop up the bar at the Foreign Correspondents Club. Meanwhile, lush antique silks line the bazaars, and the market for rubies just can’t be beat.

The place to stay, of course, is the Hotel Le Royal. Since 1930, the vanilla-colored confection has been the hotel of choice for jet setters like Jackie O, Andre Malraux, and W. Somerset Maugham. Later, journalists Sydney Schanberg and Jon Swain (of Killing Fields fame) would stay here while they were covering the Khmer Rouge. Around Le Royal has always hung an air of romance and danger, a poetic symbol of a dying Indochine—mazelike corridors, strange plants in the courtyard, men in Panama hats drinking rum punch and exhaling cigarette smoke into the heavy air.

Today, the elegance of Le Royal stands out in vivid contrast to the filth of the streets around it—as does the price, which, at over 200 dollars a night, is four times the average monthly wage. During the Communist eighties, the hotel fell into disrepair. The swimming pool where Jackie O once swam was plugged with leaves and the plumbing stopped working.

Opinion, however, is divided on its newly renovated, super-luxe state. Some find it exquisite, some find it sterile in comparison to its lyrical past incarnation. There are some nice non-communist additions, like a spa and working toilets and the slick Art Deco lobby is impressive. If you can, stay in the original building, which is splendid, rather than in the two new wings. The best rooms are the Jackie O and Landmark suite,s with their real Persian rugs and Deco period furnishings including Cambodian curios, canopy beds, and claw-footed bathtubs.

Phnom Penh is a necessary stop for anyone going to Cambodia—not just as a stopover to the gorgeous temple of Angkor, but for the glimpses that it offers of this country’s horrifying and yet often beautiful history. That said, Le Royal is still Phnom Penh’s best hotel by far. It’s the best located—just steps away from the Royal Palace and the museum, which constitute the most picturesque parts of the town. It’s also the hottest, as its bars remain open after the rest of the town shuts at sundown. And, with walls thick enough to hold former PM Price Ruanaidh, it’s the safest. And for that reason, Le Royal may not just be the best hotel, it may just be the only hotel in which you should consider staying.

How to get there:

Raffles Hotel Le Royal is a 20 minute drive from Pochentong International Airport. Please contact customerservice@tablethotels.com to arrange airport transfers by the hotel's chauffeured BMW limousine service. Please make your reservations in advance.