Killing Fields and S21 Genocide Museum Tour from Phnom Penh

This half day tour visits two sites central to understanding Cambodia's recent history: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, known as S-21, and the Choeung Ek Killing Fields. Tuol Sleng was once a high school before the Khmer Rouge converted it into a detention and interrogation centre. The museum preserves its cells, photographs and exhibits, documenting the fate of the thousands held here. From Tuol Sleng, continue to Choeung Ek, one of the country's best known killing fields, where a memorial stupa holds the remains of victims exhumed from the surrounding mass graves. In July 2025, UNESCO inscribed Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, together with the former M-13 prison, as a World Heritage Site recognising these places of repression turned sites of peace and reflection. This is a sobering, reflective visit, guided throughout to provide context and historical understanding.

1. 1

   Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

   2 hours

   Pick up from your Phnom Penh hotel by your guide and driver and transfer to the Tuol Sleng Museum (Prison S21). During the Pol Pot regime, Tuol Sleng, formerly a high school (Tuol Svay Pre School) was converted to a detention centre known as S21. After interrogation and often torture, prisoners were transferred to The Killing Fields, where they were tortured again and brutally killed. Today the building houses exhibit paintings and photographs of many of the victims. Visitors can see the crude cells built in the classrooms and the torture devices used to extract confessions in Stalinesque purges of the regime in the late 1970s. Do expect a sobering visit, where the building houses exhibits, paintings and photographs of many of the victims indicating its harrowing past.

2. 2

   Stop 2

   2 hours

   We end the morning/afternoon at the Killing Fields at Cheung Ek, located just outside the city centre, seen as a depressing experience of the harsh reality of this part of Khmer history. It was a Chinese Cemetery before it became the Khmer Rouge’s best known Killing Field. The remains of almost 9,000 bodies have been excavated from mass graves in this area. A memorial stupa has been erected and displays over 5,000 human skulls, bones and clothes of the victims. During the Khmer Rouge years, thousands of Cambodians were tortured and imprisoned in detention centres around the country. A visit to this sobering site reveals the photos documenting its checkered past, and the pagoda that was converted into a prison during the regime that is now a monastery. We return you to your hotel either at around noon (in case you have chosen the morning tour) or at around 6 pm if you decide to book this tour in the afternoon. The total duration of this tour is approximately 4 hours.

• Infants are required to sit on an adult’s lap
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• This tour is operated on full private basis with English-speaking guide. Other languages are on request subject to availability and supplementary charges may apply.
• Return transfers for this excursion apply only are inclusive for customers staying in and inside Phnom Penh.
• Transfers outside these areas, including any accommodation outside this area such as Koh Dach, Tonle Bati, and Oudong, any of the river and cruise ferry terminals and Phnom Penh International Airport are excluded. Supplements apply for customers who want to join this excursion outside one of these regions.
• This excursion includes obstacles of various kinds that may not make this excursion suitable for wheelchair users. The obstacles comprise of unpaved roads, small boats and cruise embarkation and disembarkation and insufficient facilities to provide a comfortable sightseeing tour.

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.