Karma Traders - The Best Hostel in Kampot
Hostels can be a backpacker's best friend or worst enemy. A great hostel is a hub for travellers exploring and making the most of a new place. Karma Traders of Kampot is a perfect example of an amazing hostel. Social and fun whilst being relaxed and unforced, read our article to find out why a four day stay turned into a weeklong love affair!
Let us tell you about Karma Traders Hostel of Kampot - A good hostel is a valuable thing, it is your base, hub and homeroom for your travels. A hostel can make or break a trip, so choosing the best hostel is important. For us budget backpackers it can be a hard choice picking between hostels, hotels and guesthouses, especially if you are a little past your three-am clubbing days! You want social and fun but no vomit in the corridors, you want comfy beds but at a good price, most of all you want a great launch pad into an area. Karma Traders of Kampot was all of the above and more.
Our oasis in Kampot - Karma Traders
The town of Kampot is a magnet for backpackers, digital nomads, expats and travellers from all over world. With gorgeous national parks, the beaches and seafood of Kep close by, and loads of things to do and see, it is a natural hub for southern Cambodia. There are plenty of places to stay in Kampot but we loved our time at Karma Traders. We were not bribed or asked to write this article, we just think you should know about what may be, the best hostel in Cambodia!
Karma Traders is the hostel other hostels want to be when they grow up. Neat comfortable dorms, excellent private rooms, a swimming pool and rooftop bar and restaurant. Every aspect of hostel life has been thought about and honed.
We checked in for four days and wound up staying for eight - Read on to find out why!
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links. Please note that we have not been asked to, incentivised or otherwise given anything to write this article, we just had an amazing time at Karma Traders and wanted to share it with you!
Where is Kampot and the Karma Traders Hostel?
Kampot town or Krong Kampot is right down in the south of Cambodia. The capital of Phnom Penh is three hours to the north of Kampot and the historic city of Siem Reap (check out our guide to the town here and the amazing ruins of Angkor here) is thirteen hours away by bus. Set a little way inland along the Preaek Tuek Chhu river, Kampot is a relaxed, small city popular with backpackers, nomads and expats alike.
Overflowing with chilled out vibes, dining choices and nearby attractions, Kampot is a common stop on most Cambodian travel itineraries. Located only a short 40 minute drive from the seaside resort town of Kep with other beaches nearby as well as national parks and Bokor hill, Kampot is a great hub for exploring an interesting corner of Cambodia.
The town of Kampot itself has loads to offer. From museums and famous statues to markets, bars and brunch spots there is plenty to see, do, eat and drink. Kampot’s French colonial history is on display everywhere, from the distinctive architecture of the buildings to the French restaurants scattered throughout town.
For our complete guide to the town make sure you read our article:
As we said above, Kampot has long been popular with digital nomads, backpackers and expats. This has disadvantages: it is hardly an undiscovered gem, Kampot is firmly “on the beaten path” and some of the downtown bars are decidedly seedy. However, there are advantages: wherever there are backpackers and digital nomads there will also be coffee and brunch. Kampot has loads of gorgeous cafe’s, restaurants and eateries and is a great place to treat yourself and take a break from Cambodian cuisine.
The stylish and excellent Cafe Espresso Roastery in Kampot - Their bagels are amazing!
Karma Traders is a little way out of town, but still within walking distance of the shops, cafes and bars of Kampot. The hostel is a five minute drive or 15-20 minute walk from the downtown area, close enough that it is no effort to walk in for a breakfast whilst being secluded enough to still feel like an oasis. You can find the hostel here on a map.
Staying at Karma Traders - The Rooms
Despite being very budget conscious long term backpackers, we usually go for private rooms wherever we go. This apparent splurge is for many reasons, the most basic being, surprisingly, economy. Two beds in a dorm is usually around the same price or sometimes even more expensive than one private double bed. Also, if we have a private place to retreat to we will generally spend less time and money in cafes and bars! Another reason for private rooms is that, no matter how we sometimes act, we are not 18 any more! We love people and chatting with fellow travellers but do not love forced sharing of personal space or not being able to detach at the end of a day. We like company but love being able to go back to our own space at the end of the night. Given all of that, it should come as no surprise that we opted for a private room.
Private Rooms at Karma Traders
The private rooms at Karma traders were fantastic. Large rooms with comfy double beds, plenty of pillows with a powerful air-conditioning unit and a separate remote controlled fan. We had a kettle for emergency pot noodles, a dresser for admiring ourselves, a large hanger for our clothes and, probably most importantly, a private bathroom.
The bathroom was your standard South East Asian wet room with a western toilet and a power shower. It was not one of those boiler showers you have to turn on and wait fifteen minutes for it to charge up, you just switched the power on and showered away. This is especially important when there are two of you - John has had to have many a cold shower in the past after princess had taken all the hot water. Another small bonus of the private rooms is that you get towels included in the price.
The private room we stayed in was in one of the out buildings surrounding the pool. It was quiet and really well insulated - we hardly ever needed to use the aircon, even in the muggy heat of the wet season. Other private rooms are set in converted shipping containers around the pool area.
Our quiet outbuilding and comfy private room at Karma Traders
We visited in the low season and the private rooms were very well priced at $14.00 a night for the “deluxe double”. You could have got a slightly smaller double room about $1.00 a night cheaper. The price will vary in other seasons.
To book a room at Karma Traders click here
Dorm Rooms at Karma Traders
First things first, as should be obvious from the above - We did not stay in the dorms! However, we did have a look them and spoke with some fellow travellers. The beds (bunk beds) were large and comfy and came with personal fans and plug sockets. Each dorm has air-conditioning as well as the personal fans. There are lockers all around to secure your personal property and there are always staff around.
The shared bathrooms can get busy and suffer from some of the traditional problems of hostel bathrooms (lack of privacy and getting a little worse for wear after busy nights in the bar) but were regularly cleaned. If you stay in a dorm you either need to use your own towel or rent one from reception with a $5 deposit.
The major upside of the dorm’s according to those we spoke to, was the social conviviality they gave. Most of the groups in the bar upstairs, or leaving on trips from the lobby, had been formed in the dorms.
The beds come in two forms, there are the traditional bunk beds with a curtain and more self contained “pods”. The pods offer more privacy than the bunks but cost a little bit more. The traditional dorm beds are housed in one of the outer buildings converted out of shipping containers.
As we have said we cannot really give you a proper review of the dorms as we didn’t sleep a night in them and we are usually biased towards private rooms. If you have a group of buddies you are travelling with or are a solo traveller looking to make some friends, a dorm makes a lot of sense. If you do stay in the Karma Traders dorms let us know how it went in the comments!
Dorms at Karma Traders cost around $3.5 - $5.00 depending on dorm size, season and bed / pod.
You can book your bed in a dorm room here
Facilities at Karma Traders - What is at the hostel?
Karma Traders had loads to keep us occupied whilst we were based in Kampot. There is a large pool and funky pool bar outside. This got less use from us than it deserved as we were visiting in the heart of the wet season and were getting drenched enough without even entering the swimming pool. We would love to go back in the dry season as the pool and pool bar would be great for lounging around in the sun. There are small lawns and other chill out areas outside and even a slack-line, for those with better balance than us!
The pool and outside bar would be brilliant in the drier months!
On the middle floor of the main building is the first “common room” with comfy chairs , board games, a balcony and an ever popular ping-pong table. On this and the ground floor are some of the hostel’s dorm rooms.
Above the first common room was the rooftop, which served as bar, restaurant and hub for the whole hostel. Open on all sides with views towards the mountains and the town, the rooftop has chairs and benches scattered around. This was where we spent most of our evenings. The rooftop was the hostels heart and soul, it was where everyone met, mingled and munched.
We often came up to the roof just to relax or catch up on a bit of writing.
The rooftop restaurant was one of the best bits of the hostel and we spoiled ourselves with their food on multiple occasions. Kampot has excellent food options throughout the town. There are plenty of traditional cheap Cambodian offerings as well as a wealth of great western food in Kampot. It was encouraging therefore, for us to see that the Karma Trader’s restaurant was at least as popular for take-away and deliveries as it was for dine in!
The restaurant is open all day serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. They serve a mix of Cambodian, Asian and Western dishes. They are all reasonably priced and everything we ate there was delicious. We feel bad for recommending it when there are so many great Cambodian dishes, but their carbonara was excellent! Their breakfast dishes were also stand out and are served all day for those rising late. The Cambodian sweet grilled pork and rice made for a great, filling and cheap start to the day.
The food at Karma Traders was fantastic - Just look at those mozzerlla sticks!
The restaurant / bar on the roof top holds events throughout the week. As we stayed in Karma Traders for a full week we got to join in with all of them. We had a great open mic night, involving some fantastic Radiohead covers. There was a cocktail and live music night, a pub quiz and, best of all, there was ‘Taco Tuesdays’. Again, we feel bad that, in a country with as great a cuisine as Cambodia, in a town with the culinary reputation of Kampot, we are recommending Tex-Mex... Just believe us that they are so good that we couldn’t let you miss out. Also there is only so much lok-lac, borbor and kuy teav, we could enjoy without having a little Western break.
All set up and ready for open mic night. We did not volunteer our voices…
The bar also has a sundowner happy hour. Where draft beer drops to $0.75 and there are discounts on the cocktails. Cambodia is very cheap for beer even without the happy hour but it did give that extra reason to come up and enjoy the rooftop sunset views!
Beer and tactics at happy hour
The vibe in the bar was, like the rest of Karma Traders, social without being forced. People were there to hang out, chill, drink, eat or all of the above. It never felt like “forced fun”. We are not the most outgoing people in the world and we still found ourselves falling into conversation and drinks with strangers. It was our ideal level of sociability, chilled but fun, relaxed and inclusive without being intrusive.
The bar at Karma Traders was always one of the busiest in Kampot.
Services and Rentals at Karma Traders
Tours and Trips
Karma Traders can arrange any kind of tour or trip you may want in the Kampot and Kep areas. From the national park to the beach, the pepper fields to the salt farms they can organise drivers and tours to get you about.
There is loads to do in and around Kampot. We would highly recommend a trip to the Kep crab market for an amazing lunch. You also shouldn’t miss out on the eerie beauty of the abandoned catholic church on top of Bokor Hill in the nearby monkey-filled national park.
Make sure you read our guides to both of these days out :
You can organise a driver for this with the hostel or just rent a scooter and do it all yourselves. Speaking of which…
Scooter Rental from Karma Traders
You can rent a scooter at Karma Traders for $5.00 a day. We shopped around and couldn't get a better price than this from the nearby rental places (it almost seemed like it was the standard price). You will have to leave your passport with reception as a deposit and top up the petrol yourselves.
We had an absolute blast riding around Kampot, Kep and the national parks on our little scooter. However, we would say take them for a test drive before setting off for a day out. We had 2x scooters before finally getting one without issues. The first scooter we rented had issues with the front brake (the one you don’t need right up until you really do!) and the second scooter’s engine cut out if you accelerated too hard, which was a delight when trying to get across an intersection! Our third scooter however was perfect, we called it Goldilocks.
This scooter was not Goldilocks….
We have said it before and will say it again, if you can learn to ride a scooter confidently you should. The backpacking experience is completely different and massively better if you can ride a scooter. You are not reliant on tour guides, taxi apps or chauffeurs and tuk-tuks, everything is your decision and you can literally go anywhere.
All praise for scootering aside, don’t be an idiot. Do not ride, especially in Cambodia, if you are not confident. You are a danger to yourself and others. Make sure you have a helmet that fits and don't give in to peer pressure if you are not confident on the roads. Even if your whole dorm is renting scooters, you can always tag along with a rented driver!
Remember in Cambodia, if it is bigger than you or louder than you, then it has right of way!
If you want to see what kind of tours you can do in and around Kampot or want to book your activities in advance, check out GetYourGuide who offer the best tours in the area.
Transport to or from Kampot
Karma Traders was also really useful for booking our onward travel. For the same price we had seen online, they organised our bus transfer to Phnom Penh. This included a pickup from the hostel and transfer to the bus station which was very convenient!
One of Kampot’s glamorous bus services.
You can arrange bus transfers pretty much anywhere within Cambodia as well as internationally to Thailand, Laos or Vietnam, the lovely receptionists will help you get it sorted.
For those who want to get things booked in advance or are travelling at busy times and worried about buses booking up - We recommend 12Go . Using 12GO you can book from anywhere to anywhere so you can plan out your backpacking trip and have your transport sorted ahead of time.
Getting to Kampot:
Getting from Kampot, where to go next?
Kampot is well connected to the other major Cambodian cities and tourist hubs. Buses leave for Phnom Penh, Battambang, Siem Reap and many other places throughout the day. Just check with the reception or online at 12Go for exact timings.
Kampot is a great stop on any Cambodia backpacking adventure. For ideas on where to go next, make sure you check out our Cambodia itineraries here.
Other Services at Karma Traders
There is a laundry service at Karma traders. You can drop off your dirty clothes at reception and pick them up when they are sparkly and clean (ok maybe not sparkly unless your really into sequins). As with most hostels, laundry will cost a little more than doing it yourself or going to a laundrette. If you are in a dorm it may be that you have to use the service, but in a private room there was plenty of space to wash and dry our clothes. All the local shops sell little packets of laundry soap / detergent.
There is also a very useful mini shop next to the reception. If you need toothpaste, soap, pot noodles or paracetamol it has you covered at reasonable prices.
Finally, it is not a service but a bonus from staying at Karma Traders - The animals! Karma traders has some gorgeous hostel pets. Whilst we were there we made friends with a heavily pregnant cat (so there will be kittens soon!) and the lovely hostel dog, Peaches. Peaches was always around, either outside seeing people off on their days adventure or, in the evening, chilling with everyone in the bar. Peaches was lovely!
Hostel pups and pusses are always a great addition!
Our time at Karma Traders - thoughts from two long term backpackers
In short - we loved it.
In long - We really loved it..
Joking aside, we do not often write whole articles just about an individual accommodation. In fact (at time of writing) we have only done so once before - Roy’s amazing hostel in Sri Lanka. We have been backpacking a long time now and hostels as good as Karma Traders or Roys are rare.
We have not been asked to write this, or paid or anything. We didn't tell Karma Traders we were going to write this and the only time we mentioned that we were bloggers was after we had all had a few too many drinks. I don't think they would remember who we are! We have not been incentivised to write this at all. We just really loved it there.
You get a free t-shirt if you stay for seven days!
The staff at Karma traders were great, from the chilled out bartenders, who always had change for our awkwardly large notes, to the receptionist who helped sort our janky bikes out. The owners could frequently be found in the bar upstairs and were hilarious, full of amazing travel stories and tips for the local area.
The clientele of Karma Traders was a great mix. There were backpackers of all ages from fresh faced eighteen year olds on their gap years, to veteran travellers and couples in the midst of worldwide adventures. The various events in the rooftop bar drew in people from other hostels as well as expat residents of the town, Taco Tuesday really was legendary throughout Kampot!
We visited Cambodia and Kampot in the middle of a very wet rainy season.
Rainy season is appropriately named.
We had a couple of days of near constant storms and were so glad to have a lovely hostel to chill out in. The rooftop restaurant / bar / common area was a great place to hang out, eat some delicious meals and play some games. When the weather allowed we could just zoom off on our scooter and explore, knowing we had a comfy crash pad waiting for us back at the hostel. As a long term backpacking / travel couple it is so nice to have a good place to stay, it takes away a lot of the stress of permanent travelling and allows you just to enjoy where you are.
Karma Traders was the perfect blend of social and private, fun and practical. The hostel provided all the tools we needed to create our own adventure and have an amazing time in the surrounding area. Karma Traders was the perfect base to explore Kampot and gave us a comfy bed and cold beer to come back to at the end of the day.
We cannot recommend Karma Traders enough. Kampot has many accommodation choices and we cannot speak for other options, but when we return, we will be staying at Karma Traders.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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Kampot is a favourite amongst backpackers. The town is full of cafes, great hostels and plenty of things to do including the famous pepper farms, the riverside waterparks, Bokor National Park and the beaches of Kep. Read our complete backpacking guide including where to stay, what to do, where to eat and drink. As well as how to get to Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville by bus.