The most luxurious pool in Phnom Penh – The Palace Gate Hotel Pool. I have now been to the Palace Gate Hotel 4 times. The first time was for a Christmas party, I did not eat, but I drank and sang apparently, although the memories are all a bit hazzy. I’m told it was a good night.
The second time was for dinner, where I was to meet the French Restaurant manager Hugo – after an amazing dinner it was agreed I could come back to review themes luxurious pool in Phnom Penh, hurrah!
The third time involved taking someone to the airport, a helmet and half a bottle of wine. Not one I will go into great detail about, but you can read what Phnom Penh Airport is currently like here.
Swimming Pools in Phnom Penh
As much as we like equality it does not exist sadly. People are not equal, communism has yet to be achieved and indeed no two swimming pools are the same. In fact since Covid-19 many a Cambodian swimming pool has ended up essentially being turned into ponds. I remember a particularly bad pool in Pailin for example.
You can read the Pailin Guide here .
I previously wrote about the Villa Lanka being the best pool, which you can read here (link), but my meaning was more best value. Sadly those cats have now closed, which has left a big swimming void in my life.
You can read about the closure of Villa Lanka here .
The most luxurious pool in Phnom Penh you say?
The pool is the bomb, clean, huge and surrounded by trees and attentive staff. It almost seems crazy that you have this luxury just a stone throw from zombie like expats fighting for 50 cent beers on Street 130.
You can read about Street 130 here .
But of course luxury comes at a price. A daily pass will set you back $15 of consumables, which is easy to do, with a monthly pass $150. In actual fact not bad value at all, but also one many of us would struggle with during these tough Covid-19 times.
I though had that most wonderful of things – a free pass.
Food and drink at the most luxurious pool in Phnom Penh
There’s the Big Mac Index, which sadly doesn’t work in Cambodia as there is no McDonalds (although The Vine do a Big Mac that is $9). I’ll therefore do the Soda Water index – $3.50, not cheap, beers, $5, not cheap. The food though was OK priced, I had a Loc Lak and plate of fries, which were $9.50 and $4 respectively.
Overall two drinks, some food and hanging out at a great pool had set me back $20, in reality there are a lot worse a ways to spend a Sunday than that.
The best pool in Phnom Penh?
Apparently it is a toss up between here and the pool at Raffles, at least according to the local elite. I have not been to Raffles, so cannot comment. I will though say that it is not Poolside Villa.
Is it worth $15 of consumables to swim here? Hell yes, you pay more, but as they always say, you get what you pay for in this world.