Song Saa Private Island

It’s Cambodia, but it’s not the Cambodia you’re expecting. Song Saa Private Island is more the sort of thing the Maldives or Seychelles are known for, or perhaps a post-development luxury-villa version of the Thai island paradise from Alex Garland’s The Beach. This wild speck of a place in the Gulf of Thailand is as close to a state of nature as you’re going to find anywhere, and Song Saa’s twenty-seven villas make the most of their secluded setting — if you’re going to live as a castaway, this is how you do it in style.

Some stand overwater on stilts, Fiji-style; others stand on the beach, with the ocean’s waters for a front porch, and still others nestle on the forested hillside, as sequestered as can be. We won’t bore you with a comprehensive list of fixtures and amenities; suffice it to say that the accommodations do their level best to live up to their sublime surroundings.

And there’s much more to Song Saa than spa treatments and fine Cambodian cuisine. The island’s wilderness awaits, and this is just one of dozens of islands in the immediate area; seafaring excursions and island explorations are among Song Saa’s highlights. It’s Cambodia like very few people on this Earth have ever experienced it.

How to get there:
Song Saa Private Island is spread across two isles in the Koh Rong archipelago, just a 30-minute speedboat ride from the coastal town of Sihanoukville.