Vertical Luxury in the Cambodian Capital
High above the Mekong, Rosewood Phnom Penh turns a skyscraper into a showcase for Cambodian creativity, and makes the case for the capital as Southeast Asia's next luxury address.
By Kalpana Sunder
For decades, Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was the neglected sibling to Siem Reap, a working capital most travellers passed through on the way to Angkor Wat. But in the recent past, with the opening of the state-of-the-art Foster + Partners’ Techo International Airport in 2025, the city is finally coming into the limelight.
When Vattanac Capital Tower opened on Monivong Boulevard in 2014, it announced the city's vertical ambition, and Rosewood's arrival on the tower's top floors in 2018 gave the skyline its first genuinely international hotel address. And now, after Phnom Penh has been named on BBC Travel's list of places to visit in 2026, the city finally has the connectivity to match its towers. Rosewood got to the city early, and much of the luxury hotels that have opened since are measured against it. Since then, the hotel and its rooftop bar, Sora, have become local landmarks: step in, and you find luxury with a soul, and art-filled interiors.
The property frames its own arc in similar terms. When the property opened, says Andrew Moore, Managing Director, Rosewood Phnom Penh, it helped show that Cambodia could offer luxury hospitality on par with the world's leading destinations. “Today its role has grown past setting a benchmark, toward showcasing Cambodia's culture and creativity while continuing to raise the bar. That plays out on the hotel's calendar. The annual Taste of Cambodia each September and the Phnom Penh Cocktail Festival early in the year put Cambodian chefs and bartenders alongside leading regional and international names, and the intent is for Rosewood to serve as both a place to stay and a gateway to a fast-changing city that stays rooted in Cambodian culture.”
What Rosewood brings to that moment is a philosophy that predates the current luxury consensus around local authenticity. The brand trademarked 'A Sense of Place' when Caroline Rose Hunt founded it in 1979, and has held to the idea that a property should read as its location rather than as a house style, which is why there is almost no visible Rosewood branding inside the hotel. “A Sense of Place is something we approach through hundreds of thoughtful decisions rather than one defining initiative. Across the hotel, we work closely with Cambodian artists, makers and producers to ensure that local culture is woven into the guest experience, from the artworks displayed throughout the property, to the ingredients featured in our restaurants and bars. These partnerships not only create a more authentic experience for our guests but also help support and celebrate Cambodia's pool of creative talent,” says Moore. That philosophy runs through the brand. Under CEO Sonia Cheng, the group operates as a collection of individual hotels rather than a uniform chain.
Rosewood Phnom Penh occupies the top 14 floors of the city’s first true skyscraper.
A hotel in the sky
From its vantage point, the hotel overlooks Phnom Penh, Tonle Sap and the Mekong. Rooms and public spaces occupy the uppermost floors, so there is always a sense of light and distance. The building carries many cultural symbols: its form is drawn from a dragon, aligned east for prosperity, with feng shui principles and subtly worked-in Naga-inspired details. The design blends Khmer influences, French colonial heritage and Cambodian craft. In place of a standard glass entrance are rammed-earth walls inspired by Angkor's temple ruins.
You arrive at street level, but the experience begins when you are lifted to the Sky Lobby on Level 35. The 175 rooms and suites are among the largest in the city and feel more like private apartments than hotel rooms, with floor-to-ceiling windows that frame rivers, rooftops and the constant motion below. Inside is a lived-in feel: coffee-table books, local crafts, wide tables by the windows, and expansive bathrooms with soaking tubs and showers. A smart panel controls the blackout drapes and filtered curtains, and the lifts are futuristic, programmed in advance so there are no buttons inside. The Palatial Norodom House is the biggest suite, at 225sq.m.
Despite the skyscraper setting, thoughtful pockets of green, vertical gardens and planted spaces break the sleekness and bring calm. Planted corridors, sky gardens and green pockets let in air and light at different levels, so you never feel indoors.
Textile art by Pen Robit displayed at the hotel.
The hotel's unique Sky lobby at Level 35.
A full-fledged dining experience
At Rosewood Phnom Penh, you are not short of options with five distinct restaurants and lounges, each with its own personality, from refined dining rooms to relaxed spaces. The Living Room on Level 35 is where you can settle with a book over artisan coffee, cakes or a drink. Zhan Liang, the Chinese restaurant in the basement of Vattanac Mall, offers Cantonese, Sichuan and northern dishes, along with a tea library and a private dining room with the largest Lazy Susan and karaoke. At Cuts, the steakhouse decorated in shades of red, premium cuts are paired with a collection of over 3,000 wines in an atmosphere of contemporary elegance. The Japanese restaurant Iza delivers high energy, its sushi and sashimi crafted with precision and an extensive sake menu enhancing the authenticity. The hotel is also popular for Sunday brunch at Brasserie Louis (which also serves breakfast), an extravagant buffet with seafood, cold cuts and a live pastry station.
Founder Caroline Rose Hunt's 'A Sense of Place' philosophy continues to guide Rosewood hotels worldwide.
Drinks with altitude
The cantilevered rooftop bar Sora, named for the Japanese word for sky, is Rosewood's showstopper, the best place to watch the sun set over cocktails as day shifts to night across the Mekong and the skyline. Ranked No. 65 on Asia's 50 Best Bars 2025, it sources over 70% of its ingredients locally, including from the hotel's own hydroponic garden, and hosts an annual Cocktail Week that brings bartenders from across Asia. Its whisky library holds one of Cambodia's largest single malt collections, and its latest menu of 16 drinks is inspired by Lego building bricks, replacing an earlier one built around anime.
The lofty hotel enjoys stunning city views.
Luxury room at Rosewood Phnom Penh with Khmer accents.
Artful Encounters
One of the things that lifts the property above the usual city-hotel template is what it does with art. The hotel champions a new Cambodian creative identity through local art and craft, and a collection of contemporary Cambodian and international artists. From its own gallery of rotating exhibitions on Level 35 to works at various levels and in guest corridors, this is a unique facet of the hotel.
South Korean artist Park Seung Mo's oversized Hanuman, crafted in stainless-steel wire, sets the tone at the entrance, followed by two large lions at the Level 35 reception. Installations, textile art, sculptures and mixed-media pieces adorn corridors and lounges. Chan Danya's coloured pencil shavings and glue on wood, and Burmese artist Htein Lin's paintings of urban Cambodia, are particularly striking, while abstract sculptures of old farming tools act as pops of colour along the corridors. Cuts displays a stainless-steel Khmer Alphabet tower, designed by a contemporary art space in the city.
Andrew Moore, Managing Director, Rosewood Phnom Penh.
Sustainability: subtle but present
Sustainability doesn't announce itself loudly, but you notice it in energy-conscious design, reduced plastic and a general effort to align luxury with responsibility. Hydroponic gardens grow many of the herbs and greens that go straight to the kitchens, and the hotel holds an annual Sora sustainability summit on how bartenders can build sustainable practice into their operations. Around 83% of ingredients are sourced locally from Cambodian farmers and fishermen; the zero-waste menus repurpose peels and stems, and the bar programmes reuse ingredients, turning citrus peel into in-house vermouth. Around 90% of waste is composted, reused or donated. Sora has won the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award 2025 for pioneering eco-mixology. Around 70% of waste is composted, donated or reused.
Zhang Liang reinterprets Chinese cuisine with refined technique and contemporary presentation.
Louis Brasserie serves modern French classic in an elegant, all-day setting.
An escape within an escape
The spa's calm, light-filled treatment rooms feel cocooned, the therapies drawn from Asian traditions at a pace that invites you to slow down completely. Treatments use local herbs, botanicals and traditional techniques, grounding wellness in culture: an Ancient Angkor Massage, or the Khmer Herbal Poultice with indigenous botanicals like lemongrass and ginger. Guests can recover from the city's heat with a 24K gold age-defying facial that blends jasmine with gold, and there is a nail studio by Bastien Gonzalez, the renowned French pedicure-podiatrist, for high-end mani-pedis.
Wat Phnom is one of Phnom Penh's most popular touristic destinations and of immense spiritual significance for Buddhists.
Wellness with a view
The well-equipped gym is bright and open to the skyline, so you don't feel cut off from the city while working out. The long, clean indoor pool, with loungers and snacks, is made for serious laps rather than Instagram, its glass windows giving panoramic views.
Sense, A Rosewood Spa, revives ancient Khmer healing traditions through contemporary wellness rituals.
Beyond the Stay: Immersions into Phnom Penh
The hotel offers a range of immersive experiences beyond its walls. The most memorable is a private culinary journey with celebrated Cambodian chef Nak, who takes guests to the market and ends with lunch at her heritage home over traditional Khmer recipes. There is also a thoughtful mix of mixology classes, zero-waste cooking classes and a remork (Cambodian tuk-tuk) heritage tour of the city, plus an art trail of local galleries. Golfers can play an exclusive round at Vattanac Golf Resort, with its pristine greens and pro caddies, and younger travellers have the Rosewood Explorers programme designed just for them.
You are in Phnom Penh but slightly removed from it.
Back in your room, the noise and frenetic pace drop away. You see the traffic and the lights through the window, but you don't hear them, and the separation becomes the best part of the stay.
Located on Level 35 at the Sky Lobby, these giant guardian statues were created by Korean artist Park Seung Mo.
