Kep province

Park loop at dawn, Koh Tonsay by noon, pepper crab late

Start with the Kep National Park loop in the early morning, before the heat builds. The trail circles the wooded hill above town, and gaps in the trees look out over the Gulf of Thailand towards the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. Carry water and go at an easy pace.

By mid-morning, take a boat from the pier to Koh Tonsay, better known as Rabbit Island. There is a strip of sand, some hammocks, a few bungalows and simple restaurants, and very little else, which is exactly the appeal. Swim here; the town beach is poorer.

Come back for a late lunch at the crab market. Choose live crabs from the women who keep them in bamboo baskets in the shallows, then have them stir-fried with fresh green Kampot pepper at one of the wooden restaurants built out over the water. Spend the late afternoon on the shore road, looking at the roofless modernist villas from the 1960s in their tangled gardens, and finish on the seafront by the giant crab statue in the water as the sun goes down.

Blue crabs in bamboo baskets and green peppercorns

Order blue crab stir-fried with fresh green Kampot peppercorns at the Kep crab market, where women lift live crabs from bamboo baskets in the shallows; buy by weight and have a restaurant cook them, or order at a market eatery. Stalls also grill squid, prawns and fish, served with lime, salt and pepper.

Squid, prawns and fish come off the grills at the market stalls too, served with a dip of lime juice, salt and ground pepper. The stalls are the cheapest option, while the restaurants on stilts over the water charge more for the breeze and the view.

Go at lunchtime, when the catch is freshest and the market is in full swing. Weekends and public holidays bring day-trippers from Phnom Penh, so a weekday visit is calmer. Evenings are quiet; most visitors eat early and turn in, so do not count on late-night food.

Pepper farms on the road between Kep and Kampot

Kep and Kampot are close enough to share one trip, and each fills the other's gaps. Kampot has the river, the colonial old town, more places to stay and eat, and the road up Bokor. Kep has the sea, the crab market, Rabbit Island and a forest trail.

Many travellers base themselves in Kampot and come to Kep for the day by tuk-tuk, stopping at a pepper farm on the way to see the vines and taste the grades before lunch. Others prefer to sleep by the sea, where nights are quieter and the hillside guesthouses look out over the water, and ride over to Kampot for the river and Bokor. Two or three nights between them is comfortable.

Kep also sits close to the Prek Chak border with Ha Tien in Vietnam, so travellers bound for Phu Quoc or the Mekong Delta often spend their last Cambodian night here. Coming the other way, cross early and keep cash ready for the visa formalities on the Cambodian side.