National Book Fair (Cambodia): Dates, Tickets & Venue (Phnom Penh)

Four days of Khmer print

The fair runs from 17 to 20 December 2026. That is Thursday through Sunday, near the end of Phnom Penh’s year-end cultural calendar.

It is an annual national event about literature and publishing. Expect rows of publisher stalls stacked with Khmer-script titles: novels, poetry, history, school texts and illustrated children’s books. For a foreign visitor this is one of the few places where you see the whole of Cambodian publishing laid out at once, rather than the few shelves a city bookshop holds.

Phnom Penh in mid-December

The dates fall in the cool, dry season. This is the most comfortable stretch of the year in the capital, with lower humidity and little rain. That matters at an event where much of the browsing usually happens between open-sided stalls.

The fair’s venue, hours and any entry arrangements sit with the organiser. In Phnom Penh, visitors usually get across town by:

• Tuk-tuk or remork, flagged on the street or booked by app
• PassApp or Grab, which show the fare up front and avoid haggling
• Motorbike taxi, the quickest choice for solo riders in traffic

Trips across central Phnom Penh, from the Riverside or BKK1 areas, are short by tuk-tuk outside rush hour. The late-afternoon commute is when roads near the city centre clog.

Browsing the stalls the Cambodian way

Payment and etiquette here follow everyday Phnom Penh habits, with a few points specific to a book fair.

• Currency: stallholders usually take both US dollars and Cambodian riel. Small change often comes back in riel, so expect a mix of notes.
• QR payments: Cambodian shoppers widely pay by scanning KHQR codes through banking apps such as ABA. Visitors without a local account generally carry small notes.
• Bargaining: book prices are normally fixed and printed. Haggling the way you would at Russian Market reads as rude here.
• Greeting: a light sampeah (palms together, slight bow) or a simple chum reap suor (“hello”) goes down well with authors signing at stalls.
• Dress: the fair is a public, family event, often with officials present. Covered shoulders and knees match how local visitors dress.

Thursday and Friday fall on working days. By that reasoning they are usually calmer than the weekend, when families and students have the day free. Many visitors whose Khmer is limited head for bilingual children’s picture books and English-language titles on Cambodian history. These are easy to read and travel light.

Making a day of it

A few hours covers the fair comfortably, which leaves time for the rest of the city. Bookish visitors often pair it with:

• National Museum of Cambodia, the red-roofed Khmer-style building beside the Royal Palace, holding Angkorian sculpture
• Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda on Sothearos Boulevard
• Monument Books, the long-running English-language bookseller in the city
• Sisowath Quay, the riverside promenade, for an evening walk at the Tonle Sap and Mekong confluence

Because the fair falls just before Christmas and New Year, December is also a busy month for hotels around Riverside and BKK1. Visitors who plan around the fair often stay in these districts because they are central.