What is the local currency?

Although the official currency is the riel, the dollar goes hand in hand and it is widely accepted everywhere. While the US Dollar is most commonly used to pay larger bills, the riel tends to be used for small payments and purchases. The riel comes in denominatons of 50, 100, 200, 500, 1.000, 2.000, 5.000, 10.000, 50.000 and 100.000 (although the last two are very rarely used). As there are no coins in Cambodia, it is advisable to carry small riel notesto use it as small change, but there is no reason to change big amounts of money. You can pay almost everything with US Dollars, and you will accumulate riel as you receive your change in the local currency.

Small businesses tend to use a fixed exchange rate of 4,000 or 4,100 riel to the US Dollar to facilitate payments. For a more accurate rate you can use this real time currency exchange rate converter.