Thai Cambodia Border Clashes Keep Land Routes Off Limits

Published on Nov 14, 2025, 9:11 pm CST

7 min read

Key points

Fresh clashes and evacuations show the Thailand Cambodia border conflict is still active
US and allied advisories keep Level 4 Do Not Travel zones within 50 kilometers of the frontier
Land border crossings remain effectively closed to tourists so classic bus and van routes are off the table
Flights between Bangkok Phnom Penh and Siem Reap continue to operate normally
Tour operators are reworking itineraries and pausing visa run trips that rely on Thai Cambodian overland loops

Impact

Border Zone Risk: Avoid all travel within roughly 50 kilometers of the Thailand Cambodia border on both sides because of armed clashes, evacuations, and landmines.
Overland Itineraries: Replace classic Bangkok border Angkor Wat loops with flights between Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap until advisories and local controls clearly ease.
Bus And Van Routes: Do not book buses, vans, or visa run shuttles that advertise direct crossings while official checkpoints remain closed or heavily restricted.
Existing Bookings: If your plans assume a land crossing, contact airlines, hotels, and tour operators now to reroute by air and adjust overnight stops.
Insurance And Safety: Check whether your travel insurance excludes conflict zones and keep well clear of any areas flagged as Level 4 Do Not Travel along the frontier.

Fresh fighting along the Thailand Cambodia border has pushed overland travel back into the unsafe category, even after a headline ceasefire and high profile peace deal. Cambodia has evacuated hundreds of people from Prey Chan village after a shooting that killed one resident, and both militaries report new exchanges of fire and land mine incidents in contested zones. At the same time, cross border bus, van, and visa run traffic remains effectively frozen, while flights between Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap continue to run on normal schedules.

The practical takeaway is simple. For now, travelers should treat the land border as off limits and plan to move between Thailand and Cambodia only by air.

Thai Cambodia Border Clashes And Travel Advisories

The current situation sits on top of a crisis that has been simmering since mid 2025. After heavy clashes in July killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds of thousands on both sides, the United States issued matching Level 4, Do Not Travel warnings for areas within 50 kilometers of the Thailand Cambodia border in both countries.

Those stricter zones did not downgrade the overall advisory levels for either country, which both sit at Level 2, Exercise Increased Caution, but they did carve a wide red band along the frontier where armed conflict, artillery strikes, and land mines make tourist travel inappropriate.

Since then, landmine blasts and sporadic fire fights have kept that border band unstable. Thai and international reporting describes at least seven Thai soldiers severely injured in mine related incidents since July, and Thai authorities have repeatedly accused Cambodia of planting new mines, a charge Cambodia denies.

A ceasefire signed in Kuala Lumpur in late October briefly raised hopes that crossings might reopen. That agreement, backed by Malaysia as ASEAN chair and witnessed by U.S. officials, called for withdrawal of heavy weapons and joint mine clearance teams.In practice, it has not held. After another land mine blast and renewed skirmishes, Thailand has now suspended implementation of the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord and recalled parts of its negotiating effort.

Latest Developments Along The Frontier

The latest flash point is in and around Prey Chan, a village in Cambodia's Banteay Meanchey province near the border with Sa Kaeo, Thailand. Cambodian officials say hundreds of residents have been evacuated after a cross border shooting that killed at least one civilian, while each side blames the other for violating the truce.

Thai statements focus on land mines allegedly planted on Thai territory and on what Bangkok describes as Cambodian provocations and misinformation.Cambodian statements stress Thai troop movements, crowd control measures, and mortar or rifle fire across the line.

For travelers, the result is not a tidy ceasefire with a clear reopening date, but a heavily militarized frontier where both sides openly acknowledge that armed incidents are still possible. Allied governments including the United States and Australia continue to tell their citizens not to travel within roughly 50 kilometers of the border on the Cambodian side and to avoid frontier provinces in Thailand where fighting and land mines remain a risk.

Crossings, Towns, And The 50 Kilometer Rule

Before the crisis, overland travelers commonly used Thai border towns such as Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaeo province for the crossing to Poipet, and Surin for routes toward northern Cambodia. Those checkpoints sit well inside the current Level 4 bands and are directly affected by military closures.

Thai authorities have previously shut all land checkpoints controlled by the Second Army along the Cambodian frontier to almost all travelers, with only narrow exceptions for medical and humanitarian cases.Over the northern and eastern stretches of the line, that effectively removes legal options for tourists, backpackers, and casual visa runs to cross by road.

On the Cambodian side, the strongest Do Not Travel warnings cover provinces such as Banteay Meanchey, Oddar Meanchey, and Preah Vihear, which include popular overland routes to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.Even where checkpoints are technically present, tour operators and adventure companies report that they are treating the full corridor as off limits, because firefights and mines do not respect exact lines on a map.

The key idea for planning is the radius, not the precise crossing. If a bus, van, or private driver offers a route that spends significant time within about 50 kilometers of the border in either country, it will fall inside the highest risk zone.

Flights, Tours, And Alternatives To Overland Travel

By contrast, flights between Thailand and Cambodia have continued to operate normally. Bangkok is connected to Phnom Penh and Siem Reap by a mix of Thai carriers and Cambodian airlines, including Thai Airways International, Thai AirAsia, Bangkok Airways, Cambodia Angkor Air, and others, with dozens of weekly frequencies.

Major travel advisories and tour operators emphasize that the conflict is geographically concentrated, so core tourist hubs such as Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, and the southern islands remain accessible by air, and normal city breaks or resort stays away from the border are still possible with standard precautions.

Operators that used to market Bangkok to Angkor Wat loops by road have largely shifted to flight based itineraries, sometimes adding an extra hotel night to compensate for airport transfers and connection times. Adventure and budget companies that once relied on cross border buses are either pausing those products or rebranding them as multi flight trips, often at higher cost.

For travelers already booked on land based tours, the usual pattern is that companies either cancel and refund the overland segment or reroute clients by air, with shared vans restricted to safer interior legs inside each country. Independent backpackers who might be tempted to improvise should remember that many insurers exclude claims arising from active conflict or travel inside Level 4 zones, which makes off map experimentation a bad bet.

Background

Border skirmishes between Thailand and Cambodia are not new, but this year's crisis is unusual in scale and in the way land mines, artillery, and air power have been involved. Fighting in July saw rocket fire and airstrikes along a 40 kilometer stretch of frontier around disputed temples and long contested farmland, with tens of thousands of residents on each side pushed into temporary shelters.

Even after the initial ceasefire, a pattern of mine blasts and localized clashes has kept the situation unstable. The Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord was supposed to break that cycle, but its partial suspension and the fresh evacuations from villages like Prey Chan underline that this is still a live conflict, not a finished chapter.

Final Thoughts

For most visitors, the Thailand Cambodia crisis now functions as a routing problem rather than a reason to skip both countries entirely. The key is to respect the 50 kilometer Do Not Travel bands on both sides of the frontier, treat the land border as closed to leisure travel, and rely on established air corridors between Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap. Until the ceasefire holds and border towns move off military footing, the safest choice is to keep the Thailand Cambodia border out of your ground itinerary entirely.