Thailand Cambodia Border Clashes Disrupt Travel Plans

Published on Dec 8, 2025, 2:12 pm CST

7 min read

Key points

Thai airstrikes and artillery fire have resumed along the Cambodia border after clashes on December 7 and 8, 2025
Land border crossings between Thailand and Cambodia are suspended, cutting overland routes in both directions
Major tourist cities and flights between Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are operating normally so far
Multiple governments now advise against travel within 50 kilometres of the border due to active hostilities and landmines
Insurance may not cover war related disruption, so travelers need to check policies before cancelling or rerouting
Cambodia is seeing sharper tourism losses than Thailand, with earlier data showing steep drops in Thai visitor numbers

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Risk is concentrated in the Thai and Cambodian provinces along the border, including areas near Preah Vihear and key road crossings that are now closed
Best Times To Travel: Trips focused on Bangkok, Chiang Mai, the Gulf islands, Phnom Penh or Siem Reap can still run but it is safer to avoid itineraries that rely on same day overland border hops for now
Onward Travel And Changes: Travelers booked on bus, minivan or self drive routes via Aranyaprathet Poipet and other crossings should expect cancellations and reroute via flights or alternate hubs
What Travelers Should Do Now: Avoid all travel within roughly 50 kilometres of the Thailand Cambodia border, switch overland segments to air where possible and speak to airlines, tour operators and insurers before making changes
Health And Safety Factors: Stay well clear of any demonstrations or military activity, do not enter rural off road areas where landmines remain and keep embassy contact details handy in case evacuation support is needed

Renewed fighting along the Thailand and Cambodia border has moved from political risk back into active conflict, with Thai airstrikes and artillery reported on December 8, 2025 against positions in Cambodia around the disputed Preah Vihear and Ta Moan temple areas. Reports from wire services and regional outlets describe at least one Thai soldier and four Cambodian civilians killed so far, tens of thousands of people displaced, and schools and hospitals closed in several frontier districts. For travelers, the immediate impact is the closure of land crossings and a hard security line running roughly 50 kilometres either side of the frontier, even as flights and city breaks continue to operate.

The Thailand Cambodia border conflict travel problem is that overland routes have been shut down while some governments now tell their citizens not to go anywhere near the fighting zones. The United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and others already advised against travel within about 50 kilometres of the border after earlier clashes, and fresh alerts from embassies in Bangkok are now warning citizens to avoid the frontier altogether because of active hostilities and landmines. At the same time, news and tourism operators stress that flights between Bangkok, Phnom Penh, and Siem Reap are running normally and that well known tourist areas far from the border remain calm.

Thai forces say they launched airstrikes after Cambodian rockets and gunfire killed a soldier in Ubon Ratchathani province on December 7, accusing Cambodia of moving heavy weapons and laying new landmines inside the contested zone. Cambodian officials reject those claims, describing the strikes as unprovoked and noting earlier damage to the Preah Vihear temple complex, a UNESCO World Heritage site that has long been a flashpoint in the dispute. The latest round of fighting comes only weeks after a United States brokered ceasefire and follow up deal that aimed to demine parts of the frontier, pull back troops, and reopen crossings, but implementation faltered and Bangkok formally suspended the agreement in November after a landmine blast injured Thai soldiers.

Background: What Is Actually Closed Now

For travelers, the most concrete change is that land border crossings between Thailand and Cambodia are now suspended for both entry and exit, with Thai and British travel advisories spelling this out. This affects heavily used checkpoints such as Aranyaprathet Poipet, which normally connects Bangkok and Siem Reap via bus and minivan networks and carries a large share of backpacker, budget, and overland regional traffic. Tourism businesses on both sides say that earlier rounds of closures and shelling already wiped out cross border trips, leaving many hotels in border provinces filled mostly with journalists, aid workers, and military personnel.

By contrast, flights between Thailand and Cambodia and domestic trips inside each country are still being sold and operated. Major tourist cities such as Bangkok and Chiang Mai in Thailand, and Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, are far from the active combat zones and currently remain open to visitors, with normal airport operations reported. The main adjustment is that itineraries which once used an overland hop to cross the border now have to be rebuilt around flights or completely different routings through third countries.

How The Conflict Affects Current And Future Trips

If a traveler is already in Thailand or Cambodia on a beach, city, or temple focused itinerary that does not go near the border, the main effect will be indirect. There may be more security presence at some domestic airports, random ID checks on highways, and extra screening at hotels, but day to day tourism activity in core areas is still running. Where things get complicated is for people who booked combined Thailand and Cambodia trips with buses or trains across the frontier or who planned to rent a car and drive between the two.

Those bookings are now at high risk of cancellation, and some operators have already shifted passengers to air, or postponed the Cambodia leg entirely until the situation stabilizes. The suspension of crossings also breaks some regional overland routes, for example Laos to Cambodia circuits that rely on transiting Thailand, which is one reason Cambodia is taking a larger tourism hit than Thailand. Industry reporting before this latest flare up already showed a more than 35 percent drop in Thai visitors to Cambodia for 2025, with a 91 percent collapse in September, and that was before fresh airstrikes.

Insurance, Advisories, And Refund Reality

A critical but often overlooked piece is that many standard travel insurance policies exclude losses linked to war, invasion, or civil conflict. Several advisory services are now warning that if a government labels the situation as armed conflict, claims related to cancellations or disruptions near the border might be denied unless a traveler purchased a policy with explicit war coverage or a cancel for any reason rider. At the same time, airlines and hotels located far from the border are under no obligation to offer refunds just because a traveler decides they feel uncomfortable, especially when flights are still operating and there is no do not travel advisory for those specific cities.

Travelers who have not yet departed and whose plans depend on land crossings should contact their tour operator or airline before making unilateral changes. Some overland operators are offering date changes or credits, while a few air carriers are quietly allowing free rebooking away from frontier airports, but these are commercial decisions, not universal rights. The safest approach is to ask for written confirmation of what an operator will or will not cover, keep receipts, and document any official advisories that apply to the planned route.

Practical Planning: Who Should Reroute Or Postpone

Anyone whose itinerary includes the border provinces in Thailand or Cambodia, temple sites like Preah Vihear, or self drive loops that hug the frontier should assume those segments are off the table for the foreseeable future. Current government advice from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada is to avoid travel within roughly 50 kilometres of the border, both because of active hostilities and because landmines remain in former combat zones. Tourists should not attempt to freelance around closures, take back roads, or cross at informal points, even if local drivers or fixers suggest it.

For classic Thailand itineraries that combine Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and the Gulf or Andaman islands, and for Cambodia trips centered on Phnom Penh and Angkor, the better play is to leave the core plan intact but remove any overland link between the two countries and use flights instead or split the trip into separate journeys. Travelers who are especially risk averse, or who are traveling with small children or people with medical vulnerabilities, may decide to defer Cambodia entirely until there is a stable ceasefire and border reopening, especially given how concentrated the tourism downturn already is there.

What To Watch Next

The key variables for travel over the next few weeks will be whether the fighting stays confined to sparsely populated frontier areas, whether land crossings reopen even partially, and whether major source countries escalate their advisories from avoid border areas to wider restrictions. A wider conflict could eventually affect airspace routings or insurance underwriting for the whole region, but that is not the case yet.

Until there is another verifiable ceasefire, anyone planning Thailand Cambodia border conflict travel will need to think in terms of two separate trips, stick to well away from the frontier, and build in more insurance, documentation, and flexibility than they might normally use for Southeast Asia.