Plenty of the world’s finest hotels and resorts dramatically announce themselves with temple-inspired entrances or reflecting pools that seemingly pour into the ocean. But Shinta Mani Wild, in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains, takes a different approach with its introduction. Rather than spotlight itself, it lies in wait within a dense cover of rainforest.
Just getting here feels like an adventure as you travel through the back streets of Phnom Penh, across approximately 70 miles of farmland, and up local roads that deteriorate to dirt tracks. At the security gate and welcome outpost, you’ll meet your butler, who will be dressed in sporty camouflage. The tone of “jungle safari” rings loud and clear.
At the checkpoint, you’ll have nearly arrived. But you still won’t see the resort, just wilderness and mountains. Your butler will offer a choice: will you transfer into a vintage Jeep to the zipline tower or stick to the comfort of your SUV limo? Opt for the former, and you’ll soon find yourself at the road’s end, where a metal staircase rises into the treetops, and a hand-painted sign declares, “98 steps and 7 storeys. UP!”
The view widens to a panorama of forest as you ascend. Atop the tower, harnesses hang from pegs, and the full length of the zipline becomes visible — 1,300 feet of steel cable drooping across the river valley. You should probably avoid looking down, and you might want to assure yourself that a zipline is nothing more than a chairlift with a flexible seat. Regardless, stepping off into thin air is an act of faith. Then, like that, you’re flying.
Down below, the tents of Shinta Mani Wild remain obscured, which is intentional. The jungle is the star. And for the resort’s designer, Bill Bensley, the dream of building the 2018-opened hotel here was akin to love at first sight. “When I first laid eyes on this stretch of river in the Cardamoms, I knew it was something special,” he says. “Pristine, untouched, utterly wild — no roads, no tourists, just raw, humming nature. But what really struck me wasn’t just the beauty; it was the vulnerability. This forest was under threat from poaching, mining, logging. The usual suspects. And I thought, ‘If we don’t step in here, someone else will — and they won’t be planting trees.’”
At the back entrance of Shinta Mani Wild hangs a “stat board” that records the resort’s work with the Wildlife Alliance, a non-governmental organization dedicated to ending poaching. It’s like something you’d find at an old-fashioned baseball stadium, but rather than tallying hits and runs, it lists the numbers of animals, such as turtles (128) and Malayan sun bears (one), that have been rescued and released.
Nearby, baskets overflow with confiscated chainsaws, traps and snares, underlining the resort’s environmental purpose and serving as a prologue to one signature experience: the Anti-Poaching Patrol, where, alongside rangers and a Wildlife Alliance officer, you will travel by motorbike to investigate activity along the forest’s boundaries. You’ll look for evidence of illegal hunting and logging camps, stashed equipment, ox carts — even the water buffalo used to pull them. Onsite, it’s easy to see the vulnerability that Bensley described; a mere couple of hours on “short patrol” makes tangible the need to protect rainforests here and across the globe.
Everything at Shinta Mani Wild connects with the jungle and is included in your visit, from the chilled welcome coconuts and wellness treatments at Khmer Tonics Spa to the unique outdoor excursions. Guests stay for at least three nights and can take on as much adventure as they can handle. Go fishing, mountain biking and foraging. Or simply relax by the Cistern, the resort’s 108-foot pool shaped like a massive bathtub. Pamper yourself with massages, heated stones and herbal compresses.
Whatever you do, you can’t help but absorb the forest. When the water is low, you can swim in the river or sip cocktails at its edge. In the rainy season, you can watch a downpour swell the streams, feel the waterfall rumbling beneath your feet. You might hear gibbons staking their territory in the morning or spy macaques prowling the tree branches. You’ll want to watch for the giant golden orb weaver spiders (nephila pilipes) that spin webs across the trails.
A visit to Shinta Mani Wild feels like preservation of not only ecology but also time itself, as Bensley’s design hearkens to a golden age of travel, long before mass tourism. Hundreds of antiques and artifacts adorn the shelves, walls and ceilings of every tented space, including ancient suitcases, early photography equipment, wooden horses, carvings of elephants and fertility symbols. A steampunk vibe emanates from the vintage fans and lanterns, the waterworks sculpture at the swimming pool and the metal support poles that anchor the tents.
But the adventure that most vividly stirs nostalgia is the Expedition Boat, which transports you into the realm of classic cinema (think The African Queen or Apocalypse Now) as you explore the upper Srey Ambel Estuary. While the captain operates the pontoon boat and your butler keeps you supplied with drinks, snacks and a picnic lunch, you can lounge on the upper sundeck or kick back in the shade.
You’ll encounter a few buildings during your three-hour cruise, along with rice fields and perhaps farmers poling canoes across the river or herding cows to pasture. Otherwise, you’ll see only the river, its beaches and sandbars and the mountains steaming in the distance as you chug slowly back upstream. Aside from the boat’s outboard, you’ll hear only the sounds of nature, the birds, the wind in the palm fronds and the flowing water.
Shinta Mani Wild protects a forest corridor roughly the size of New York’s Central Park within the largest tract of uninterrupted rainforest in Southeast Asia, which a morning jungle trek will help put into perspective. With your butler and guide, you set out from the back parking lot, climb forest trails, then arrive in an open area of loose volcanic soil and sparse vegetation. You’ll cross the resort’s boundary before continuing to a ridge with near-360-degree views of the vast jungle.
If you want to hike all day, that’s an option, but even on a two-hour trek, you’ll reach a staircase of small waterfalls. This is wild boar habitat, so you might discover their footprints along the trail. And you’ll also probably hear a tribe of gibbons calling from the forest canopy, though the apes are hard to spot.
The Southern Cardamom National Park covers more than 1,500 square miles adjacent to the resort and provides refuge for dozens of threatened and endangered species, including the clouded leopard and the Siamese crocodile. When Bensley and his business partner and friend Sokoun Chanpreda began planning Shinta Mani Wild, they worked hard to minimize impact on the land and decided to build only 15 guest tents.
“The fewer the guests, the more we can protect the forest,” Bensley says. And the conservation efforts didn’t cease when the final tent was staked to bedrock; instead, there’s an ongoing commitment to which every guest contributes — money from your stay directly funds the Shinta Mani Foundation, onsite naturalists and the Wildlife Alliance.
Bensley says, “Shinta Mani Wild was designed as a living, breathing example of how luxury hospitality can exist because of conservation, not in spite of it. Every guest is part of a conservation story, not just a holiday.”
