Angkor, on three days rather than one
Not one temple but a city: four hundred square kilometres of Khmer capital built between the ninth and fifteenth centuries. What the pass costs, which temples on which day, and the hours that make the difference.
What Angkor actually is
Angkor was the capital of the Khmer Empire from the ninth century to the fifteenth, and at its height it was probably the largest pre-industrial city in the world — recent lidar surveys suggest an urban footprint of around a thousand square kilometres supporting perhaps three quarters of a million people. What survives is the stone: the temples, the reservoirs and the causeways. Everything else, including the royal palaces, was wood and has gone.
The protected park is about 400 square kilometres and contains several hundred structures. Angkor Wat, built in the first half of the twelfth century, is the largest religious building on earth by area and was never abandoned — it has been a functioning temple continuously for nine hundred years. The Bayon, a couple of kilometres north inside the walled city of Angkor Thom, carries around 200 carved faces. Ta Prohm was deliberately left with its trees.
The scale is the thing people underestimate. Angkor Wat alone takes two hours to walk properly. The park is not a site you see; it is a landscape you spend days in.
The pass, in exact numbers
| One day | USD 37 |
| Three days | USD 62, valid on any 3 days within 10 |
| Seven days | USD 72, valid on any 7 days within 30 |
| Where to buy | Official counters, or ticket.angkorenterprise.gov.kh |
| Counter hours | 04:30 to 17:30 |
| Bought after 17:00 | Admits you that evening and counts from the next day |
| Koh Ker | Not on the pass. USD 15 cash at the gate |
| Beng Mealea | Covered by the pass |
| Preah Vihear | Not on the pass, and check access before planning it |
Your photograph is taken and printed on the pass, and it is checked at every temple. Do not lose it and do not buy from anyone other than the official counters or the official website.
The three-day pass is the obvious choice. It costs USD 25 more than one day and buys two more days, and those two are the ones people describe when they get home.
Which temples on which day
Day one: the central group
Angkor Wat, then the Bayon and Angkor Thom, then Ta Prohm late in the afternoon. This is the greatest hits day and it is the busiest. Start at 07:30, be inside Angkor Wat by 08:30, and get off the site between 11:00 and 15:00.
Day two: the outer temples
Banteay Srei, an hour north: small, pink sandstone, and carved with a fineness nothing else here approaches. Then Beng Mealea, unrestored, collapsing into forest, and covered by the pass. Or swap Beng Mealea for Koh Ker, which is two hours further, a separate USD 15, and a seven-tiered pyramid from a rival capital.
Day three: the quiet ones
Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, Banteay Kdei, the Roluos group. None of these carries a crowd and several are better than the famous ones. This is the day Angkor stops being a checklist, and it is the day almost every short itinerary cuts.
Hours, heat and the sunrise question
Roughly two thousand people crowd two small reflecting pools for forty minutes. The temple itself does not open until after the sun is up, so you queue in the dark, take the photograph everyone has, and then lose the afternoon to being tired. We go at 07:30 and reach Angkor Wat about 08:30, when the sunrise crowd has left for breakfast. If you want sunrise anyway we will arrange it — we would just rather you knew.
The heat is the other constraint. From March to May, 36 to 40 degrees at midday is normal and the stone radiates it back. We stop between 11:00 and 15:00 every temple day, in every month, and in April we mean it. Sunset from Phnom Bakheng is heavily capped and heavily queued; Pre Rup is better and almost nobody knows it.
The best hours here are 07:30 to 10:30 and 15:30 to 17:30. Everything else is a compromise with the sun.
Photographs
When to skip Angkor
- If you have one day. You will see Angkor Wat and the Bayon in heat and crowds and conclude it is overrated. Better to come back another year with three.
- April and May, if heat is a real problem. Forty degrees on open stone is not a small thing.
- If you cannot walk five to eight kilometres a day on uneven surfaces. Angkor is not accessible in any meaningful sense; several key structures are reached by steep steps with no handrail.
- If you dislike crowds and cannot start early. Between 09:00 and 11:00 the central group is dense.
Tours that include Angkor
Three days on a pass in the seven-day Cambodia route, the twelve-day Vietnam and Cambodia route, the eighteen-day classic and the twenty-four-day four-country route. Two days in the ten-day express, which is the only one where we compromise on it.
You sleep in Siem Reap, which has its own page.
Questions travellers ask most
How many days do I really need?
Three on the pass. One day sees Angkor Wat and the Bayon badly; two sees them properly plus Banteay Srei; three adds the quiet temples, which is where most people find the thing they remember.
Is Beng Mealea or Koh Ker the better second-day trip?
Beng Mealea if you want the ruin-in-the-forest experience and a shorter drive; it is covered by your pass. Koh Ker if you want something structurally different — a seven-tiered pyramid from a tenth-century rival capital, UNESCO-listed in 2023.
Koh Ker is two hours each way and USD 15 extra in cash.
What should I wear?
Shoulders and knees covered, which is enforced at Angkor Wat's upper terrace. Shoes with grip — the stone is worn smooth and often uneven.
A hat and more water than you think. There is shade at Ta Prohm and Preah Khan and almost none at Angkor Wat.
Are the temples floodlit or open at night?
No. The park closes at 17:30 to 18:00 depending on the temple, and there is no night access. Anyone offering it is not offering something legitimate.
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