Angkor properly, and the country around it
Three days at Angkor rather than the usual day and a half, the seventh-century towers at Sambor Prei Kuk on the road south, and two nights in Phnom Penh.
At a glance
- Days
- 7 days, 6 nights
- Party size
- 1 to 8, private
- Start
- Siem Reap
- End
- Phnom Penh
- Effort
- Easy — one 6-hour drive, a lot of walking on stone
- From
- USD 1,180 per person
Who this route is for
Anyone who has decided that Angkor is the point and does not want it compressed into a day and a half between two flights. Three full days on a three-day pass, with a rest day built in, and the temples visited at the hours when they are worth visiting rather than the hours a coach schedule dictates.
It is also the right length for a Cambodia add-on to a Thailand or Vietnam trip, which is how about half of the people who book it use it. Since the Thailand land border is closed, it starts with a flight into Siem Reap from wherever you are.
Roughly two thousand people stand at two small reflecting pools for forty minutes while the temple behind them is still shut. We go at 07:30 and reach Angkor Wat at about 08:30, when the sunrise crowd has left for breakfast. If you want sunrise anyway, we will arrange it and we will have told you what you are buying.
Day by day
Arrive Siem Reap
Siem Reap Angkor airport opened in 2023 and is 45 kilometres from town, about 55 minutes. Angkor pass bought this evening if we land before 17:30 — a pass bought after 17:00 admits you that evening and counts from tomorrow.
Angkor: the central group
Out at 07:30. Angkor Wat first, once the sunrise crowd has gone: the western causeway, the bas-relief gallery of the Churning of the Sea of Milk, and the upper terrace if the queue is under twenty minutes.
Then the Bayon, with its two hundred faces, and the terraces of Angkor Thom. Hotel from 11:00 to 15:00, because the middle of the day here is genuinely not sightseeing weather. Ta Prohm in the late afternoon, when the light comes in low through the roots.
Angkor: the outer temples
Banteay Srei an hour north: small, pink sandstone, carved with a fineness that nothing else at Angkor approaches, and best at 08:00 before the buses. Then Beng Mealea, unrestored and collapsing into the forest, which is what Angkor looked like to the first Europeans who described it.
If you would rather trade Beng Mealea for Koh Ker, we will — it is two hours further, a separate USD 15 in cash at the gate, and a seven-tiered pyramid that belongs to a different capital entirely.
Angkor: the quiet corners, and the lake
The third day is where Angkor stops being a checklist. Preah Khan and Neak Pean in the morning, both of which most itineraries skip and neither of which has a crowd.
Afternoon out to the Tonle Sap, to Kampong Phluk rather than Chong Kneas — a stilted village on the flood plain, forty minutes further and without the boat-touting that has ruined the nearer one. In the dry season the houses stand ten metres in the air on their poles.
Siem Reap to Phnom Penh
Six hours on National Road 6, breaking at Kampong Thom for Sambor Prei Kuk: seventh-century brick towers, pre-Angkorian, UNESCO-listed since 2017, and almost entirely empty. They are five hundred years older than Angkor Wat and the difference in the brickwork is the point.
Phnom Penh
Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek in the morning, and it is a hard morning. Our guide will tell you their own family history if you ask and will not perform it if you do not.
The afternoon is deliberately gentle: the Royal Palace and the National Museum, whose collection of pre-Angkorian sculpture is the best in the world, or nothing at all, which is a legitimate choice on this particular day.
Depart Phnom Penh
Techo International opened in September 2025, 20 kilometres from the centre, 45 to 60 minutes and longer in the evening peak. The old Pochentong airport is closed. We budget the hour.
What it costs
| Party size | Simple | Comfortable | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | USD 1,180 | USD 1,810 | USD 3,150 |
| 3 - 4 | USD 960 | USD 1,490 | USD 2,800 |
| 5 - 8 | USD 820 | USD 1,290 | USD 2,570 |
What the price includes
- 6 nights as described, twin share
- Private vehicle and driver throughout
- A licensed Khmer guide, paid a day rate
- Three-day Angkor pass, valid on any three days within ten
- Sambor Prei Kuk, Beng Mealea and the Kampong Phluk boat
- Breakfast daily plus the meals named day by day
What it does not include
- Flights into Siem Reap and out of Phnom Penh
- Cambodia eVisa, USD 30 from evisa.gov.kh
- Travel insurance, which we require
- Drinks, laundry, and meals not named
- Koh Ker entry at USD 15 if you choose that swap
- Tips for guides and drivers
Photographs
Who this trip is wrong for
- Anyone who wants Angkor in a day. That trip exists and other people sell it; this one is built on the opposite premise.
- Travellers who cannot walk 5 to 8 kilometres a day on uneven stone in heat. Angkor is not accessible in any meaningful sense.
- People who want beaches. Sihanoukville is not on this route and we do not send people there.
- Anyone hoping to cross into Thailand at the end. Every Thailand–Cambodia land border has been closed since June 2025.
- Parties with young children on day 6. Tuol Sleng is not a place to bring them, and we will arrange something else for that morning if you ask.
Practical notes
The Angkor pass
One day USD 37, three days USD 62 valid on any three days within ten, seven days USD 72 within thirty. Buy at the official counters, open 04:30 to 17:30, or online at ticket.angkorenterprise.gov.kh. Your photograph is taken and printed on the pass. Koh Ker and Preah Vihear are not covered and are paid separately in cash.
Heat
March, April and May are brutal — 38 degrees in the shade at Angkor is normal in April. We build the 11:00 to 15:00 break into every temple day, all year, and in the hot months we mean it.
Visa
Cambodia eVisa, USD 30, three working days, from evisa.gov.kh and nowhere else. Sites charging USD 60 to 90 for the same thing are the most common travel scam in the country. Visa on arrival is also USD 30 at the airports.
Questions travellers ask most
Is three days at Angkor too many?
Almost nobody says so afterwards. The three-day pass costs USD 62 against USD 37 for one day, so the marginal days are the cheapest good days of the trip.
Day one is the central group, day two is the outer temples, and day three is the quiet ones with no crowd — which is the day people describe when they get home.
Why Kampong Phluk rather than the nearer floating village?
Chong Kneas is forty minutes closer and has been comprehensively organised around extracting money from visitors, including a well-documented orphanage-visit scam.
Kampong Phluk is a working village on the flood plain. We do not stop at any school or orphanage in either place.
Can I add the coast?
Kampot and Kep add three days after Phnom Penh: pepper farms, a decaying French seaside town and the best crab in Cambodia. We do not send people to Sihanoukville.
How do I get here now the Thai border is closed?
By air. Bangkok to Siem Reap is about an hour and runs several times a day; Bangkok to Phnom Penh is seventy-five minutes. Overland from Vietnam via Bavet–Moc Bai is open and ordinary.
Read crossing borders for the current picture.
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