Three days would be good enough to explore Angkor temple complex. On day 1, start with Angkor Wat and its nearby sites, returning to Angkor Wat for sunset. On day 2, head for the jungle temples , then see the sunset on the top temple mountain of Pre Rup. On day 3, see Roluos for some of the earliest Khmer buildings.
The following guide may help you develop your plans for visiting Angkor Wat.
When to Visit
The ideal time to visit Angkor Wat is during the dry season from November to February, which brings relatively cool weather. In this season the sky is clearer than usual, providing good opportunities for photography. As it's the peak season for tourism, however, it can be very crowded, with hordes of tourists.
Alternatively, during the rainy season from June to November, lush landscapes shimmer in the daylight. Angkor is rather wet, often with rain in the afternoons, making morning the best time to explore. It tends to be quieter then, with fewer tourists, which allows you to explore at your own leisure.
It's probably wise to avoid the hot season from March to May, to dodge the stifling heat. But if you don't mind high temperatures, the cost of accommodation is much lower at this time.
We promise you enjoy 100% refund of any payments made to China Highlights prior to 3 weeks before departure (detail⇒).
Recommended Itinerary
Getting There
The easiest way to get to Siem Reap is by air. Siem Reap International Airport offers regular connections to many Asian cities, especially neighboring cities.
The airport offers a Visa-on-Arrival service
From the airport, it takes about 20 minutes by car to get to the downtown area and only 10 minutes to Angkor Wat.
Getting Around
You can travel around Siem Reap in various ways: by car, tuk tuk or bicycle.
The most comfortable and flexible way to travel is by hiring a private car with a tour guide. This can easily be arranged via travel agencies or hotels.
Tuk tuks are easy to find around the temples. They can be fun and relaxing, even if rather bumpy and, in the long run, tiring. We recommend you book a tuk tuk through your hotel, for a more reliable experience. Then you might have the same driver each day and the driver will take you wherever you want to go and wait for you outside.
If you like cycling, a bicycle can easily be rented. Otherwise, don't rent one, for riding only makes you more tired after walking through the temples.
Admission
To gain access to the Angkor complex, visitors need to buy an entrance ticket. The ticket-office is on the road from Siem Reap to Angkor.
Three types of ticket are available:
a 1-day ticket for US$20
a 3-day ticket for US$40 (valid for any three days within a week)
a 7-day ticket for US$60 (valid for any seven days within a month)
There will be a rise in price starting from 1st, February, 2017. The price will be at:
a 1-day ticket for US$37
a 3-day ticket for US$62 (valid for any three days within a week)
a 7-day ticket for US$72 (valid for any seven days within a month)
Remember to keep your ticket handy, as it will be required as you pass certain checkpoints and visit certain temples.
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98.8% positive customer reviews among 10,000+
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Trip-of-a-lifetime
In addition, I want to specifically mention the guides provided in certain locations. Rum, in Siem Reap, made the most memorable experience possible. His positivity was contagious - even when it felt like 1000 degrees and we were tired. He brought it all to life, and created a couple days of Ankor Wat, etc. that we will never forget! He heard my daughter's request for specific Cambodian food, and changed our itinerary to go to a village and eat at a locally known shop. He brought the dessert she asked about to us in the car! Overall, he and his driver "Lucky" were a reason to go to Siem Reap. In addition, the other guides (minus one which was switched out immediately) were stupendous. Mon in Bangkok was friendly and provided a great day there; Eak in Chiang Mai gave us a world-class food-tour and day touring the city and its surrounding temples with lots of laughs; Tommy in Hanoi kept us from getting killed in the traffic and gave a stupendous food and architecture/history tour - so very friendly and funny; the fishing village tour in Hoi An, as well as the side-car tour in Saigon, were both unforgettable! Thank you Sharon, and Asia Highlights. Would definitely use again for future trips! More
Teri Simpson,
Apr 2023
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Cambodia and Vietnam adventure!
Our guide in Cambodia, Meas Darapolaith (Pol), was absolutely amazing. He was knowledgeable, friendly and so helpful. His English was excellent and he shared important insights about history and the magnificent sites we visited. We highly recommend him! More
Jennifer Roth Krieger,
Apr 2023
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My daughter and I wanted to discover SE…
My daughter and I wanted to discover SE Asia. Being the first in that region, we wanted to use a tour service company. We ended up using Asia Highlights. From the beginning we were impressed with their services. We left home with of mind because all the pre-travel arrangements were taking care and communicate to us efficiently. All our questions were answered promptly. Once in the countries, we were welcome by our excellent tour guides. Everything was taking care for us. We did not have one issue. They selected the right tours guides for us, they were highly knowledgeable and so much attentive to our needs. We had Dhat in Vietnam and Borin in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I highly recommend Asia Highlights. I came back home so much rested, and with plenty of wonderful pictures and memories. I will definitely use Asia Highlights again for my next trip to Asia. More
Isabelle Dessaux,
Apr 2023
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Fabulous tour and guide in Cambodia
We have been touring Cambodia, guided by Borin ( and driver 007) for the last 2 days. What a fabulous experience! Borin has been a wonderful guide, the best so far in Southeast Asia, explaining the history and culture of Cambodia through his tours of the temples in and around Angkor, as well as the Landmine museum. He has answered all our questions, made sure we were comfortable, and that we have had great food. 007 made sure we always had enough water and cool towels for our face/neck.We highly recommend Borin as a tour guide for Cambodia!! More
Monica,
Mar 2023
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Best Travel Service for Asia Travel
Alisa Liu was in charge of making the arrangements and she helped us from the start to make all of the arrangements and also helped us when we had questions and requested some adjustments. Her service is of the highest professional level. We are 100% confident that our trip will be perfect. We’re also 100% confident that, if anything comes up during our trip, that Alisa will be there to guide us through and take care of us. We won’t even consider using another agency for travel around Asia and we would like to have Alisa work for us again. More
Leo Pospichal,
Mar 2023
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Tour of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand
The tour guides and drivers were another high point. All were very good, friendly, knowledgeable and spoke English well. There were two that I want to call out for their excellence. Chan Sovannarith in Siem Reap was our guide in Cambodia. He really made the experience special. His knowledge, willingness to answer all my questions, helpfulness and general attitude made him fun to be around. In order to praise the second exceptional guide I have to explain about an unfortunate occurrence that I had. I'm normally a very active senior, but after leaving Cambodia for Laos I was suddenly struck by the most intense back pain I've ever experienced, couldn't even roll over in bed (turned out to be sciatica). The guide, Mr. Sonophet, really went the extra mile. He went with my traveling companion and bought a back brace and medications for me. When that didn't help much he took me to a clinic where I was seen by a doctor, given a shot and pain meds. He hand-made a walking stick for me that I'm still using! He made it possible for me to somewhat participate in the activities, i.e. a bed on the boat down the river. When it was time to move on to Bangkok he got me a wheelchair at the airport. I can't thank him enough for these kindnesses! This problem lasted for the remainder of the trip, through Bangkok and Phuket and these guides were also very helpful getting wheelchairs, etc. It was a terrible disappointment to have this wonderful trip disrupted, but it would have been SO much worse without the great help that I received from the guides and my poor travel companion! More
Deb M,
Mar 2023
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In good hands with Sam
Sam Ol took very good care of us - lots of information, listened to and answered all our questions, was passionate about the places we visited and about his people and country. He was kind, had a great sense of humor, and made sure we felt safe and comfortable at all times. He helped us to fall in love with Cambodia in 3 short days. More
Carol Jones,
Feb 2023
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Best tour guide in Cambodia
When we first arrived at the airport in Siem Riep it was so nice to be greeted by Mr Sam Ol. We instantly fell at home when we saw his friendly smile. We were impressed by his great English and knowledge of the temples. On the tour to the temples Sam took care of us every step of the way. He took awesome pictures of us. It felt like we were on a tour given by our brother who is also a professional photographer. Also, we appreciate his humor as well as the fact he had an answer for every question we had. I give Sam 5 stars, best tour guide ever :) More
Len S,
Feb 2023
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Mr. Sam
Mr. Sam our guide in Cambodia, he and the driver out standing service they went above and beyond touring, my wife so amazed beautiful country, we're planning back here near the futures. Thank Mr. Sam,We'll feedback the whole trip next week when we be home in US More
Pho Lover,
Feb 2023
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Vietnam/Cambodia/Thailand
We are still in the middle of our trip, but we are just finishing up our time in Cambodia and our guide, Borin, has been AMAZING!!! He has truly made our time here unforgettable and I plan on referring all of my friends and family to come visit this beautiful country! Thank you, Borin, for everything you did to make our trip so fantastic! More
Danielle Blount,
Feb 2023
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Excellent service and Wonderful Guides
All of our guides have been terrific. Mr. Sam in Siem Reip was especially wonderful. Both he and our driver were polite, safe knowledgable and informative. Sam made our trip memorable and enioyable. We will definitely recommend Sam and Asia Highlights to our friends. More
Kaaren,
Feb 2023
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Great tour guide Charity at Siem Reap
Our experience in Siem Reap could not have been any better thanks to our outstanding and cheerful guide, Charity. Her very good English speaking made it so easy to learn so much from her. She understood and answers all of our questions.She was relaxed and very knowledgeable. She went out out her way to help us make amazing pano photos of the cotton trees at Siem Reap and on our sunset cruise. She also advised us on Chanrey Tree restaurant—what we found to be the very best vegan restaurant on our first three weeks of our Asia tour. So glad to have vegan meals with very little oil!!! We are not supposed to have oil and is very hard to find vegan with no oil. Went went back the next night. More
Barbara Cornyn,
Jan 2023
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Best guide and driver in Cambodia
Mr Rum takes his profession very seriously and enriches the visits with his depth of knowledge and his interesting and relevant stories. He is a great story teller. More importantly, he is a nice person who we very much enjoyed getting to know in our short time together. Both he and Thary have winning smiles. They are easy to be around and fun to spend time with. It’s not surprising that Mr Rum has maintained contact and friendships with many previous clients. More
John Mullin,
Jan 2023
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Charity and Cambodia were amazing!
We had a fantastic time in Siem Reap. Charity was our tour guide and was the best! She brought knowledge and enthusiasm as she took us around. She was friendly, warm and open making our tour and experience in Siem Reap so wonderful. She gave us awesome suggestions for us to do at the end of the day such as go see a dance performance or visit the night market as well as an early morning activities like watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon. It was magical and we are so grateful to Charity for making this such a memorable trip. She also gave us great suggestion for food and went far and beyond to make sure our vegetarian and food requirements were met. Our driver and car was fantastic as well. We had the best time in Cambodia and would love to visit again. We recommend visiting and having Charity as their tour guide to anyone who has the opportunity to come! More
Prema,
Jan 2023
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Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent…
Amazing tour of Cambodia with excellent guide Luch.. Luch was very knowledgeable and took an extra mile to explain us the Angkorwat sculptures.. the private car was very comfortable.. well planned .. we loved Cambodia and would definitely recommend my friends.. Asia highlights are the best More
Koustuv Sarkar,
Jan 2023
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Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith…
Our rep in Cambodia Chan Sovannarith was very attentive and accommodated my daughter not feeling well by taking us to a chemist to get medication for her. I highly recommend Chan as a rep with Asian highlights he did an excellent job when taking us back to the airport he literally waited to make sure we were all set for our flight to Chang Mai in Thailand. I felt safe knowing he was there incase there were issues. Again, great rep. Thank you!! More
Karen Brooks,
Dec 2022
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We enjoyed our trip VERY much
We enjoyed our trip very much. Our guide, Mr. Polrith is very knowledgeable and provided insightful information about the history, culture and religions of the country. Temples of Cambodia are amazing. They are more beautiful than you can imagine. Thank you so much Mr.Polrith and see you next time More
Tugba Balc,
Dec 2022
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A truly magical experience
You measure the quality of a tour company with how they handle the bumps along the way. Encountering unexpected baggage fees from Cambodia Angkor Air in Siem Reap.Albee without hesitation agreed to cover this cost. More
Bob Bosshard,
Mar 2020
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Great trip with Asia Highlights
We had already booked two trips in China with China Highlights. Both trips were a great experience. So when planning our trip to Cambodia we immediately thought of Asia Highlights because they offer a trip to Vietnam More
Frank & Nadia,
Nov 2019
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Asia Highlights is perfection
My husband and I just returned from an 8 week trip thoughout China- Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and also Singapore and Phuket. I worked with Ruby of Asia Highlights for months designing my dream independant private trip. More
Barb,
May 2019
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Suggested Itineraries
The temple complex at Angkor is so enormous that visiting priorities are a matter for personal preference, depending on the time available. It takes about three days to see most of the important sites. But if your time is limited, it'll still be worth spending only one day in Angkor.
The following itineraries are for your consideration and stimulation. They can be adapted according to your preference. We offer tailor-made tours.
One Day
Morning: Angkor Wat (sunrise) — Bayon
Afternoon: Ta Prohm — Banteay Srei
One and a Half Days
Day 1
Morning: South gate of Angkor Thom — Bayon — Elephant Terrace — Terrace of the Leper King — Phimeanakas and the Royal Enclosure
Afternoon: Ta Prohm — Angkor Wat (sunset)
Day 2
Morning: Banteay Srei — Beng Mealea
Two and a Half Days
Day 1
Morning: South gate of Angkor Thom — Bayon — Elephant Terrace — Terrace of the Leper King — Phimeanakas and the Royal Enclosure
Afternoon: Preah Khan — Angkor Wat (sunset)
Day 2
Morning: Phnom Bakheng (sunrise) — Ta Prohm — Eastern Angkor (Prasat Kravan/Srah Srang/Thommanon/Chao Say Tevoda)
Afternoon: Banteay Srei — Beng Mealea
Day 3
Morning: Roluos
We have developed a Siem-Reap-focused package , which includes a walk with a Khmer schoolar to know the stories behind.
Photography Opportunities
Angkor Wat is renowned for the silhouette of the central sanctuary reflecting on the ponds at the west entrance. Both sunrise and sunset are great.
Phnom Bakheng is good for the spectacular panoramic views from its summit. The temple itself and its stairway also look good in pictures. It's the most popular spot for sunrise or sunset.
Bayon comprises a mass of Buddha-face towers which together create a stone mountain and provide various photographic possibilities. Early morning and late afternoon can reveal unexpected and interesting perspectives of the faces.
Ta Prohm is special for its ruins embraced by tree branches. It looks particularly peaceful in the early morning.
Banteay Srei is known for its exquisite carvings on glowing red sandstone. Early morning and mid-afternoon provide attractive lighting.
Srah Srang is a good spot for the sunrise from its landing-stage.
Continue to read Beyond Angkor Wat to know other mysterious ruins.
With a Tour Guide and a Private Car vs on Your Own
Tour guides are definitely helpful for showing you how to visit and appreciate each specific temple. They not only supply more detailed information and show you the best photo angles, but also lead you away from large groups where possible.
Otherwise, you'll find it hard to understand the temples and won't know where to begin.
A private car and driver facilitates a more comfortable and flexible experience. You'll be glad to relax in an air-conditioned car after walking a lot through temples and climbing many stairs. A private car can also facilitate any change of plans. Otherwise, you may become sweaty and stressed.
The cost per day is about US$50 for a guide and US$25 for a private car plus driver.
Where to Stay
A variety of accommodation is available, from 5-star luxury hotels to low-budget hostels. A standard room in a 3-/4-star boutique hotel costs about US$50–US$100 per room per night, while a 5-star hotel costs more than US$150 per room per night.
Best stay in downtown Siem Reap, where you can stroll around comfortably at night. It's near the Angkor complex and only a 20-minute drive from the international airport. We recommend the Sokha Angkor and Tara Angkor hotels as the best-value hotels.
Where to Eat
There is a good variety of food, Asian and European, enough to cater to all tastes. Many reasonably-priced restaurants are clustered together downtown or tucked away in the villages. Usually US$10–US$20 per person is enough for a decent meal.
If your itinerary focuses on Angkor Wat or Angkor Thom, go back downtown for lunch. If you head further afield, to Banteat Srei for example, you'll probably enjoy lunch at one of the wooden-built restaurants in the village.
Just don't frequent the restaurants in the Angkor area, as they're often expensive and the food is not quite so good.
Where to Drink
You may find some vendors in the Angkor area serving bottled water, fresh coconut and soft drinks at about US$1 or US$2 per drink. For other drinks, go back downtown.
Currency and Prices
Though the Cambodian currency is the riel, most transactions can be made in USD. You can obtain cash from a bank or an ATM downtown, but not in a rural area.
The tourist industry in Siem Reap is undergoing a phase of rapid development, with accommodation and restaurants to suit various budgets. Tours are also easily arranged.
The cost of a budget trip is around US$60-100 per day, a mid-range trip about US$120-150 per day, and a luxury trip over US$180 per day. The main difference in cost lies in the different hotels. These prices include day-trips, hotels and food.
Health and Safety Considerations
Most visitors, with the exercise of everyday common-sense and caution, will have a safe and healthy stay in Siem Reap. We still advise you to buy comprehensive travel insurance before setting off.
Consult your doctor before traveling for suggestions about vaccinations and medical care. As malaria sometimes arises in Angkor, you'll probably need to take a prophylactic.
To avoid dehydration caused by the heat, bring bottled water on outings, and wear a hat and cool clothing.
To avoid scams, don't go to remote areas or accept invitations to strangers' homes. Choose standard hotels, rather than unreliable hostels. To preempt being robbed, don't wear too much jewelry and leave valuable items in your hotel safe.
Continue to read:
Know Before You Visit Angkor Wat
Visit Angkor Wat with Asia Highlights
We offer tailor-made tours to Angkor Wat. Just Contact us and we'll customize your tours.
You might like:
5-Day Siem Reap Tour at Depth: Wonders and Beyond
12-Day Cambodia and Vietnam Highlights: A Journey in Wonders
Why Travel with Asia Highlights (98.8% positive customer reviews among 10,000+)
- Unique experiences tailored to your interests: Enjoy a premium trip that goes beyond the typical tourist attractions.
- Hassle-free travel and peace of mind: Every aspect of your trip will be carefully planned and organized by your 1:1 travel consultant.
- Experienced and knowledgeable guides: Your guides will be local and love to work for travelers' smiles.
Get Inspired with Our Sample Itineraries
At Asia Highlights, we create your kind of journey — your dates, your destinations, at your pace. You can have any trip tailor made for your travel.
