Angkor takes three days. Siem Reap takes longer.
Which sunrise tour is actually through the gate before the coaches. What a tuk-tuk driver charges for the grand circuit. Whether the boat to Kampong Phluk still floats in April. Reviews of every tour you can book here.
A temple the jungle keptAngkor Wat Sunrise and Full-Day Sightseeing Tour
Stilt houses on the lakeKampong Phluk Floating Village Tour by Boat
Angkor Wat before sunriseAngkor Wat Private Tuk-Tuk Tour (sunrise Option) & more
Court dance after dinnerApsara Dance Show and Dinner with Hotel Pickup
The park from a balloonAngkor Stunning Hot Air Balloon
Four bookings the rest of the week gets built around.
The gate before dawn, the lake in the late afternoon, a Khmer kitchen and a tent on the edge of town. What each one costs and what the people who went say about it.
01The first morningAngkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem ReapThrough the gate while it is still dark, then the grand circuit while the stone is cool and the light is low.
02The afternoon boatKampong Phluk Floating Village Tour by BoatOut to the stilt houses at Kampong Phluk, timed so you are on the water as the sun drops behind the flooded forest.
03The kitchen dayKhmer Cooking Class at a Local’s Home in Krong Siem ReapThe market first, then a family kitchen: fish amok, a sour soup, and a lunch you cooked yourself.
04The last nightThe Cambodian Circus Show in Siem ReapA tent on the edge of town where the acrobats tell Cambodian stories instead of doing tricks. One show a night.
Sunrise ticket, the grand circuit, or the long drive north. Pick your temple day.
Every Angkor itinerary is really one question: how much stone can you take in a day. Three kinds of temple day, what it costs to join each, and how far out of town it takes you.
What a day around Siem Reap actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Cambodia is cheap to travel; the Angkor pass is the expensive part, and on most of these it is bought separately.
Shared sunrise runs, tuk-tuk circuits, a cooking class, and the boat out to the floating villages.
Your own guide and car, the long day to Koh Ker, Kulen mountain with a picnic, dinner and the circus together.
Multi-day passes with a private driver, the balloon at dawn, and the run all the way to Preah Vihear.
Angkor is where it starts. The belt runs sixty miles past it.
The walled city and its causeways, a ruin nobody has cleared, the mountain where a river was carved into the riverbed, pink sandstone cut like woodwork, and a lake that changes size with the season. Six places, and the best day out in each.
The Tonlé Sap sets the calendar here, not the temples.
The lake swells five times over in the wet months and drains back in the dry, and every village on it is built for both. Kampong Phluk stands on stilts twenty feet up; Chong Kneas floats and moves with the water. Go late in the day, when the light is on the water and the boats are coming in.
- 1Kampong Phluk Floating Village Tour by Boatfrom $20
- 2Sunset tour of Kampong Phluk stilts home village on the Tonle Sapfrom $21
- 3Kampong Phluk Floating Village Tour with Boatfrom $19
The days out more travellers book than anything else in Siem Reap.
Every Siem Reap tour →Sunrise at the moat leads by a distance. Behind it: the lake at dusk, a kitchen, and a circus tent.
1
Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem Reap
Review of the $18 Angkor Wat sunrise or sunset tour from Siem Reap, with four temples, guide-led visits, transport, tips, and costs.
From · $18
Read our review →
2
Angkor Wat: Small-Group Sunrise or Sunset Tour
from $15
3
Kampong Phluk Floating Village Tour by Boat
from $20
4
Sunset tour of Kampong Phluk stilts home village on the Tonle Sap
from $21
5
Angkor Wat 2-Day Tour with Sunrise and Sunset
from $34
6
Kampong Phluk Floating Village Tour with Boat
from $19
7
Full-Day Angkor Wat Guided Tour with Sunset
from $15
8
Angkor Wat Sunrise tour with Small – Group and Guide tours
from $14
Three things Siem Reap does that nowhere else does.
Night markets and temples run the length of South-East Asia. Court dance carried down off the walls of Angkor, a circus funded by an art school, and a dawn blessing with river water and red thread do not.
Apsara Dance
The dancers on the walls of Angkor are the same figures who step out on stage at dinner: fingers bent back past ninety degrees, gold headdress, every pose held half a second longer than looks comfortable. Most of Cambodia's classical dancers died under the Khmer Rouge and the form was rebuilt in the 1980s from the handful who survived and from the carvings themselves. Most shows come with a buffet. The dance is the reason to go.
- 1Apsara Show Including Dinner & Hotel Pickup 4.6 · 615 reviews
- 2Apsara Dance Show and Dinner with Hotel Pickup 4.6 · 425 reviews
- 3Apsara Dance Show & Dinner with Tuk-Tuk Transfers 4.4 · 254 reviews
Phare, the Cambodian Circus
Phare started as an art school for children coming out of the camps on the Thai border, and the circus is what pays for it. No animals, almost no props: the performers tell Cambodian stories with acrobatics, a live band and a great deal of nerve. One show a night in a tent on the edge of town, and it sells out in high season.
- 1The Cambodian Circus Show in Siem Reap 5.0 · 1,925 reviews
- 2Phare, the Cambodian Circus Show Tickets 4.9 · 1,850 reviews
- 3Phare, Cambodian Circus with Tuk-Tuk Transfers 4.8 · 50 reviews
A Monk's Blessing
At the pagodas around town a monk will chant a Pali blessing over you, flick river water from a bundle of stems and tie a red cotton thread around your wrist. It takes about ten minutes and costs whatever you leave in the bowl. Cover shoulders and knees, take your shoes off at the door, and leave the thread on until it falls off by itself.
- 11-Hour Cambodian Buddhist Water Blessing 4.9 · 68 reviews
- 2Monk Blessing Ceremony in Siem Reap 5.0 · 24 reviews
- 3Private Guided Angkor Wat Tour by Lady Tuk Tuk with Monk Blessing 5.0 · 19 reviews
Four Siem Reap bookings that will not wait.
Most of this town can be arranged over breakfast for the same morning. These four run on gate times, one nightly show, the wind, and a road that takes half a day in each direction.
- 01Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem ReapThe park opens at five and the pass office queue starts before that. Being in it early is the whole difference between the pond and the back of a crowd.
- 02The Cambodian Circus Show in Siem ReapOne show a night in a tent that seats a few hundred. In the dry season it goes days ahead.
- 03Angkor Stunning Hot Air BalloonDawn flights only, and they are called off on wind. Book it early in your stay so there is a second morning to fall back on.
- 04Koh Ker Temple Group & Beng Mealea Full-Day Join-in TourFour hours of driving around a day that starts at seven. Nobody puts that car and guide together at short notice.
Siem Reap does not shut down when the park does.
The gates close at half past five and the town switches on: court dance over a buffet, a circus tent, grill smoke the length of Pub Street, and a night market that runs until the last tuk-tuk leaves.
When the afternoon storm lands, and when the lake is too low for boats.
From May to October it rains hard for an hour most afternoons and then stops — the temples empty out and the light gets very good. The lake works the other way round: high and easy to reach from September, and by March the boats at Chong Kneas are pushing through mud. Plan the morning outdoors and keep an indoor hour in your pocket.
By place — the park and the belt beyond it
By kind of day — temple, boat, kitchen or road
The order almost everyone takes Angkor in, and where day three goes.
Apsara dinnerThe newest Siem Reap tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Guided Private Tuk Tuk Tour Angkor Wat and Small Circle and Five Extras
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Private Tuk Tuk Tour to Angkor Wat and Small Circle with Two Extras
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