SIEM REAP · CAMBODIA
Temples by dawn light, jungle by afternoon.
Angkor Wat at sunrise, Bayon's stone faces by noon, Ta Prohm's roots and ruins, the Tonle Sap floating villages and the Khmer countryside between. Reviews of the day tours, evening shows and Cambodia day trips that build a Siem Reap week.
If you only do one day at Angkor
The temple day everyone books.
A guided run through Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm in a single day — the route most travellers use for their first Angkor visit.
The classics
Siem Reap's Most Popular Tours
Angkor Wat sunrise, Kulen Mountain waterfalls, Kampong Phluk floating village. The day trips Siem Reap is built around.
The magic hour
Sunrise or sunset. Pick the light.
Angkor Wat faces west, so the towers light up at dawn and silhouette at dusk. Two different temple days, both worth doing.
The map of Angkor
Pick a temple.
Angkor Wat for the icon. Bayon for the faces. Ta Prohm for the trees. Banteay Srei for the carving. Beng Mealea for the jungle ruin. Kulen Mountain for the waterfall and the underwater carvings.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Tuk-tuk if you want the classic Siem Reap shot. E-bike if you want range without a driver. Floating village if you want off the temple trail. Cooking class for amok and palm sugar. Apsara dance or Phare circus for the night.
Only here
Things you can't do anywhere else.
Kampong Phluk's stilted homes rise 10 metres above the lake bed each dry season, then float through the wet. The Tonle Sap is the only major lake on the planet that reverses flow with the monsoon — the three boat tours we’d send our friends to.
When you've had enough temples
Beyond Angkor.
Kulen Mountain's waterfall, the river of a thousand lingas carved into the riverbed, jungle picnic lunches and the sacred reclining Buddha. Three days outside the Angkor park, all within an hour of town.
Further afield
Day trips across Cambodia.
Phnom Penh's Royal Palace and the Killing Fields, Battambang's bamboo train, Kampot pepper plantations. Long days but doable from Siem Reap. Our three to put on the second-half of a week here.
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