Sunrise over Angkor Wat from the West side
Highlights
Time of Visit: March 2025
Duration of Visit: Three Nights
Description
Siem Reap is a wonderful destination. It is a big town with a small community feeling. The town is spread out so it covers a large area. Picking the location to stay depends on what you are looking for (more later).
Angkor Wat is part of the Angkor Archeological Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Angkor Wat is only one of many temple ruins in Cambodia. There are other less known ruins within a couple of hours from Siem Reap and not part of the Angkor Archeological Park.
If your purpose of visiting Siem Reap is just to see Angkor Wat and spending time enjoying the town’s good vibe, then three or four days would be enough. But these would be filled with day long activities such that you may want a break in between. In that case, a longer stay would be recommended (more later).
Activities
Siem Reap
Hanging out at Siem Reap is one way to spend a stress free day. If you are a shopper, the Old Market will provide you with hours of browsing for that sought out souvenir, clothing, bags and more. But bargaining for a good price can be tiring so just be ready for it.
Within a few minutes walk from the Old Market are many restaurants, ice cream shops, massage shops and more shopping. There is Pub Street which is a pedestrian only street that is lined with restaurants on both sides. The place comes alive at night when people are out and about and the colorful overhead street lights are turned on.
There is also the Night Street Market just across the Siem Reap River. There are many choices of street food vendors that serve traditional and exotic foods.
If you get tired of eating, shopping and massages, there are tours available besides temple tours at Angkor Archeological Park (see photo in Other Activities for options).
So if you come to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat, just make sure you set aside time to soak in Siem Reap’s atmosphere and several tour opportunities outside the city besides Angkor Archeological Park.
Angkor Archeological Park
Angkor Wat is the main temple complex within the Angkor Archaeological Park. The archeological park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Angkor Wat can be seen in one day. But there are so many other temples within the archeological park that you will need a week or maybe more. For us, once we have seen a few temples, they all start to look the same so spending a couple of days seeing select temples was enough.
Most tours in the park have two routes. The tour guides refer to them as the big loop and the small loop. There are guided tours and there are self-guided tours. We opted for the latter where our tour operator picked us up from our accommodation and basically just took care of the transportation part and picked the temples we were going to visit on our own. This arrangement suits us well as we like to go on our pace and do want to listen to someone tell us something that we will eventually forget.
On our first full day, we visited three large temple complexes along the small loop. On our second day, we visited six smaller temple complexes along the big loop plus a side trip to Preah Dak for palm cakes and the sunset at Phnom Bakheng Temple.
We were “templed out” after two days of sightseeing such that we did not even bother to walk around the morning of our last day before flying out. Maybe because we were just drained as the weather was just hot.
Small Loop
We visited Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider) and Bayon Temple complexes on the small loop. We also spent about 45 minutes for brunch.
Our tuk-tuk driver picked us up at 4:45AM so we were at the Angkor Wat temple by 5:15AM. Then we, along with hundreds of people, waited for the sunrise at the complex’s West side. The best picture spot for the sunrise is at the wooden platform in front of the pond.
We then roamed around Angkor Wat as we made our way to the temple’s East entrance. We think that the best photo spot, after sunrise, is at the East entry gate as the towers appear to be larger and taller compared to the West side.
Ta Prohm was a nice complex to explore. Our driver said that the first Tomb Raider movie was filmed here. There were just surprises at every turn. Particularly interesting were the tree roots that have claimed some temple real estate. The one hour allotted here was not enough. We should have moved quickly at Angkor Wat so we could have spent more time here.
The last stop was the Bayon Temple ruins. This is a nice ruin when viewed from the periphery. Not much to see inside. We were allotted one hour and it was enough for the ruins. However there were other ruins along the walk back to the parking lot meeting point. Two hours would have been better. We went back to Siam Reap around 1 PM.
Big Loop And Sunset View
Normally the Big Loop would start at 8AM but because we added the Sunset View, we started the tour at 1PM.
The temples we visited were Banteay Kdei, Pre Rup, East Mebon, Ta Som, Nek Poan and Prasat Preah Kahn. With the exception of Prasat Preah Kahn, the temple complexes were about the size of Bayon or smaller. We also added a quick stop to Preah Dak to buy freshly baked (hot off the pot) tasty palm cakes.
Temples Worth Visiting
There were a lot of temples to see in under four hours as we needed to be at the sunset entry point by 5PM. Banteay Kdei looked like a smaller version of Prasat Preah Khan (Tomb Raider) with fewer trees with overgrown roots.
Pre Rup and East Mebon temples looked similar but each has nice photo opportunities. East Mebon Temple has nice elephant statues.
The next temples were Ta Som and Nek Poan. Ta Som was just like other ruins while Nek Poan was a small ruin in the middle of a pond. Perhaps the saving grace of Nek Paon was the view of the lake and waterlilies along the boardwalk and the blind luck of being there while there was a photoshoot of a Cambodian girl dressed in Apsara costume.
We only had 20 minutes left to see Prasat Preah Khan and only made it to its gate. It is the largest temple on the big loop stops. In hindsight, we should have spent less time at Bantai Kdei and skipped Ta Som and just walked along the boardwalk to the way to Nek Poan. There was no need to go any further past the boardwalk.
Sunset At Phnom Bakheng Temple
Phnom Bakheng is located on top of a hill. It is about a 20 minute walk from the ticket control booth (by the road) to the temple. The uphill walk is not too bad.
There were already a lot of people at the temple by 5:30 PM. The sunset did not look promising as there were clouds at the horizon. Some people left as soon as the sun disappeared behind the clouds.
We stuck around. The magic happened about 15 minutes after the sun disappeared. The sky in front of us had shades of yellow, orange and red. The rangers had to chase us off at 6:30 PM.
Park Tickets
We recommend purchasing park tickets on-line as we did not see any ticket counters while touring the archeological park. One, three and seven day passes are available. We purchased the three day pass as we thought we could not do the sunrise and sunset on the same day.
Knowing what we know now, we could have been satisfied with just one day of sightseeing. If we were going to do it again, we would have done the small loop as described, rest/nap in the afternoon and be ready for the sunset at Phom Bakheng Temple. This way, only a one day pass would be needed (be sure to arrange it first with your tour operator before purchsasing park tickets).
Other Activities
If you have more time to spare in your visit to Siam Reap, you could sign up for a tour to visit a floating village. We just mentioned it here for information as we did not have time for it.
If you want to save some money in seeing Angkor Wat and other temple complexes, you can see it on your own by renting a scooter. There are scooter rentals at Siem Reap for around $10 US a day.
How To Get There
You just need to get to Siem Reap. From Siem Reap, the tour operator that you hire will pick you up from your accommodation.
The fastest way to get to Siem Reap is to fly. Siem Reap has an international airport (airport code SAI). The airport is about a 40 minute drive from town.
You would need to arrange an airport pick-up transportation with your accommodation.
There are buses that run between the airport and Siem Reap. The cost was $8US pp and it runs at set times. The savings for two people was not worth the hassle in our opinion.
We suggest you decline any offer from a tuk-tuk driver to take you from the airport to town. Those take about twice as long and you may get wet if there is a downpour.
Where To Stay
We would suggest staying within walking distance from the Old Market where you can unwind after any tour. We lucked out with Marvelinn Siem Reap which was a five minute walk from the Old Market.
Our room was spacious, including the bathroom. The only negative is that there is no elevator for the rooms in the upper levels. The hosts are nice people and even gave my wife an embroidered shoal as a parting gift.
When To Go
Locals said that the coolest months are between November and January. It is also dry. However, that is when most tourists go to Siem Reap.
March was hot and humid and we sweated a lot. There were still a lot of foreign tourists.
April through June is the summer season. It is just downright hot according to the locals. Temperatures are in the high 30’s to low 40’s deg C according to our guide.
July through October is the rainy season. A rain event normally lasts about an hour or two but does not really lower the temperature. Instead, it makes it more miserable by adding to the humidity.
The Currency
Merchants, tour companies and pretty much every local would quote prices in US$. The local currency is Khmer Riel (symbol KHR) and is also accepted. Locals do prefer the US$ because of its stability and that the country needs it as they have more imports than exports.
So if you are from the US, bring US$ so you don’t have to make ATM withdrawals.
Expected Expenses
About $200 US would be sufficient for two people for three nights. This should cover three days of food, some shopping, round trip airport transportation ($20 USD each way) and tuk-tuk transportation (tour) to visit the temples in the two days described here. Angkor Archeological Park entry tickets would be separate as it needs to be purchased on-line.
We were averaging $10 per meal for two people. Our two park day tuk-tuk transportation was $60 US. Airport shuttle was $40 US. We did not use any tourist guides at the park.
Summary
Siem Reap is the bustling gateway to the awe inspiring Angkor Arhceological Park which has the world famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the world’s largest religious monument. The archeological park is also home to other remarkable 9th–15th century Khmer temples such as Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Thom. These architectural marvels, with their intricate bas‑reliefs and mythical symbolism draw visitors from around the globe.
Siem Reap is just not the gateway to the vast park. The city has a lively center that features vibrant night markets for exotic treats and Pub Street cafés and bars that serve tasty Khmer cuisine along with Western staples such as burgers. Some restaurants even have Apsara dances which is a traditional storytelling through a dance routine.
There are also many other things to do beyond Siem Reap and the archeological park.
But the best experience in visiting Siem Reap are the Khmer people. They are very friendly and will greet you with a smile. The people and the park make the visit to Siem Reap an unforgettable Southeast Asian destination.