Cambodia: the complete guide to planning your trip

This is the document our consultants open when a new Cambodia file lands on the desk. It is written by the team that runs the country from our own Hanoi office, which covers Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia as one operation.

Cambodia at a glance

Cambodia is compact. Roughly 500 miles (800 km) across at its widest, with a flat central plain around the Tonle Sap lake and mountains only at the edges. Almost every itinerary is a triangle: Siem Reap in the north-west, Phnom Penh in the centre, and the coast or the eastern highlands as the third point.

When to travel

Cambodia has two seasons and a brutal transition between them. Getting the month right matters more here than in most of Southeast Asia, because heat is the thing most likely to ruin a temple day.

November to February, the dry and cool season

This is the window, and it is the reason our best_months list is short. Daytime highs sit around 86 to 90 Fahrenheit (30 to 32 C), humidity drops, mornings are clear and the light on the sandstone at Angkor is at its best. The Tonle Sap is still high from the wet season, so the floating villages are genuinely on water rather than on stilts above dried mud.

It is also the busiest period, and rates in Siem Reap and on the islands are at their annual peak. Christmas and New Year book out earliest. If you want this window, six months of lead time is comfortable and three is tight.

March to May, the hot season

Genuinely hot. April regularly passes 95 F (35 C) and can reach the low hundreds, with high humidity before the rains break. Temple days have to be cut to a morning and a late afternoon with a long gap in the middle, and that gap is not wasted time, it is the only way the day works.

The compensation is that rates fall, the temples are quieter after New Year, and the light is dramatic. We will happily build April and May trips, but we build them shorter, slower and with a pool.

June to October, the wet season

Rain in Cambodia is usually an intense afternoon downpour rather than a whole grey day, and June through August often gives you clear mornings, empty temples and a countryside that is green rather than dust-coloured. Photographers frequently prefer it.

September and October are the wettest weeks of the year. Rural roads in Mondulkiri, Ratanakiri and the Cardamoms turn to mud, some become impassable, and we will say so rather than sell you an itinerary that will not run. Coastal boat services also cancel more often. On the other hand, the Tonle Sap is at its maximum extent and the water villages are extraordinary.

Festivals worth planning around

Khmer New Year falls in mid-April and is the biggest event of the year. Much of the country goes home to the provinces, Phnom Penh empties, some businesses close for several days and Siem Reap fills with Cambodian families. It is a wonderful thing to see and a difficult week to move around in. Pchum Ben, in September or October, is the ancestors’ festival and has a similar though shorter effect. The Water Festival in November, when the Tonle Sap river reverses direction, brings enormous crowds to the Phnom Penh riverfront.

How many days do you need

• Under 6 days. Siem Reap and Angkor only. This works as an add-on to a Vietnam or Thailand trip and it is a legitimate way to see the temples, but it is not a Cambodia trip.
• 9 days. The honest minimum for the country: Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and either the Kampot and Kep coast or two nights on an island. This is our most-booked length.
• 11 to 12 days. The above without compression, plus Battambang, or the eastern highlands, or a proper stretch on the water.
• 14 days and up. Either Cambodia slowly and completely, or Cambodia paired with southern Vietnam or with Laos.

The number that matters is not total days, it is hotel changes. Cambodian roads are slow, and above one move every two and a half days a trip starts to feel like a series of drives. We build to that ratio.

Angkor, and the honest answer about how long

Angkor is not one temple. It is an archaeological park of about 150 square miles (400 sq km) containing several hundred structures, of which perhaps a dozen are worth your time and four are genuinely extraordinary.

Two days is enough. Three is generous. Five is too many for almost everyone. The seven-day pass exists, which makes people assume seven days is a sensible plan. It is not. Temple fatigue is real, the heat is cumulative, and by day four most people are photographing carvings they cannot tell apart. We would rather give you three excellent temple days and put the other two nights somewhere with a different landscape.

A three-day shape that works:

• Day one, the small circuit. Angkor Wat itself in the late afternoon, when the western face is lit and the sunrise crowd has long gone, then Angkor Thom, the Bayon with its faces, and Ta Prohm with the trees through the masonry.
• Day two, further out. Banteay Srei, an hour from town, small, pink sandstone, and the finest carving in the whole park. Then Banteay Samre or Preah Khan on the way back, and Srah Srang late.
• Day three, the jungle. Beng Mealea, largely uncleared and about 90 minutes east, or the full day out to Koh Ker with its stepped pyramid.

The sunrise problem, specifically

The famous shot of Angkor Wat reflected in water is taken from the northern reflecting pool, and at sunrise several thousand people stand at that one pool. It is the single most crowded moment in the country. You will queue in the dark, you will be shoulder to shoulder, and if there is cloud you will have done it for nothing.

We are not against it. We are against pretending it is a serene experience. If you want it, we get you there very early and we tell you what it will be like. If you would rather not, the Bayon at opening time has perhaps thirty people in it, Srah Srang gives you the sunrise over water with almost nobody there, and Angkor Wat in the last hour of the afternoon is better lit anyway.

Passes and practicalities

Angkor passes come as one-day, three-day and seven-day tickets, bought in person at the official ticket office a few miles from the temples, with your photograph taken on the spot. The multi-day passes do not have to be used on consecutive days, which is useful when you want a rest day in the middle. We buy them with you on arrival rather than sending you to queue alone.

Dress code is enforced at Angkor Wat and at several other temples: shoulders and knees covered, for everyone. Bring more water than you think, start at opening and stop by eleven.

Beyond the temples

Phnom Penh. Two nights, and worth them. The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda in the morning, the National Museum for the pre-Angkorian sculpture that gives Angkor its context, and the riverfront in the evening. The city has become genuinely good to eat in.

Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek. The former school used as security prison S-21, and the killing field outside the city. They are the most important two hours in Cambodia and they are extremely hard. Take the audio guide, allow a quiet afternoon afterwards, and do not schedule them on a departure day. More on placing them below.

Battambang. The best-preserved French colonial architecture in the country, a working provincial town, and Phare Ponleu Selpak, the circus and arts school whose graduates run the Siem Reap performance. Two nights, and a good way to break the Siem Reap to Phnom Penh drive.

Kampot and Kep. Our default answer for the coast. Kampot is a small river town beneath the Bokor plateau with pepper farms in the surrounding countryside. Kep is smaller still, with a crab market and a quiet swimming beach. Neither is a resort strip, which is the point.

The islands. Koh Rong Sanloem is the one we send most people to: proper white sand, clear water, low-rise accommodation. Koh Rong is livelier and less appealing to most of our travellers. Both are reached by fast boat from the Sihanoukville port, a crossing of roughly 30 to 45 minutes.

Sihanoukville itself. We mostly do not send people there any more. The town was transformed by a casino and construction boom, much of the beachfront changed beyond recognition, and while parts continue to be rebuilt it is not the relaxed beach town of a decade ago. Kampot, Kep and the islands do the job better.

Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri. The eastern highlands: forest, waterfalls, Bunong villages and a genuine elephant sanctuary near Sen Monorom where the animals are observed rather than ridden. We do not use riding camps anywhere. These are long drives on rough roads and they belong in a twelve-day trip, not a nine-day one.

The Cardamom Mountains. The largest surviving rainforest in mainland Southeast Asia, with community-run ecotourism at Chi Phat and a small number of tented camps. Basic accommodation, real wildness, and only in the dry season.

Preah Vihear. A Khmer temple on a cliff edge on the Thai border, reached up a steep escarpment, with a view over the plain that no other temple in the country matches. It has a contested history and access depends on the border situation, so we confirm it is open and sensible before we put it in your itinerary.

Kratie. On the Mekong, and the place to see Irrawaddy dolphins. Be realistic: the population in this stretch of river is very small and shrinking, sightings are usually distant dorsal fins, and the boat trip is quiet rather than spectacular.

Getting around

Cambodia is a private car and driver country. Roads have improved substantially and the Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville expressway has cut that drive to around two hours, but National Road 6 between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap is still five to six hours for about 200 miles (320 km). Assume 30 to 35 miles an hour as an average outside the expressway.

Internal flights run between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and take about 45 minutes. On a nine-day trip we usually fly one leg and drive the other, so you see the countryside once without spending two days in a car.

Siem Reap is now served by the newer Angkor International Airport, roughly 30 miles (50 km) east of town and about an hour by road. Phnom Penh’s airport arrangements changed recently as well. We confirm which airport your flights use, and the current transfer time, in your final documents rather than publishing numbers here that move.

Long-distance buses and the reopened railway exist and are cheap. They are also slow and inflexible, and on a two-week trip they cost you more in hours than they save in dollars.

What a trip to Cambodia costs

Land only, per person, based on two people sharing, excluding international flights. These figures cover accommodation, most meals, private ground transport, entrance fees including Angkor passes and the guiding we would normally include.

Two things move the total more than anything else. The first is hotels: Cambodia has a small number of genuinely excellent properties and a very large number of ordinary ones, and the gap in nightly rate is wide. The second is the month, with December and January carrying a real premium in Siem Reap.

What is cheaper than people expect: food and drivers. An excellent Khmer meal is a few dollars, a good restaurant dinner is fifteen to twenty-five, and a private car with driver for a full day is a fraction of what the equivalent costs in Japan or Vietnam.

Money, and the two-currency system

Cambodia runs on US dollars and Cambodian riel together. Prices are quoted in dollars, ATMs dispense dollars, and change under one dollar comes back in riel at roughly 4,000 to the dollar. Bring clean, unmarked notes: torn or heavily worn dollars are frequently refused. Small denominations are much more useful than large ones. Cards work in city hotels and better restaurants and nowhere else you will want to spend money.

Eating in Cambodia

Khmer food is quieter than Thai and less herb-forward than Vietnamese: sour, mild, built on fermented fish paste and fresh water fish. It is underrated and it is having a good decade, with a serious modern Khmer restaurant scene in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Order fish amok, steamed in banana leaf with coconut and lemongrass. Order lok lak, beef with a lime and black pepper dipping sauce, which is where Kampot pepper earns its reputation. Eat breakfast the way Cambodians do, either num banh chok, rice noodles with a green fish gravy, or bai sach chrouk, grilled pork over rice. Kuy teav, the morning noodle soup, is worth setting an alarm for.

Vegetarian is workable with notice, but it needs to be arranged rather than requested at the table, because fish paste is in a great deal of what looks vegetable. Tell us early and our Hanoi office briefs the restaurants and the guides.

Placing the difficult days

Cambodia’s recent history is not background. Roughly a quarter of the population died between 1975 and 1979, most Cambodians you meet are connected to it directly, and the two memorial sites in Phnom Penh are unflinching.

Our rules, learned from doing this a lot:

• Visit in the morning, and keep the afternoon light and unstructured.
• Never on the day you fly, and never immediately before a beach or island transfer.
• Use the audio guide at Tuol Sleng. It is one of the best of its kind anywhere and it is better than a guide talking over it.
• With teenagers, brief them beforehand and let them opt out on the day.
• With younger children, we do not include them. We build an alternative morning and, where parents want to go, we arrange for one adult to visit while the other has the children, on separate mornings if both want to.

Being told this in advance is the difference between a hard day that means something and a day that derails a week.

How we build a Cambodia trip

Every Cambodia itinerary we write is put together by a named person: Mai Est, our Head of Consulting, or Osnat Angerman and Paz Prosianoy, our Southeast and Central Asia specialists. It is then checked by our Hanoi office, which is our own, staffed year round, and which runs Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia together.

The first proposal is free, carries no obligation and is written for you rather than pulled from a template. You will see the actual hotels, the actual drive times, the reasoning behind the order of the days and the thing we took out of your brief.

When you travel we open a WhatsApp group with your consultant and our Hanoi office. It stays open from take-off until you are home. A flooded road in the east, a temple closure, a boat that does not sail: handled by people in the region rather than by a helpline.

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• The eight Cambodia itineraries we build most often
• Angkor in three days, temple by temple
• How much does Cambodia really cost?
• Where to go on the Cambodian coast now

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