Khmer Culture, Crafts & Memory

The pass costs $37 for one day, $62 for three days and $72 for seven, and it is sold only by Angkor Enterprise. Most tour prices on this site do NOT include it – the booking page states whether a given tour does. The three-day pass is valid on any three days within a week, the seven-day pass on any seven within a month, so you do not have to use them back to back.

One day is enough for Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm if you start at sunrise and accept a long day. Three days is the usual answer and the one we would give: it adds Banteay Srei, Preah Khan and a morning off. Seven days makes sense if you also want Koh Ker and Beng Mealea – but note that those two are ticketed separately, around $15 and $10.

Usually yes, and honestly not always. Between June and October the sun often stays behind cloud, and the famous reflection only works when the pond in front of Angkor Wat holds water. You will be leaving your hotel in the dark, so buy the pass the day before rather than queueing at a counter at five in the morning. Tours here start at around €13.

Kampong Phluk, about 30 kilometres out, is the one most tours use and the one with the strongest reviews on this site. Chong Kneas is closer at roughly 15 kilometres but has the worst reputation for pressure selling. Kampong Khleang, around 55 kilometres away, is the quietest. And the season decides what you see: from June to October the houses stand in water, from November to May they stand on dry ground on their stilts.

No – and this is one of the few places where we would say that flatly. Visitors here do not drive themselves: a foreign licence is not accepted in practice, and the temples are done by tuk-tuk or by car with a driver. Almost every tour on this site includes pick-up for exactly this reason, and a tuk-tuk for a full temple day is a normal, cheap arrangement.

November to February is dry, around 24 to 32 °C and the busiest. March to May is the hot season, with afternoons in the mid-thirties that can pass 39 °C – that is when cycling and countryside tours become hard work. June to October brings rain, green fields and a full lake. The airport is Siem Reap Angkor International (SAI), roughly 45 to 50 kilometres from town, about 45 to 60 minutes by road; the old city airport closed in October 2023.