Angkor: The trip that will take your breath away

One of the most remarkable aspects of a visit to Angkor is that there are still relatively few tourists. Visitors may find themselves alone in the dense jungle, the silence broken only by the cries of birds in the distance, rounding a bend in the path and "discovering" an imposing ancient temple. We were frequently the only two people at a monument; it was easy to imagine that we were discovering them for the first time in centuries.

The temples at Angkor rendered me absolutely speechless again and again. The massive temples go on for ages, with unbelievable wonders at every turn. We would explore a room or series of corridors for several minutes, in absolute awe, thinking that we MUST have just seen the most amazing things possible, then we would pass through the next doorway into a magnificent courtyard more stunning than the last. It will truly take your breath away.

In addition to visiting the monuments of Angkor, be sure allow at least one afternoon to explore the area where the local people live and the land mine museum – both are memorable experiences that will give you a glimpse into both Cambodia’s present and recent history.

Quick Tips:

Please see the "Angkor advice" section of this guide for information about guides & guidebooks, accommodations, clothing, dining, passes to the sites, etc.

Best Way To Get Around:

The temples are located a few miles away from the small city of Siam Riep. Tourists can either hire a car and driver (around US/ day) or a motorcycle and driver (around US/day). It’s also possible to rent a bicycle, but since the temples are a few miles from town and from one another, I’d advise against it. We decided on the motorcycle, which is a wonderful way to see the sites. On the road to the temples and the roads between the sites, you will pass groups of monks, locals collecting firewood, and children on their way to school or to play. Being on the back of a motorcycle instead of inside a car allows you to see much more – and the breeze is a nice way to cool down.

Upon arrival at the airport, we simply asked at the tour desk for English-speaking motorcycle guides. The two men were our drivers for the entire trip, arranging our pick-ups in the morning at the hour we preferred and bringing us to and from the sites as we desired. All hotels will also have drivers. Be sure to agree on the daily rate with your guide beforehand.

The five-star Grand Hotel d’Angkor was built in the 1930’s, and is rated one of the top hotels in the world in the very exclusive Conde Nast reader’s choice awards. We did not stay here, but if a great hotel is a priority for you and the price is in your range, don’t miss the opportunity to stay at one of the world’s finest hotels. The hotel is, of course, stunning, and by all accounts the rooms and restaurants are wonderful (don’t be put off by the hotel’s own website, which has horrible pictues of the back of the hotel – a better picture can be found here: Grand Hotel d’Angkor).

The New York Times wrote an article on the hotel, confirming its place among the world’s greatest hotels.

The hotel is situated right on the edge of the city nearest the temples, so it’s a great location both for temple access and for walking around the city (the city is very small, so being on the "edge" means you’re about 3 minutes away from the center - the hotel is on the city edge closest to the temples). The grand renovation in the late 1990’s made some great improvements, including two new wings, so if you''re interested in the history of the hotel, you may want to specify that you want a room in the original section.

The closest alternative to the Grand Hotel is the Sofitel, and in my opinion, the historical Grand Hotel would be well worth the additional expense for those seeking luxury accommodations.

The Sofitel offers everything you can expect from a 5-star hotel – beautiful grounds, good service, and great rooms. If your budget can handle the $130 US plus Sofitel but not the $250 US plus Grand Hotel d’Angkor, then you won’t be disappointed by the Sofitel. But despite its best efforts, the Sofitel is not at all in the same league as the Grand Hotel d’Angkor – if you can afford the difference in price, a stay at the Grand Hotel d’Angkor would be a better choice.

The Sofitel has two disadvantages compared to the Grand Hotel:

Location: Basically, the Grand Hotel d’Angkor is right on the edge of town closest to the temples, while the Sofitel is 5 minutes down the road closer to the temples. Those 5 minutes don’t have much impact on total 15 – 20 minute travel time to the temples (and thus it’s not really an advantage), but those same 5 minutes are more important in the other direction (towards town). There is not much of interest within a 5 minute walk from the Sofitel (just a restaurant or two that are frequented only by tour groups), while a 5 minute walk from the Grand Hotel can take you to a number of stores, restaurants, and bars.

Reputation/Uniqueness: The Sofitel, despite its fine attempts at creating an exotic décor and grounds, is basically like any other 5-star hotel in the world. If you’re looking for a truly memorable hotel stay, choose the Grand Hotel d’Angkor, with over 75 years of history - one of the world’s greatest hotels.

We stayed at the Angkor Saphir Hotel in Siam Riap. The best thing about this hotel is the price ($35 US/night). The hotel itself, lobby, and rooms are very nondescript (ok, ugly), but it is clean, and it has a good location, private baths and air conditioning. It is located near the Grand Hotel d’Angkor on the edge of town, in walking distance to several shops and restaurants.

This hotel is a passable choice if you don''t have time to research others, or are looking for a no-fuss, no-frills hotel that is safe and clean. If you do have time to research, however, there are other hotels in this price range that at least appear to have put more effort into the decor (like the Angkor Diamond Hotel).

There are two Bayon restaurants in Siam Riap. We ate the majority of our meals there (particularly since it was very close to our hotel). The food is good, and it’s a great bargain (as are most places in Siam Riap). Each dish is only $1 - $3 US, so a full multi-course dinner for two, including a couple of appetizers (satay with peanut sauce, spring rolls), perhaps a mango salad, a few main courses and rice, and drinks (beer and soda) was less than $15 US! The service was friendly, the décor spartan but clean, but tourists come back again and again for the food and prices. This is not fine dining by any means, but it's good food for a great price in a relaxing atmosphere.

I’ve read reports of this restaurant being packed with tour busses (the type of restaurant we try desperately to avoid), but that was not the case when we were here.

Prime temple-visiting time is first thing in the morning. A great way to structure your trip is to plan on arriving in Siam Riap before 4 p.m. to take advantage of the free afternoon visit (the temple complex opens for free every day at 4). If you arrive even earlier in the day, use that day to explore the city or the countryside. The free visit is commonly used to watch the sunset from the top of a temple that overlooks the magnificent Angkor Wat, and is a great way to start your trip.

To maximize your free day, plan on arriving at the entrance into the complex slightly before 4. The most popular thing to do on the first day is to watch the sunset from Phnom Bakheng (all the guides & drivers will know which temple to take you to). The guides will know exactly when the sun will set and what time you should arrive at the temple. In January, we were told to arrive at 5 p.m. When we got there, there were very few people. Fortunately, we secured a great spot and sat and relaxed. Shortly, the temple was crowded with people and there were no good places to sit with a view of the temple – so even though there may be only a few people when you arrive, get a good spot and stay there!

General Layout

The whole region with the temples, monuments and walled complexes is officially called the "Angkor Archeological Park," and is commonly known as just "Angkor." Angkor WAT is just one of the sites, albeit the largest and most well-known ("wat" is Thai for temple). So it’s more accurate to say that you are visiting "Angkor", not "Angkor Wat", since Angkor Wat is only one of the hundreds of sites within Angkor.

The archeological park covers nearly 80 square miles and contains hundreds of monuments – there are vast walled compounds, an ancient walled city complex, and countless temples and monuments. The complexes are separated by dense jungle and are within a few minutes’ vehicle ride from one another.

The nearest city is Siam Riap, 4 miles away from the entrance to the sites. The city itself is quite small, so a central location for your hotel can make your stay more enjoyable - hotels on the outskirts of town may literally have nothing around them.

Passes to the monuments

You should only purchase your pass at the official entrance to the site (there are rumours of scams to resell used passes - whether it's your hotel or guide or someone on the street, don't be tempted - you need to buy your pass in person at the entrance to the complex). Bring passport-type photos with you; they will take photos for you if you don’t bring them, but you will have to wait. The passes are $20 US for one day, $40 US for 3 days, and $60 US for 4 – 7 days.

Guide vs. on your own

Guides are readily available at the sites themselves and in Siam Riap for several US dollars per day.

In general, I prefer to have a guide for at least part of the time when I travel. In Angkor, we elected to visit the sites on our own with just a guidebook and enjoyed the privacy and freedom to explore on our own, but a guide would have been extremely interesting for at least one morning or afternoon. Part of what makes Angkor so amazing is that there are very few other tourists - if you're lucky, you may find that you and your companions are frequently the only people at a given complex. The temple complexes are amazingly vast, and you can explore all the rooms, courtyards, and terraces in solitude without seeing any reminders of the outside world. We found that doing this on our own and reading up on the details was far more enjoyable than having a guide alongside us.

If you choose to hire a guide for most of your trip, do plan for at least one morning or afternoon on your own (at one of the lesser known temples you'll have a better chance of being alone) - it's an incredible experience.

The guidebook we used is readily available for purchase in the city of Siam Riap, at the entrance to the sites, and in front of the major temples. We used "Ankor" by Dawn Rooney (published by Odyssey Guides), which, despite the numerous site maps, we found very difficult to follow on-site. It makes a good armchair guidebook, but is unreliable for navigating the sites. Some of the directions are clear, but more frequently, the book describes an interesting carving or architectural detail while providing instructions for locating it that are so vague as to be completely useless. I haven’t had the chance to compare it against other guide books, but I’d recommend trying to find another if possible.

For at-home reading, I HIGHLY recommend "Angkor: Cities and Temples" by Claude Jacques and Michael Freeman. Copies are available in the city and airport of Siam Riap, and also in Bangkok, but the historical explanations would be wonderful to read in advance (the price is roughly the same on Amazon.com - $56 US - as it was to buy in Cambodia).

What to bring

Clothing: The standard recommendations are for men not to go shirtless and for women not to wear clothes that are "too revealing." We saw all ranges of clothing, including many people who weren’t following the above guideline.
Footwear: Being generally opposed to trainers in public unless one is actually training, I brought both "sturdy" sandals and Keds-type trainers, and ended up (grudgingly) wearing the trainers most days. There is a lot of climbing and clambering around that can be done, and endless unbelievably steep stairs to climb, with loose stones throughout. You will not regret having sturdy shoes, but you may well regret wearing flimsy sandles.
Other: Absolutely don’t forget sunscreen and mosquito repellant! Also, you may want to bring a couple of books that would help children with their English to give to your guide(s). Most of the people here speak very, very good English, but our guide told us that English books can be hard to find and would be appreciated by almost everyone. Even if your guide speaks perfect English, he will surely know someone who will appreciate the book.

Food and miscellaneous

Those who like Thai food will be in culinary heaven in Siam Riap. All of the hotels have restaurants, and there are several streets in town lined with many dining options, not including the countless outdoor local food stalls. Almost all restaurants (even the local food stalls) have menus in English, and the wait staff all speak enough English for dining purposes. For those who are less adventurous, there are plenty of more familiar choices, including pizza and even Mexican food!

There are dozens of little stalls at most of the sites selling film (along with water, cola, beer, snacks, postcards, and souvenirs). We had our film from the first day developed at a one hour Kodak store in the city while we ate dinner, and the pictures were developed very well.

Accommodations

Almost all hotels and guesthouses claim to be just a few minutes from the temples, a few minutes from the airport, or a few minutes from the center of town. Siam Riap is a really small town, though - ALL hotels are a few minutes from the temples and airport, and being 5 minutes from the center of town means that you might find yourself OUT of the town.

Be sure to get a good map of the hotel’s location and check it for yourself. In my opinion, being closer to the center of the city is more important than being closer to the temples, unless you are on a bicycle. The temples will be a 10 - 15 minute ride from your hotel (by taxi or motorcycle), so an additional 3 minutes is not too important for the trip. If your hotel is on the outskirts of town, however, (like the Sofitel, the hotels on the airport road, and some guesthouses), you will find that you need to take a tuk-tuk or wald for 10 minutes to find restaurants and shops. There seem to be 4 major categories of accommodations Angkor:

5 star luxury hotels: Includes the world-renowned Grand Hotel d’Angkor, built in the 1930’s in the colonial style (starting around $250 US/night), and the brand new Sofitel (starting around $130 US/night). These are on the edge of town closest to the temples. Don’t be fooled by the Sofitel’s claim that it’s "the closest hotel to the temples" – it’s only 4 minutes closer to the hotels than the Grand Hotel is, which only means that it’s farther from town.

Mid-range hotels from $80 - $100 per night: Many of these are located on the outskirts of Siam Riap on the way to the airport (not on the side of the temples). There are a few worth investigating in the center of town, including Angkor Village, which looks charming.

Budget hotels for around $30 - $50 US per night in the center of town: This is the type we stayed at – I'd categorize them as barely passable – no "highlights" other than price. Clean, nondescript, serviceable rooms with private bathrooms and air conditioning, right in the center of town for easy walking to restaurants and city life.

Guesthouses catering to backpackers for under $10 US per night: These can be really "roughing it", and it’s a case of choosing your priorities carefully. Not all are centrally located or have private baths and/or air conditioning, but you can find some that have all of the above, so check around.

We asked our motorcycle guides to take us through the areas where the local people live one afternoon. This is an experience absolutely not to be missed. I would recommend going once by motorcycle or tuk tuk with a guide, and then returning on your own on bicycles for better exploring at a more relaxed pace. The poverty can be shocking, but the people of Siam Riap are wonderfully friendly, with a smile for every passer-by. The houses are built on stilts, often open to the narrow dirt streets, and the residential area along the riverbanks is colorful and full of life. You will see naked children playing in the river next to little old women washing their laundry, white oxen tied to trees by the roadside, and women preparing their meals on the steps of their houses. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of the areas of Siam Riap less frequented by tourists. The pictures below were all taken in central Siam Riap.