The base camp for Angkor — and a genuinely good town in its own right, with a river, night markets and the country’s best restaurant scene.
Almost every trip to Cambodia runs through Siem Reap. The town sits about seven kilometres south of the Angkor Archaeological Park, close enough that you can be watching the sun come up behind Angkor Wat twenty-five minutes after leaving your hotel lobby.
What surprises first-timers is how much there is beyond the temples. The old French Quarter and Psar Chas market are walkable, the riverside has filled with independent cafés and galleries, and Phare — the Cambodian circus — is one of the best live shows in Southeast Asia.
Accommodation runs the whole range, from six-dollar hostel beds around Pub Street to colonial-era grande dames and boutique pool villas out along the Siem Reap River. Because supply is deep, this is the one Cambodian town where booking ahead genuinely pays off in quality rather than just availability.
Buy your Angkor pass after 5 pm the day before: it activates immediately and stays valid all of the next day, which saves you the sunrise queue.
November to February — dry, and cool enough at dawn to want a layer. March to May is punishing at midday. The green season (June–October) brings dramatic skies, full moats and the fewest crowds.
Siem Reap–Angkor International Airport opened in 2023 and sits about 40 km east of town, roughly 45 minutes by road. Buses and minivans run from Phnom Penh (6–7 h) and Battambang (3–4 h).
The largest religious monument on earth. Sunrise is famous; late afternoon is emptier and the light is better on the western face.
The walled royal city, with 216 serene stone faces staring out from the Bayon at its centre.
The “jungle temple”, left partly in the grip of silk-cotton and strangler fig roots.
37 km out, carved in pink sandstone with a delicacy nothing else at Angkor matches.
Acrobatics and storytelling by graduates of a Battambang arts NGO. Book a day ahead.
Kompong Phluk and Kompong Khleang are far less staged than Chong Kneas.