Cambodia: Phnom Penh, Battambang and Angkor

Arrive in Phnom Penh

Techo International Airport to your hotel in central Phnom Penh

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Phnom Penh
• Environ 1 h de route

Après-midi

If you land early the afternoon is yours: walk along Sisowath Quay, look into Wat Ounalom, the riverside monastery, or sit out the heat by the pool. At about 6 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a briefing on the week: how the days are paced, what to wear for the palace and the temples, and how we approach tomorrow's visits to Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, so that nobody walks in unprepared.

Soir

Then we walk to a welcome dinner of Khmer dishes, such as fish amok steamed in banana leaf and peppery beef lok lak, at a restaurant near the river.

Compris

• Pick-up at Techo International Airport, Phnom Penh
• Welcome briefing with your guide, including how we visit the genocide memorials
• Welcome dinner

Activités en option

• The National Museum of Cambodia, next to the Royal Palace, for its Angkor-era sculpture, if you arrive early

Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek and the Royal Palace

Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum to Choeung Ek, then the Royal Palace and the riverfront

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Phnom Penh
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

After a quiet sit-down lunch and a rest at the hotel, the afternoon turns to what Cambodia has kept: the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, whose floor is laid with silver tiles.

Soir

We end on the water, on a boat at sunset where the Tonle Sap and the Mekong meet. The evening is free.

Compris

• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21) with a local guide
• Choeung Ek memorial with the site's audio guide
• Sit-down lunch
• The Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda
• Sunset boat at the meeting of the Tonle Sap and the Mekong

Kampong Chhnang's potters and on to Battambang

Phnom Penh to Kampong Chhnang, then Battambang on National Road 5

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Battambang
• Environ 5 h de route

Matin

We leave after breakfast for Battambang, about 290 km north-west on National Road 5 and about five hours of driving. That is over our four-hour cap, and there is no better way: Battambang has no scheduled flights and the restored railway runs few, slow passenger trains. So we split the day in two. After about two hours we stop at Kampong Chhnang, on the Tonle Sap river, whose name means 'port of pots'.

Après-midi

In a village on the edge of town, potters shape the local clay into water jars and stoves by hand, without a wheel, and we watch and try for about an hour before a sit-down lunch. The afternoon is the second half of the drive, past rice fields and sugar palms and through Pursat, reaching Battambang in the late afternoon. The town sits on the Sangker River, with streets of French-era shophouses and far less traffic than the capital.

Soir

The evening is free, and your guide can point you to riverside places for dinner.

Compris

• Drive from Phnom Penh to Battambang with your guide
• Pottery village visit at Kampong Chhnang
• Sit-down lunch in Kampong Chhnang

Battambang's countryside, the bamboo train and the bats

Battambang to village workshops and Phnom Banan, then Phnom Sampov at dusk

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Battambang
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is home-style Khmer food in the countryside, and the middle of the day is free in town.

Soir

At dusk we drive to Phnom Sampov to watch a stream of bats, said to number in the millions, pour out of a cave at sunset. The hill also holds the Killing Caves, a Khmer Rouge execution site with a small memorial; we go up only if the group wants to, and the bats are watched from the road below.

Compris

• Morning ride through the villages, with rice paper, dried banana and kralan makers
• The bamboo train near Phnom Banan
• Prasat Banan hilltop temple
• Lunch in the countryside
• The bats of Phnom Sampov at dusk

Activités en option

• Phare Ponleu Selpak, the Battambang arts school where Cambodia's circus performers train, puts on shows on set evenings; your guide can book seats.

To Siem Reap, sunset at Pre Rup and the circus

Battambang to Siem Reap via Sisophon, then Pre Rup

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Siem Reap
• Environ 4 h de route

Matin

After a slow breakfast, take a last walk by the river and through Psar Nat, Battambang's art deco central market from the 1930s, before we leave at about 9:30 am. Siem Reap is about 175 km away, around three and a half hours on the Sisophon road through flat rice country, with a coffee stop on the way.

Après-midi

We arrive in time for lunch, and the afternoon is free to rest, swim or wander to the Old Market.

Soir

At about 4:45 pm we drive to the Angkor ticket office, where your three-day pass is printed with your photo; a pass bought late in the afternoon also lets you in for that evening's sunset. We watch it from Pre Rup, a 10th-century temple-mountain of brick and laterite where the sun goes down over rice fields and palms, with fewer people than at Phnom Bakheng. In the evening we go to Phare, the Cambodian Circus, a show of theatre, music and acrobatics by performers who trained at the Battambang school you passed yesterday.

Compris

• Morning walk through Psar Nat market in Battambang
• Drive from Battambang to Siem Reap with your guide
• Lunch on arrival in Siem Reap
• Three-day Angkor pass
• Sunset at Pre Rup
• Phare, the Cambodian Circus

Angkor Wat at sunrise, Ta Prohm and the Bayon

Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, then Angkor Thom and the Bayon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Siem Reap
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We leave the hotel at about 4:45 am, the one pre-dawn start of the trip, and walk across the causeway to the pools in front of Angkor Wat as its towers appear against the sky. Built in the early 12th century under King Suryavarman II, and listed by UNESCO with the rest of Angkor in 1992, it is the largest temple in the complex. When most people head back for breakfast at about 7, we eat ours, packed by the hotel, and go in: along the carved galleries, with the Churning of the Ocean of Milk among them, and up the steep stair to the central towers. Next is Ta Prohm, where the roots of silk-cotton and strangler fig trees grip the walls, before it is at its busiest.

Après-midi

Lunch is at a restaurant near the park, then the hotel for a rest through the heat. At about 3 pm we return through the South Gate of Angkor Thom to the Bayon, whose carved stone faces are best in late light, then the Baphuon and the Terrace of the Elephants.

Compris

• Sunrise at Angkor Wat
• Angkor Wat with a licensed Angkor guide, including the upper level when open
• Ta Prohm
• Lunch near the park
• Angkor Thom in the late afternoon: the South Gate, the Bayon, the Baphuon and the Terrace of the Elephants

Banteay Srei and a sunset on the Tonle Sap

Siem Reap to Banteay Srei and Banteay Samre, then Kampong Phluk on the Tonle Sap

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Siem Reap
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

On the way back we stop at Banteay Samre, a 12th-century temple in the style of Angkor Wat that few groups visit, and lunch is at a village restaurant nearby. The middle of the day is free at the hotel. At about 3:30 pm we drive south-east to Kampong Phluk, a village of stilt houses on the edge of the Tonle Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. We go with an operator that works with the village and pays its community fee, and we skip the orphanages, school visits and rice-donation stops that some boat trips push. From the stilt houses, people from the village paddle us in small canoes through the flooded forest, then we watch the sun go down over the lake.

Soir

The farewell dinner is back in Siem Reap.

Compris

• Banteay Srei close to opening, with your Angkor guide
• Banteay Samre
• Lunch at a village restaurant
• Kampong Phluk by boat, with a canoe through the flooded forest
• Sunset on the Tonle Sap
• Farewell dinner in Siem Reap

Depart from Siem Reap

Your hotel in Siem Reap to Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

Your last morning is free. Walk to the Old Market for silk scarves and Kampot pepper, visit the Angkor National Museum to put the temples you have seen in order, or swim and pack. Your three-day pass still has a day on it, so if your flight leaves after about 2 pm, your guide takes the group to the Roluos temples on the way to the airport: Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei, among the earliest temples of the Angkor period, built in the late 9th century. Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport opened in 2023 about 50 km east of town, so the transfer takes around an hour and is timed to your flight. Hotel check-out is usually around noon; if you need the room for longer, we can book a late check-out at cost. Plan to reach the airport two to three hours before an international flight. Any flight on day 8 works, and if you would like to stay on in Siem Reap, ask us for extra nights when you book.

Compris

• The Roluos temples on the way, for flights after about 2 pm
• Drop-off at Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI)

Activités en option

• Angkor National Museum