10-Day Itinerary in Cambodia: The Route We Recommend to Our Own Friends

Siem Reap International Airport (SAI) moved in 2023 to 50 kilometers southeast of the city. There are no longer taxis lined up at baggage claim, that’s the first surprise. Expect a 45-minute ride and 30 to 35 USD to reach downtown by official taxi.

Our advice: book the transfer before departure. After a 12-hour flight, you don’t want to negotiate a fare in riels at 11 PM. Welcome Pickups sends an English-speaking driver, identified, with fresh water and a cool towel in the car — it’s the kind of detail that changes the entry experience.

For the first night, we prefer the area between the river and Pub Street — that’s where everything is within walking distance. Our favorites: Jaya House Riverpark (€150 a night, a quiet boutique hotel by the water), Shinta Mani Shack (Bill Bensley design, excellent value for money) or, more modestly, Onederz Siem Reap (design hostel under €20 a night).

In the evening, a light dinner. Malis offers the best contemporary Khmer cuisine in the city if you still have the energy to go out. Otherwise, a simple amok with fish or a lok lak with beef on any terrace on Pub Street will do the trick. We recommend going to bed early: tomorrow, wake-up at 4:30 AM.

The small circuit is the short loop of Angkor, about twenty kilometers connecting the major monuments. It’s the visit of the first day. Start with the sunrise in front of Angkor Wat — yes, it’s the postcard image, but the pink light resting on the five towers is a moment to be experienced in silence.

A French-speaking guide with a private tuk-tuk for the day costs around €40 to €50. It’s worth the investment on the first day: without a guide, you see stones; with a guide, you read a civilization. From the second day, you can settle for a tuk-tuk alone if you’ve done some research.

After the sunrise, breakfast on-site followed by the classic loop: Angkor Thom through the south gate (notice the faces of gods and demons pulling the sacred serpent), the Bayon with its fifty-four towers of faces, the Baphuon, the Terrace of the Elephants. Lunch stop at one of the restaurants north of Angkor Thom — avoid those too close to the temples, prices double there.

In the afternoon, head to Ta Prohm. This is the temple with roots, the one Angelina Jolie made famous in Tomb Raider. The silk-cotton trees have embraced the stones for eight centuries. Go between 2 PM and 3:30 PM: the light filtering through the foliage is remarkable, and the Japanese tourist buses from the morning have left.

Return to the hotel around 5 PM, pool, Khmer massage for $8 in any salon on Pub Street, quiet dinner. You’ll be exhausted, and that’s normal.

The grand circuit of Angkor is 26 km and covers the more distant but often quieter temples: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, and Pre Rup. Depart later (7 AM, not 4:30 AM), slower pace, fewer people. This is our favorite day, and the one we often remember best.

Return to Siem Reap in the late afternoon. Shower, light dinner, then head to Phare, the Cambodian Circus. It’s one of the best evenings you can spend in Cambodia: a contemporary circus from an NGO that trains disadvantaged youth for free. A 1 hour 15 minutes show, impressive technique, modern staging, story told of today’s Cambodia. Nothing to do with the folkloric shows found elsewhere. Reservation is essential, it fills up quickly.

Last day in Siem Reap, and the most varied. In the morning, head to Banteay Srei, "the citadel of women", 35 km north. It’s the smallest major temple in the Angkor site and, we say without hesitation, the most beautiful. Pink sandstone, sculptures of incomparable finesse, human scale. We spend an hour there, and that’s enough.

On the way back, optional stop at Kbal Spean, the river of a thousand lingas — sculptures in the riverbed itself, in the middle of the forest. Count 45 minutes of walking from the parking lot.

In the afternoon, a complete change of scenery: Kampong Phluk, on Tonlé Sap Lake. It’s the most authentic floating village in the area, an hour’s drive and 20 minutes by boat. Stilt houses 6 meters high in the dry season, submerged halfway during the monsoon. We glide between the wooden houses, children wave, and at the tip, we cross the flooded forest in a small rowboat.

In the evening, we prepare for departure to Phnom Penh. Two options to reach the capital: Giant Ibis day bus (6 hours, $15, European comfort, wifi on board), departing at 7:45 AM or 12:15 PM, or the domestic flight (45 minutes, $95 to $130, Cambodia Angkor Air). Unless time is tight, we recommend the bus: the scenery between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh is interesting, you better understand the scale of the country. We book on 12Go, the only platform that aggregates local transport.

The morning bus arrives around 2 PM in Phnom Penh, allowing you to enjoy the afternoon. So we leave the next morning.

Morning bus from Siem Reap, arriving in Phnom Penh around 2 PM. We drop off our bags at the hotel — we recommend the Royal Palace area or BKK1 for a first time. Then it’s time for the most difficult part of the itinerary: visiting the S-21 prison (Tuol Sleng) and the Choeung Ek memorial, the “Killing Fields”.

It’s tough, to be honest. But you can’t pretend to understand contemporary Cambodia without going through there. Tuol Sleng, a former high school turned into a prison and torture center by the Khmer Rouge, is now a museum. The audio guide in French is remarkable, moving, precise. Choeung Ek, 17 km south of the city, is the site where victims were taken and then executed — the memorial is a stupa containing over 8,000 skulls.

At the end of the afternoon, we return to the hotel, change, and move on to something radically different: the sunset cruise on the Kanika boat. It’s one of the tours that our team has operated directly since 2010. We board at Sisowath quay at 5 PM, sail on the Tonlé Sap and then the Mekong, watching Phnom Penh light up from the water, a cocktail in hand on the upper deck. Duration 1 hour 20 minutes — exactly the breather needed after a tough day. For those who want to extend the evening, we continue directly with dinner on board: same boat, same seats on the deck, the river all around.

For those who do not have dinner on board, the BKK1 area takes over — street 308 or street 240 line up the best addresses in the city, from Khmer bistro to contemporary French cuisine.

Second day in Phnom Penh, radically lighter than the day before. In the morning: the Phnom Penh Heritage Tour in an electric bus. It’s a circuit our team set up in 2019 to read the city differently. Nineteen stops, twenty-two sites, multilingual audio-video commentary (French, English, Khmer, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese), from the original fishing village to the Art Deco villas of the 1930s, including the Royal Palace, the central market, and places not usually seen: former colonial banks, early cinemas, the memory of the Khmer Rouge also, in a discreet background.

Quick lunch at the central market or the Russian market — in our opinion, the Russian market is more authentic, less touristy, that’s where we go ourselves. Try the num banh chok, rice noodles with green curry that we have for breakfast or lunch depending on our mood.

In the afternoon, visit the Royal Palace and the adjacent Silver Pagoda (entry $10, decent attire required — pants and shoulders covered). Floors paved with solid silver, Emerald Buddha, royal throne: expect to spend 1 hour 30 minutes on-site. A stone's throw away, the National Museum houses the finest collection of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Khmer art in the world ($10, 1 hour is enough).

Dinner in the BKK1 area, street 308 or street 240 — from Khmer bistro to contemporary French cuisine. We return early: tomorrow, we head to Kampot.

Early departure for Kampot. Bus or minivan in 3 hours 30 minutes, about $9. Private transfers are around $70 for the car, more comfortable for three or four people. Arrival in early afternoon.

We drop off our bags in a guesthouse by the river: Rikitikitavi (nice terrace, refined cuisine), Ganesha Eco-lodge (bungalows in nature 10 minutes from the center) or Old Cinema if you prefer the heart of the city. Kampot has a different rhythm — the pepper, the river, the Bokor National Park looming above.

Early afternoon, head to La Plantation, a French estate 30 minutes from the center, open to the public, free guided tour at 1 PM and 3 PM. Learn all about the three colors of Kampot pepper IGP (green, black, red), taste, and buy in reasonable quantities to take back (the red pepper is the rarest, €15 for 50g). The cultivation of pepper here is still done in agroforestry, on vines, without chemical inputs.

In the late afternoon, cruise on the river...