Yes, one day is enough time to explore Angkor, the ancient capital city of the Khmer Empire. In fact, I saw quite a bit in just three hours…and managed to avoid the crowds. Just bring your sunscreen…
Avoiding Crowds At Angkor Wat
This wasn’t my first trip to Angkor, but it had been a decade since my last visit and I made a strategic choice. The smart time to go is around sunrise…the temperature is not as hot and the sunlight is not as harsh. But you can also expect hordes of people at that time…those Instagram-worthy photos are very hard to secure when there are THOUSANDS of people around you.
So I went in the heat of the afternoon. It was blistering hot… absolutely sweltering. But it was the right choice because the crowds were limited. Other than a gaggle of people at Angkor Wat, people were not interested in 95ºF heat. We move remarkably easily through the temples and ruins of the ancient city.
First, we purchased tickets at the visitor center, at a cost of about USD 37. The center also has a nice-looking coffee shop, though by that time I was fully caffeinated.
First,we stopped at a small temple near Angkor Wat, checking out the intricate details carved into the structure.
Our second stop was Angkor Wat, literally Temple City in Khmer, a former Hindu temple constructed around 1150 AD (shortly thereafter transformed into a Buddhist temple). It’s a sprawling complex and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s also the world’s largest religious structure.
Once again, the building complex is quite recognizable, but like Taj Mahal, you have to be there to appreciate the fine details that make it so grand…the carvings, the reliefs, the windows, the archways. Our guide, hired from the Raffles Hotel, was excellent in sharing the history and pointing out some of the details that I would have certainly missed.
As you walk out, you will be met by monkeys…and they do like bags. Guard them.
Next, we went to the Pre Rup temple, which preceded Angkor Wat by 200 years (built around 961 AD). Funerals were held here and the sun setting over the temple was a beautiful site the pictures simply cannot capture.
I wanted to stop by Angkor Thom as well, but my friend was satisfied and ready to return to the hotel…so we did. And I was quite happy with what he had managed to see in three hours.
If you want to fit everything into a marathon day, you can certainly do so: two days are unnecessary to hit the main sites of interest. Alternatively, you might consider breaking it up and doing a couple 2-3-hour blocks. In either case, if you just have one day, or even just one afternoon, it is 100% worthwhile to check out these historical sites.
I think that visits to cultural and historical sites vary by the personal interest on each one. I know a guy that visited the Louvre for every day of the week when he was in Paris, he spent most of the day inside and appreciated everything. I was ok with a few hours on one day. Similar to temples, I like to get an overview and that’s all I need. My family wanted to go to the St Peter’s basilica at the Vatican this summer when we were in Rome. We had been there many times so we went at 7am and it took us 45 minutes to go through metal detector and get in. When we left, lines were taking 5 hours under a 100F weather. No thanks. It looks like your strategy at Angkor Wat was perfect.
1 afternoon is fine if you have a passing interest. 2 works well if you geek out like me. 3 approaches research & study territory. I absolutely recommend a good guide for a site this big & interesting.
I think I would pay $37 to not have to go there.
How much did the guise cost?
Guide, not guise.
Lol
You have to hire a driver and guide separately. I don’t remember exactly what it ran this February because it was part of a more complex trip but I believe for a full day for both it works out to a little over a hundred dollars a day.
Aaron – $100.
Right…..three hours to tour over 100 km of temples that were built over hundreds of years. What’s the point of going if you’re just recommending a few hours to tour something so large and grand? Especially when you consider how long these temples were cut off from the world.
Clearly it comes down to the purpose of your trip. If you interested in a Instatrip and just focused on taking pictures without any understanding of what you are photographing (like the post above) you can probably do it in 3 hours. But if you are interested in actually learning something and understanding what you are touring, why they were constructed, and by who you would need to invest quite a bit more time.
The purpose of my visit to Siem Reap was to tour the temples and learn about the Khmer rulers, not just shoot a pic to attract clicks. Given how far the temples are spaced out you need a minimum of 2 days to tour the top 5-6 temples and just get a basic understanding of them. The guides and tickets for admission are all coordinated by the Cambodian government and were not that expensive. They provided the car as well.
Well worth the time and effort to better understand what was once a very dominant culture in Southeast Asia.
Your smugness smells…unpleasant, Michael.
Initially I was also pretty dubious about Matthew doing the extremely abbreviated tour but then some things struck me:
Matthew had done the whole thing on his prior visit.
It was incredibly hot and muggy.
Who am I to tell someone how to vacation?
The last point is really the big one for me. We’ve all cut short a day somewhere for some reason or other, visited some cheesy attraction despite our better judgment, or returned to a place we knew we wouldn’t like. Outside of instagrammers clogging up access to places so they can take a bazillion pictures, does it really matter? I love the Khmer history, architecture, food, and culture too but that’s not everyone’s speed. Think of it as shorter lines for you to wait in.
It was 95 degrees, yet you are wearing long sleeves and long pants. Why?
So I did not burn.
I was there recently and apparently crowds are still way down as Chinese have not yet returned. I had to queue 20mins to climb the stairs into the main temple, pre-covid it was 90mins.
There’s a reason they have built a new airport with way more capacity than the old one. Once China comes back, it will be crazy
Moral of the story – if you want to go there better go soon
I don’t mind 95F heat for a short time. But Long Pants??
I don’t expose my skin to the sun.