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Home » Cambodia » How To Avoid The Crowds In Angkor Wat
CambodiaTrip Reports

How To Avoid The Crowds In Angkor Wat

Matthew Klint Posted onSeptember 14, 2024 16 Comments

a stone lion statue on a platform with a group of towers

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.

a building with a tree in front of it

a group of people standing in a hallway

a food and drink shop

people standing in a line in a building

a woman sitting at a desk

First,we stopped at a small temple near Angkor Wat, checking out the intricate details carved into the structure.

a lake with trees and grass

a stone wall with trees in the background

a stone building with trees around it

a stone building with carvings on it

a stone carving of a group of women

a group of stone carvings

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.

a sign in a park

a large stone building with towers and columns with Angkor Wat in the background

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.

a man standing in front of a stone building

a stone carving on a wall

a man pointing at a stone wall

a stone surface with a pattern

a row of stone buildings with columns and grass

a stone carving of a group of people

a stone carving of people in a row

a stone building with a window

a stone carving of animals

a stone carving of a group of people

a stone carving of a man on a horse

a person pointing at a stone wall with a group of people

a stone carving of a man riding a horse

a stone wall with a group of people

a brown tile with a blue border

a stone carving of a woman

a stone building with many windows

a stone building with a blue sky

a stone structure with a stone arch

a long hallway with wooden benches and windows

a stone carving of a man

a stone stairs leading up to a building

a stone building with a steeple

a stone carving of women in different poses

people walking up stairs to a building

a stone building with a walkway and a train track

a building with trees and a blue sky

an old building with trees in the background

a stone building with towers with Angkor Wat in the background

a window with columns and a tree in the background

a courtyard of an old building

a stone wall with a floral pattern

a stone pillars in a building

a stone structure with statues

a man sitting on a wooden staircase in front of a stone building with Angkor Wat in the background

a body of water with Angkor Wat and palm trees

a man standing in front of a body of water with Angkor Wat in the background

As you walk out, you will be met by monkeys…and they do like bags. Guard them.

a group of people in a park

a monkey walking on the ground

a monkey carrying a baby monkey

two monkeys playing in the grass

a group of monkeys playing in the grass

a group of monkeys sitting on a rock

a monkey sitting on the ground with a baby monkey

a group of people on a dock over a body of water

a body of water with buildings and trees

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.

a stone building with a staircase

a stone building with columns

stone ruins with lions and trees

a stone building with a statue on the side

a stone structure with a lion statue in the middle

a stone building with a stone wall

a stone building with a lion statue

a stone ruins with a lion statue on top

a stone building with a door and steps

a stone statue of a lion

a stone building with a lion statue

a man standing in front of a stone building

a stone stairs leading up to a building

a man standing next to a statue

a stone structure with towers

a stone building with a wall and trees

a ruins of a building with trees and a tree in the background

a person sitting on a rock wall

a man riding a motorcycle on the road with a couple of people on it

a group of people riding motorcycles on a road

a sign on a pole
No drones permitted!

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.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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16 Comments

  1. Santastico Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 10:49 am

    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.

  2. Sam Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 11:53 am

    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.

  3. Jerry Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 11:58 am

    I think I would pay $37 to not have to go there.

  4. Aaron Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 2:39 pm

    How much did the guise cost?

    • Aaron Reply
      September 14, 2024 at 2:39 pm

      Guide, not guise.

      • Christian Reply
        September 14, 2024 at 3:05 pm

        Lol

      • Christian Reply
        September 14, 2024 at 3:08 pm

        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.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      September 14, 2024 at 3:41 pm

      Aaron – $100.

  5. Michael Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 3:22 pm

    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.

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      September 14, 2024 at 3:41 pm

      Your smugness smells…unpleasant, Michael.

    • Christian Reply
      September 15, 2024 at 7:09 am

      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.

  6. Josh Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 4:50 pm

    It was 95 degrees, yet you are wearing long sleeves and long pants. Why?

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      September 14, 2024 at 5:26 pm

      So I did not burn.

  7. tom Reply
    September 14, 2024 at 10:21 pm

    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

  8. Tony N Reply
    September 15, 2024 at 5:26 pm

    I don’t mind 95F heat for a short time. But Long Pants??

    • Matthew Klint Reply
      September 15, 2024 at 8:12 pm

      I don’t expose my skin to the sun.

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