Cambodia in seven days
The trip we would choose if someone gave us the country once: three days at Angkor, two in the capital, and two in Battambang where nothing is being explained to anybody.
At a glance
- Days
- 7 days, 6 nights
- Group
- Maximum 8
- Start
- Siem Reap
- End
- Phnom Penh
- Effort
- Moderate
- From
- USD 630 per person
Who this is for
First-time visitors with a week. Seven days is the length at which Cambodia stops being a temple stopover and becomes a country: you get the archaeology, the recent history that explains the present, and one town where neither is the point.
It is also the shortest itinerary with a genuine spare afternoon in it. Below a week every day has a job. At a week you can afford one where the job is nothing, and that is usually the day people describe afterwards.
Why Battambang and not the coast
The obvious seven-day trip is Angkor, Phnom Penh and the beach. We do not build it that way, for a reason worth stating.
The coast is three and a half hours past Phnom Penh and needs three nights. On a seven-day trip that leaves four nights for Angkor and the capital, which is not enough for either. Battambang is three hours from Siem Reap, sits directly on the road south, and costs you no travel day at all.
If the sea is the point, the right trip is north to coast, 10 days, which has room for both.
Day by day
Arrive Siem Reap, and one temple at the quiet end of the day
Met at Siem Reap - Angkor International, 45 km and about 55 minutes from town. If you land before two, we buy your Angkor pass on the way in and take you to Ta Som and Neak Pean at 16:30, which are fifteen minutes each and almost always empty. If you land later, the evening is yours in the Old French Quarter.
Angkor Thom, the Bayon at dawn, and the small circuit
Pick-up at 05:15. The Bayon at first light through the south gate, then the Baphuon, the terraces and Preah Khan. Back by 11:00.
Out again at 15:30 for Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang and Pre Rup, finishing on the upper terrace at sunset.
Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and the afternoon off
Sunrise at Angkor Wat from the north causeway, inside at 06:20 for the galleries and the upper level, then Ta Prohm at 07:15 before it fills. Back by 10:30.
The afternoon is deliberately free: the Angkor National Museum, a pool, Kandal Village, or the Tonle Sap stilt villages at Kampong Phluk between August and December, when the lake is actually full. Phare, the Cambodian Circus, in the evening if you want it.
Siem Reap to Battambang, and the bats at dusk
Leave at 08:30 for the three-hour drive south-west through rice country. Lunch in Battambang, then the town on foot: two- and three-storey French shophouses along the Sangker river, a market in the middle, and very little knocked down.
Late afternoon at Phnom Sampeau, 12 km out. The killing caves at the top first, small and quiet and among the most affecting places in Cambodia, then down the hill for six o'clock, when several million bats leave a cave mouth in a ribbon that takes half an hour to pass. It happens every evening.
Rice country, the workshops and the circus school
A slow day. Out through the villages around Wat Kor: rice paper drying on racks, banana chips, fish paste, rice wine distilled in a yard. These are working businesses and we take no commission from any of them.
Wat Banan in the late afternoon, an Angkorian hilltop temple up 358 steps with five towers and rice fields to the horizon, or Ek Phnom by bicycle if you would rather ride than climb.
Evening at Phare Ponleu Selpak, the arts school the Siem Reap circus grew out of, which performs several nights a week.
Battambang to Phnom Penh, and the museum
Leave at 08:00 for the four-and-a-half to five-hour drive to Phnom Penh, arriving for a late lunch. It is the longest drive of the trip and the only one.
Afternoon at the National Museum, which holds the finest Khmer sculpture collection in the world and reads completely differently now that you have stood in the buildings it came out of. Then the riverfront at dusk, where the whole city walks.
Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek, and out
The hard morning, deliberately last. Pick-up at 08:00 for Tuol Sleng, the school the Khmer Rouge used as security prison S-21, then Choeung Ek, the killing field 15 km out, both with audio guides. Your guide explains the structure and then leaves you to it.
Back by 12:30. The afternoon is empty by design: a quiet lunch, the Russian Market if you want it, and the airport transfer to Techo, 20 km south. Book nothing before 16:00.
Prices
| Party size | Simple | Comfortable | Excellent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 travellers | USD 910 | USD 1,400 | USD 2,520 |
| 3 - 4 travellers | USD 735 | USD 1,155 | USD 2,240 |
| 5 - 8 travellers | USD 630 | USD 1,015 | USD 2,065 |
What is included
What the price includes
- Six nights at the hotel level you choose, every hotel named in your quotation
- Private air-conditioned vehicle and driver for all seven days, including the split-day returns to your hotel at Angkor
- Licensed English-speaking guide on every sightseeing day, paid a day rate
- Arrival transfer at Siem Reap and departure transfer at Techo, whatever time you fly
- Entrance fees at Phnom Sampeau, Wat Banan, the National Museum, Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek, with audio guides at the last two
- Village workshop visits around Wat Kor with no commission taken
- 24-hour Cambodian phone support
What it does not include
- The Angkor pass, USD 62 for three days, bought for you at cost
- International flights, the Cambodian visa and insurance
- All lunches and dinners, and all drinks
- Phare circus tickets in Battambang or Siem Reap, about USD 18 to USD 38
- The Tonle Sap boat, if you use the free afternoon for it
- Tips
Photographs
Who this tour is not right for
- Anyone wanting beach time. There is none, and adding it to seven days means shortchanging Angkor or the capital. Ten days solves this properly.
- Families whose children will not manage two 05:15 starts and long hot walks on stone. We will build a slower version at two temples a day.
- Travellers who would rather not visit the Khmer Rouge sites. Say so and we will replace the last morning with a food walk and the Russian Market, at no change in price.
- Anyone who cannot manage steep staircases without handrails. The upper level of Angkor Wat, Pre Rup and the 358 steps at Wat Banan are all optional, but they are genuinely part of the trip.
- People who want to see the whole country in a week. This route deliberately covers three places well rather than six badly.
What people change
The three most common changes, none of which are difficult: fly Siem Reap to Phnom Penh instead of driving, which saves half a day and costs about USD 130 a head with the transfers; swap Battambang for a rest day and the Tonle Sap; or reverse the whole thing and start in Phnom Penh, which works just as well and is often cheaper on flights.
Longer versions: north to coast, 10 days adds Kampot and Kep, and Cambodia in depth, 14 days adds the east as well. Prices for all eight routes are compared on the prices page.
Questions travellers ask most
Is seven days enough for Cambodia?
For the temples, the capital and one more place, yes, and comfortably. It is not enough for the coast or the eastern highlands as well; both need three nights and a travel day each.
Should we fly or drive between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh?
This itinerary drives via Battambang, which costs no extra day. If you drop Battambang and go direct, the drive is six hours and the flight is 45 minutes, though the new airports at both ends add about two hours of transfers to the total.
Can we skip Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek?
Yes, at no change in price. We replace the last morning with a food walk, the Russian Market and the riverfront. Tell us at booking rather than on the morning.
Which direction is better, Siem Reap first or Phnom Penh first?
Siem Reap first, slightly, because the National Museum in Phnom Penh reads much better after you have stood in the temples the sculpture came from. Either works, and flight prices sometimes decide it for you.
Read next
Tell us what you want out of Cambodia
Dates, party size and the places you care about are enough to start. You get a draft route and an indicative price, not a brochure.