North to coast, ten days

At a glance

Days

10 days, 9 nights

Group

Maximum 8

Start

Siem Reap

End

Phnom Penh

Effort

Moderate

From

USD 900 per person

Who this is for

For people with a fortnight's holiday who are giving Cambodia ten days of it, and who want the trip to end somewhere slow. The shape matters: everything demanding is in the first six days, and the last three are a river, a mountain and a crab market.

It is the most requested itinerary we run, and the reason is the ending. A trip that finishes with the Khmer Rouge sites and an airport is a different holiday from one that finishes at a plastic table by the sea with a pile of crab shells.

Day by day

Day 1

Arrive Siem Reap

Neak Pean's causeway across the baray in late light

Met at Siem Reap - Angkor International, 45 km from town. Angkor pass bought on the way in if you land before two, and Ta Som and Neak Pean at 16:30 while they are empty. Otherwise the evening is yours.

StayYour hotel in Siem ReapMealsNoneTravel1 hourOn foot2 km

Day 2

Angkor Thom and the small circuit

The Bayon at six in the morning

Pick-up at 05:15 for the Bayon at first light, then the Baphuon, the terraces and Preah Khan. Back by 11:00 for the heat, out again at 15:30 for Banteay Kdei, Srah Srang and sunset from the upper terrace of Pre Rup.

StayYour hotel in Siem ReapMealsBreakfastTravel1 hourOn foot6 km

Day 3

Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Banteay Srei

The east pediments at Banteay Srei in low afternoon light

Sunrise at Angkor Wat from the north causeway and inside at 06:20, then Ta Prohm at 07:15 before it fills. Long midday break, then Banteay Srei at 15:00, 37 km out and carved to a depth nothing else at Angkor reaches.

StayYour hotel in Siem ReapMealsBreakfastTravel2 hoursOn foot7 km

Day 4

Siem Reap to Battambang, and the bats

Several million bats leaving one cave mouth for half an hour

Three hours south-west through rice country. Battambang on foot in the afternoon: French shophouses on the Sangker, a market, and almost nothing knocked down. Then Phnom Sampeau for the killing caves, and down the hill by six for the bat exodus.

StayA hotel in BattambangMealsBreakfastTravel3.5 hoursOn foot4 km

Day 5

Rice country, workshops, and the circus school

Being handed rice wine at eleven in the morning

The villages around Wat Kor: rice paper on drying racks, banana chips, fish paste, rice wine distilled in a yard, all working businesses we take no commission from. Wat Banan up 358 steps in the late afternoon, or Ek Phnom by bicycle. Phare Ponleu Selpak in the evening.

StaySame hotel in BattambangMealsBreakfastTravel1.5 hoursOn foot5 km plus 358 steps

Day 6

Battambang to Phnom Penh

The museum courtyard at four in the afternoon

Five hours to the capital, arriving for a late lunch. Afternoon at the National Museum, where the Angkor sculpture reads entirely differently three days after you stood in the buildings it came from. Riverfront at dusk.

StayYour hotel in BKK1 or riversideMealsBreakfastTravel5 hoursOn foot4 km

Day 7

Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek, and an empty afternoon

Nothing, deliberately

Out at 08:00 for Tuol Sleng and then Choeung Ek, both with audio guides, back by 12:30. The afternoon is empty by design. If you would rather not do this morning, say so at booking and we will replace it with a food walk and the markets.

StaySame hotel in Phnom PenhMealsBreakfastTravel1.5 hoursOn foot3 km

Day 8

Phnom Penh to Kampot, and the salt fields

The salt fields at five in the evening

Three and a half hours south. Lunch in Kampot, then the town on foot, thirty streets of shophouses on a wide tidal river. Late afternoon at the salt fields between Kampot and Kep, worked December to April, and sunset on the river with Bokor black behind it.

StayRiverside lodge or town hotel in KampotMealsBreakfastTravel3.5 hoursOn foot3 km

Day 9

Pepper, a cave temple, Bokor, and on to Kep

Green pepper crab at the market, eaten with your hands

Morning at a pepper farm on red soil 15 km inland, with a grower who sells direct and pays us nothing. Then Phnom Chhngok, a seventh-century brick shrine inside a limestone cave. After lunch, up Bokor: a thousand metres of switchbacks through forest to the abandoned hill station, church and casino ruin, with a large modern casino development on the same plateau that we tell you about in advance. Down to Kep for the crab market at dusk.

StayA hotel or restored villa in KepMealsBreakfastTravel4 hoursOn foot4 km

Day 10

Kep national park, then Phnom Penh

The Kep hill circuit at seven in the morning, alone

The 8 km forest circuit around Kep hill at 07:00 before it warms, with the gulf and Rabbit Island below. Late breakfast, then four hours back to Phnom Penh and the airport at Techo. Book nothing before 18:00. If you are continuing to Vietnam, the Ha Tien border is 40 minutes away instead.

StayNot includedMealsBreakfastTravel4 hoursOn foot8 km, optional

Prices

What is included

Photographs

Variations we run often

Reversed, starting on the coast and finishing at Angkor, which works well if your flights favour it. Extended by three nights in the Cardamoms between Phnom Penh and Kampot, which is our favourite version and is on the Koh Kong page. Or shortened to seven by dropping the coast, which is Cambodia highlights.

Add the east and it becomes Cambodia in depth, 14 days.