The Ultimate Guide To Angkor Wat – Cambodia’s Top Tourist Attraction

Last Updated: November 26 2020

When you talk to someone about Cambodia, generally the first thing people think about is Angkor Wat. For good reason, Angkor Wat is probably the most popular place in Cambodia. Angkor Wat is one of the largest religious monuments in the world and upon visiting this place it is easy to see why. It was the centre of the Khmer, for hundreds of years and is still used today. This post is going to give you some advice on exploring Angkor Wat.

How much is it?

The prices vary depending on how many days you want to visit. There is a one day, three day, and seven day pass. The price of the tickets are is US dollar as that is the ‘second’ currency of Cambodia if you like.

1 day pass: $37

3 day pass: $62

7 day pass: $72

Although Angkor Wat is an incredible place, the tickets are way overpriced compared to what they used to be. The old prices for the Angkor Wat passes used to be $20, $40 and $60. That means we paid $17 more than the old price for a one day pass. It also means we paid $3 less than the old price for the three day pass which used to be $40. It is still definitely worth visiting, but can be a big budget hit for backpackers.

Opening times:

The Angkor Wat ticket office opens at 5am and closes at 5:30pm. Their website says that any tickets bought after 5pm, will start the next day. Angkor Wat opens at 5am and closes at 6pm, so you can go for sunrise. The other temples in the area have different open and closing times so it is best to check which temples you are wanting to visit. Generally a lot of them tend to open at 7am.

We got to Angkor Wat around 10am after having multiple issues hiring a bike and then with the bike itself haha. This was much later than we wanted to get there, so we advise going earlier when it’s cooler. We’ve heard it to be extremely busy at sunrise though with everyone wanting to see Angkor Wat come out of the darkness. The good thing about this place is although there are tonnes of tourists, because the place is so big the temples never seen to be crazy packed.

How to get to Angkor Wat:

First you have to get to Angkor Wat ticket office which isn’t actually at Angkor Wat. Really bizarre but it’s the case haha. It is about 5km from Siem Reap city centre. This is where you get your ticket to Angkor Wat. Don’t get your tickets through a tour company because there is a sign here saying that only tickets bought at the ticket office will be accepted as a form of entry. From the ticket office to Angkor Wat, it is around 7km. There is a ticket control point by the side of the main road leading to Angkor. You must get your ticket checked here and then you will be on your way, and can start exploring Angkor Wat.

Getting around Angkor Wat:

We chose to travel around Angkor Wat by bicycle. It was definitely a long and tiring day but totally worth it! We hired our bikes in Siem Reap at about 8am for $2 each. We hired the bikes from Bunnath Guesthouse. It made getting to the different temples a lot quicker, and it meant we could stop off whenever we felt like it.

Tuks Tuks can hired for around $15 a day, and they will take you all around Angkor Wat showing the best sites. The bonus of getting a Tuk Tuk is that they will drive you to the ticket office first.

We’ve seen many places advertise walking as a way to get around Angkor Wat. Don’t do it! It can get crazy hot and super tiring, and the temples can be 15 minutes away by car let alone walking. We both agreed if we had walked we probably wouldn’t have made it to the second or third temple.

Things to remember when exploring Angkor Wat:

• It can be very hot walking around the multiple temples so make sure there is always water handy.
• All women need to have their shoulders and knees covered when entering the temples.
• Upon getting to Angkor Wat there are multiple tour guides you can hire to walk around with you.
• The distance between temples can be quite far, often we cycled at least 3km between temples.
• Make sure you have plenty of sun cream. We went on quite an overcast day so it was cooler but sun cream is definitely still needed.
• The ‘tourist spots’ of Angkor Wat can get really busy, but we often found just waiting 10 minutes until the tour groups had gone or walking further on you can often come across really quiet spots.

Thank you for reading this post, we hope it has helped you understand more about Angkor Wat. For more information about Cambodia take a look at our “10 things you should know before going to Cambodia” post here.

P.S If you want to see more of our adventure, follow our Instagram at:
https://www.instagram.com/acouplescalling/

Thanks,

Jack & Abbie.