# 3 Days in Siem Reap: Angkor Done Properly, the Tonle Sap and a Slow Evening (2026) > Day one is an afternoon small circuit and a sunset, day two the sunrise and grand circuit, day three Banteay Srei and the Tonle Sap. Hour by hour, with every price. Source: https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-3-days-itinerary/ · Angkor Tourism Guide · Published September 8, 2026 · Updated October 25, 2026 · Figures checked October 2026 ## At a Glance - A three-day Angkor Pass costs $62 and covers all three temple days of this plan. The park admits visitors from 5:00 a.m. and closes at 6:30 p.m., with Angkor Wat itself closing at 6:00 p.m. - Day 1 is an afternoon on the small circuit (Ta Prohm, Bayon) starting at 2:00 p.m., then sunset from Pre Rup, which stays open until 7:00 p.m. No alarm clock. - Day 2 is the Angkor Wat sunrise: leave the hotel at 5:15 a.m. in January and 4:45 a.m. in June, because sunrise moves between 6:30 a.m. and 5:36 a.m. across the year. - Day 3 is Banteay Srei at 7:30 a.m., about 40 to 60 minutes north of Pub Street by tuk-tuk, then either Kampong Phluk on the Tonle Sap or a no-riding elephant afternoon in the Kulen foothills (12:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.). - A tuk-tuk for a small-circuit day in the main park costs $18 to $25, $25 to $35 with Banteay Srei, and about $5 more for a sunrise start. A licensed English-speaking guide adds $30 to $50 a day in 2026 rate lists. - Phare, the Cambodian Circus, performs nightly at 8:00 p.m. at the Ring Road and Sok San Road intersection. Adult tickets are $18, $28 or $38 by section, children $10 to $18. - The Kampong Phluk boat and village fee runs $15 to $22 per person on top of the tuk-tuk. The village is on stilts and is only worth the trip from about August to February, when the water is high. - Cuisine Wat Damnak serves a $45 Khmer tasting menu ($38 vegetarian) Monday to Saturday from 6:30 p.m. and does not admit children under 12. Khmer Kitchen on Street 9 serves until 11:00 p.m. every day. - Between 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. every temple in this plan is empty of shade. From March to May, with average highs of about 35°C (95°F), the plan sends you back to the pool at 11:30 a.m. and out again at 2:00 p.m. - Shoulders and knees must be covered at every temple in the park and on Phnom Kulen. The rule is enforced at Angkor Wat's upper level and at Banteay Srei. Three days is the right amount of time for Siem Reap, but only if the first of them is not the sunrise. Almost every three-day plan online opens with a 4:30 a.m. alarm on the morning after you land, and almost everyone who follows it spends day one exhausted, day two recovering and day three wishing they had a fourth. This plan runs the other way: an afternoon and a sunset to learn the park, then the sunrise on day two when your body knows what time zone it is in, then a far temple and the lake on day three. What the search results get wrong is not the list of temples, which is the same everywhere, but the order and the clock. They ignore the fact that the park admits visitors from 5:00 a.m. and that Pre Rup stays open until 7:00 p.m. They ignore the dead zone between 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., when every temple in the plan is an open stone oven. They ignore that Ta Prohm is a different place at 2:30 p.m. than at 8:00 a.m., and that the difference is about four hundred people. And they price the trip in temples rather than in tuk-tuk hours, which is the unit that actually matters here. Below is the plan hour by hour, with the price of each day, the variations for couples, families, rain, April heat, a tight budget and photographers, the things to skip and the mistakes that cost people a morning. Prices, hours and transport times below were checked against operator websites and official sources in October 2026. ## Why Day One Is Not the Sunrise The honest case for the sunrise is strong: Angkor Wat facing west means the sun comes up behind the five towers, and the reflection in the northern pool is the single image most people carry home. The honest case against doing it on day one is stronger. You landed yesterday afternoon. The hour's drive from the airport, the hotel check-in and a first dinner put you in bed at 10:00 p.m. with a body clock set to somewhere else. The alarm goes at 4:15 a.m. You stand in the dark with two thousand other people, the sun comes up, and then you have Angkor Wat's interior, the Bayon and Ta Prohm to walk before the heat arrives at 10:30 a.m. By noon you have seen the three most important buildings in the country and remember none of them. Reverse it. On day one, buy the pass, let the tuk-tuk driver take you into the park at 2:00 p.m. when the tour groups are at lunch, walk Ta Prohm and the Bayon in the softer afternoon light, and watch the sun go down from Pre Rup. You now know how the checkpoints work, how long the road takes, which way the driver goes and how fast the heat drains you. Day two's sunrise then becomes a plan rather than an ordeal, and the morning after it you have the energy to do Angkor Wat's galleries properly. The [Angkor Wat sunrise guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-wat-sunrise/) covers where to stand. This guide covers when. The pass makes the reversal free. A three-day Angkor Pass costs $62 and is sold by Angkor Enterprise at the Road 60 ticket office, through the Angkor Pass app and at angkorenterprise.gov.kh. The ticket page lists park entry from 5:00 a.m. and closing at 6:30 p.m., and the pass is valid for any three days within seven days of its start date, not the ten that older guides quote. For this plan the three days are consecutive, so the window does not matter. What does matter is buying it online the night before day two, so that at 5:00 a.m. you go straight to the Angkor Wat checkpoint rather than to the ticket office, which opens at the same hour and has a queue. The full rules, including children under 12 entering free, are in the [Angkor Pass guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-pass-tickets-prices-hours/). ## The Shape of the Three Days | Day | Morning | Midday | Afternoon | Evening | |---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Arrive, check in | Pass bought, lunch in town | Small circuit from 2:00 p.m.: Ta Prohm, Bayon, Angkor Thom | Sunset at Pre Rup, Khmer dinner near the Old Market | | 2 | 4:45 to 5:15 a.m. departure, Angkor Wat sunrise and interior | Pool from 11:30 a.m. | Grand circuit from 2:00 p.m.: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon | Phare at 8:00 p.m. or a seated dance show with dinner | | 3 | Banteay Srei at 7:30 a.m. | Back in town by 11:30 a.m. | Kampong Phluk on the Tonle Sap, or Kulen Elephant Forest | A slow dinner | The plan assumes a tuk-tuk hired by the day and a hotel within 15 minutes of the park, which is anywhere in central Siem Reap. It assumes you are two people. For one person the tuk-tuk price is the same and the per-person cost rises. For four, hire a car for day three. ## Day 1: Arrive, Acclimatize, Small Circuit, Sunset ### 11:30 a.m.: Landing, the pass and the first lunch Most flights into Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport land between late morning and mid-afternoon. The airport is about 50 kilometers east of town, and the ride in takes 50 to 70 minutes by taxi, which is covered in the [airport to city guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-airport-to-city/). Check in, change into something with covered shoulders and knees, and buy the three-day pass. If your driver is already hired for the afternoon, the Road 60 ticket office is on the way to the park and the stop takes ten minutes at this hour. If you prefer the app, do it now from the hotel Wi-Fi: the pass needs a passport-style photo and a card payment. Lunch is the one meal in this plan that can be anything. Khmer Kitchen, at the corner of 2 Thnou Street and Street 9 by the Old Market, is open 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day and serves a fish amok and a lok lak that cost less than the tuk-tuk ride. It is not fine cooking. It is fast, close and open, which is what a first lunch needs. The limitation: it has a second branch on Pub Street, and the Pub Street one is the louder of the two. ### 2:00 p.m.: The small circuit, starting at Ta Prohm The small circuit is the 17-kilometer loop that covers Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom with the Bayon at its center, and Ta Prohm, and the [small circuit vs grand circuit guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-small-circuit-grand-circuit/) goes through it stone by stone. The point of doing it this afternoon is to do it backward and late. Tour groups run it clockwise from Angkor Wat in the morning. You run it from Ta Prohm at 2:00 p.m., when they are eating. Ta Prohm, the temple left to the trees, opens 6:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. At 2:30 p.m. the central enclosures still have people in them, but the queue for the photograph at the silk-cotton tree over the gallery is a dozen people rather than a hundred. Give it 75 minutes and walk the whole east-west axis rather than the central path only. The [Ta Prohm guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/ta-prohm/) explains which trees are which and why the restoration teams leave them. From Ta Prohm the driver takes you west through the Victory Gate into Angkor Thom. Walk the Bayon from 3:45 p.m. The 216 faces on its towers are lit from the west at this hour, which is the only time the north and west faces get direct light. The upper terrace is narrow and closes at 6:30 p.m. with everything else. If there is time before 5:00 p.m., the Terrace of the Elephants is a ten-minute walk north and takes fifteen minutes. The [Bayon and Angkor Thom guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/bayon-angkor-thom/) has the walking order. Skip Baphuon today: the stairs are steep and you have a sunrise tomorrow. ### 5:00 p.m.: Sunset from Pre Rup Leave the Bayon by 5:00 p.m. and drive 20 minutes east to Pre Rup, a brick temple-mountain on the grand circuit that stays open until 7:00 p.m. for exactly this. The climb is steep but short, the top is wide, and the view west over the rice fields and treeline takes the sun down without a temple in front of it. In December the sun sets around 5:45 p.m. and the top holds perhaps two hundred people. Srah Srang, the royal bathing pool five minutes back toward Ta Prohm, is the alternative if Pre Rup looks full: a terrace, water, almost no one, also open until 7:00 p.m. Both are compared with Phnom Bakheng in the [Angkor sunset guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-sunset-spots/), and the short version is that Phnom Bakheng has the queue and Pre Rup has the view. If you landed too late for the small circuit, there is a second version of this evening. A pass dated for tomorrow admits you from 4:45 p.m. today for sunset without using a day, which the Angkor Pass guide covers. Go straight to Pre Rup, and your three pass days then run days two to four, which leaves a spare day in hand. ### 7:30 p.m.: A Khmer dinner and an early night Back in town by 7:00 p.m. with the pool or a shower between you and dinner. Tonight is not the night for the tasting menu. Eat Khmer, eat near the hotel and be in bed by 9:30 p.m. The [best Khmer restaurants guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/best-khmer-restaurants-siem-reap/) sorts the town by neighborhood. If you are in Wat Bo, the walk across the river to the Old Market side takes five minutes and the walk back after dinner is the quietest ten minutes of the day. ## Day 2: The Sunrise, the Interior, the Grand Circuit, a Show ### 4:30 a.m.: The departure The park gates open at 5:00 a.m. Sunrise at Angkor Wat runs from about 5:36 a.m. in June to about 6:30 a.m. in January, and you want to be standing at the pool 30 to 45 minutes before it. So the tuk-tuk leaves the hotel around 5:15 a.m. in January and around 4:45 a.m. in June. Most hotels put out coffee and a bread roll from 4:30 a.m. if asked the night before, and the driver you used yesterday will charge more for the early start. Drivers publish no sunrise rate. One 2026 driver price list charges $25 for a sunrise and grand circuit day against $20 for the small circuit, and one charter platform adds $10 for a pre-dawn pickup. Bring the pass on your phone or in your hand, a torch for the causeway, and a layer for December, when 5:00 a.m. in Siem Reap is 20°C (68°F) and feels colder on a moving tuk-tuk. ### 5:30 a.m.: Angkor Wat at the pool, then the galleries The checkpoint scans the pass, the floating pontoon takes you over the moat, and the crowd flows left to the northern reflecting pool. Stand there if you want the classic reflection. Stand at the southern pool if you want fewer people and a slightly narrower view. The [sunrise guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-wat-sunrise/) argues the case for each. The sky does its best work in the 20 minutes before the sun clears the towers, and the moment it does, roughly half the crowd leaves for breakfast. Stay. Between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. is the best two hours in the temple all day. The bas-relief galleries on the lower level, 800 meters of them, are lit from the east on the eastern side and shaded on the west, and the Churning of the Ocean of Milk on the east gallery's south wing takes twenty minutes on its own. The upper level, the Bakan, opens around 7:40 a.m. with a queue that is short at opening and long by 9:00 a.m. Covered shoulders and knees are checked at the Bakan stairs, not suggested. This is the morning to have a licensed guide. The guide to hiring an Angkor guide explains the Ministry of Tourism licence and the going rate, which is roughly $30 to $50 for a day in English in 2026 rate lists. One agency adds $15 when the day starts at sunrise. ### 8:30 a.m.: Breakfast and the decision Out of Angkor Wat by 8:30 a.m. The stalls along the road west of the moat sell noodle soup, fried eggs and iced coffee for $2 to $4 a head and are where the drivers eat. Hotel breakfast is the alternative if you are back by 9:30 a.m. and most hotels in town serve until 10:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Either way, the decision at 8:30 a.m. is whether to push on to one more temple before the heat. The honest answer in the cool months, November to February, is yes: Banteay Kdei and Srah Srang are on the way back and take 45 minutes together. From March to October the answer is no. Go back, swim, sleep. ### 11:30 a.m.: The pool This slot is not padding. From 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every temple in the plan is without shade, the stone radiates, and the people walking the Bayon at 1:00 p.m. in April are the people who end the day in a pharmacy. The hotel pool, lunch somewhere with a fan and a sleep is how the day survives. The hot season guide goes into what 35°C (95°F) and above does to a plan, and the answer is that it removes these three hours from it. If your hotel has no pool worth the name, this is the day it costs you. ### 2:00 p.m.: The grand circuit The grand circuit is the 26-kilometer outer loop, and the afternoon version is Preah Khan first, then Neak Pean, Ta Som and East Mebon, in that order so that you finish at the eastern end near Pre Rup. The Preah Khan, Neak Pean and Ta Som guide has the detail. Preah Khan, a monastery-city the size of Ta Prohm with a fraction of its visitors, takes an hour and has a two-story building with round columns that appears nowhere else in Angkor. Neak Pean is an island temple in a reservoir reached by a wooden walkway: fifteen minutes, and in the rainy season the walkway crosses open water. Ta Som is small, quiet and has an eastern gate swallowed by a strangler fig that is the Ta Prohm photograph without the queue. East Mebon's elephants on the corners are life-size. All of these close at 6:30 p.m. The driver will suggest finishing at Pre Rup for sunset again. Decline. You saw it yesterday, and tonight you have a show. ### 5:30 p.m.: Back to town Leave East Mebon by 5:00 p.m. and you are at the hotel by 5:45 p.m., with time to shower before the evening. The tuk-tuk from the eastern end of the grand circuit back to central Siem Reap takes 30 to 35 minutes. Pay the driver for the day now and agree the time for tomorrow's Banteay Srei run. ### 7:30 p.m.: Phare, or a seated dance show with dinner The evening after the sunrise is the right night for a show, because you are tired enough to sit still and awake enough to enjoy it. There are two formats and they are compared fully in the [evening shows pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/evening-shows-siem-reap/). The first choice is Phare, the Cambodian Circus, in its big top at the Ring Road and Sok San Road intersection, ten minutes by tuk-tuk from the Old Market. The show is nightly at 8:00 p.m., runs about an hour and is followed by a short talk and a chance to meet the performers. Sections cost $38 (A, reserved, front of the middle block), $28 (B, open seating, back of the middle block) and $18 (C, the side blocks, some seats with a partially obstructed view). Children 5 to 11 pay $18, $15 and $10. Arrive by 7:30 p.m. for the show alone, or at 6:00 p.m. for the street-food stalls outside. The limitation: it is acrobatic theater built on Cambodian stories, not classical dance, and in December and January the $18 section sells out two days ahead. The [Phare guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/phare-cambodian-circus/) covers which production is which. The seated alternative with dinner is a traditional dance performance. The Apsara Theatre on Street 26, off Wat Bo Road, is a wooden theater in the grounds of Angkor Village Hotel that has run since 1997 and describes itself as Siem Reap's oldest theater. A troupe of 30 performs Reamker episodes and folk dances, with the training overseen by Madam Net, who according to the theater has taught Khmer dance since the 1980s. A Khmer dinner is served at the theater from 7:30 p.m. and the performance starts at 8:30 p.m., open to visitors not staying at the hotel. The theater does not publish its price or performance days online, so ask when booking. The limitation: a dinner show is a tourist format by nature, the dancing is formal and slow, and if what you want after a 4:30 a.m. start is energy rather than ceremony, Phare is the better night. The buffet dinner shows on Sivatha Boulevard are the cheaper version of the same format and are compared in the [Apsara dance guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/apsara-dance-show-siem-reap/). Whichever you choose, you are back at the hotel by 9:45 p.m. Tomorrow starts at 6:30 a.m., not 4:30 a.m., and that is the reward. ## Day 3: Banteay Srei, Then the Lake or the Forest ### 4:30 a.m.: No alarm This slot exists to make a point. The third day of a three-day trip does not need a sunrise. Sleep until 6:15 a.m. ### 6:30 a.m.: Breakfast at the hotel, then north Eat the hotel breakfast and leave at 7:00 a.m. with the same driver. Banteay Srei is a little over 30 kilometers north of town, past the Road 60 ticket office and through the main park, which is why this run costs more than a circuit day. The Cambodia Landmine Museum, on the same road, puts the tuk-tuk ride at about 40 minutes, and 2026 guides give 45 to 60. Driver price lists from 2025 and 2026 quote $25 to $35 per tuk-tuk for a day that includes Banteay Srei. The road is sealed, straight and already warm at 7:30 a.m. Shoulders and knees covered: the checkpoint at Banteay Srei turns people away. ### 7:45 a.m.: Banteay Srei before the buses Sources disagree on whether Banteay Srei opens at 6:00 or 7:30 a.m., and the tour buses arrive from about 9:00 a.m. Between 7:45 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. you have the finest carving in the Khmer world at the scale of a village temple, in pink sandstone that glows in low eastern light and goes flat by 10:00 a.m. The temple is small: 45 minutes covers it, an hour with the small exhibition hall at the entrance. The [Banteay Srei guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/banteay-srei/) explains the lintels and why the figures are so much finer than at Angkor Wat. The limitation: it is roped off at the inner enclosure, so you look rather than walk, and in high season even 8:30 a.m. has sixty people in it. On the road back, the Cambodia Landmine Museum is 6 kilometers south of the temple, open daily 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., at $7 for foreign adults and free for children under 13. The museum says most visitors spend one to two hours. The APOPO center nearer town shows the rats that find mines. Both are covered in the Landmine Museum and APOPO guide. Neither is cheerful. Both explain the country you are in better than any temple. ### 11:30 a.m.: Back in town Lunch and the pool again, or lunch and a walk if the month allows it. Pay the driver for the half day. The afternoon has two versions and you should pick based on the month, not the brochure. ### 2:00 p.m., version A: Kampong Phluk on the Tonle Sap The Tonle Sap is the lake that swells to several times its dry-season size when the Mekong backs up into it from around June and drains again from around November. The villages on its northern shore live on stilts for this reason, and Kampong Phluk, about 20 kilometers southeast of town and just under an hour by tuk-tuk, is the one to see. The [floating villages guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/tonle-sap-floating-villages/) compares it with Kampong Khleang (further, bigger, fewer visitors) and Chong Kneas (closer, and the one to avoid). The boat and village fee at Kampong Phluk is $15 to $22 per person, paid at the pier, on top of the tuk-tuk. One local guide updated in January 2026 quotes $20 for a boat of up to six plus $2 per person for the community, so ask whether the price is per boat or per person. The boat runs down a channel between houses on six-meter stilts to the open lake, with a stop at the flooded forest where women in paddle boats take you under the trees for a few dollars more. Leave town at 2:30 p.m., be on the water by 3:30 p.m., and the return through the village catches the light at 5:00 p.m. The honest verdict: between August and February, when the water is high, this is the best afternoon in the plan. From March to July the houses stand over cracked mud and the channel is a long dusty drive to a shrinking lake, and the afternoon is better spent on version B. The limitation in any month: the pier is a business, the boats are shared, and somebody will try to sell you a bag of rice for the school. Decline it. The [Tonle Sap lake pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/tonle-sap-lake-guide/) explains why. ### 2:00 p.m., version B: Elephants in the Kulen Foothills Kulen Elephant Forest is a no-riding elephant site about an hour's drive from town. It is a 1,100-acre stretch of the Bos Thom Community Forest in the foothills of Phnom Kulen, home to the retired elephants that carried visitors up to the Bayon and Phnom Bakheng until the rides stopped at the end of 2019. The afternoon session departs the company's office at 52 Street 26 at 12:00 p.m. and returns by 5:30 p.m., about five and a half hours including an hour's drive each way, with a walk of about two kilometers through the forest watching the animals feed and bathe, a picnic by the pond and water, tea and coffee included. There is no riding, no show and no bathing with the elephants. The operator's site lists the afternoon session at $110 per person, transport included, and does not publish child rates. The honest verdict: an alternative for families, for anyone visiting from March to July when the lake is low, and for anyone who finds a third temple day too much. The limitation: it is the most expensive afternoon in this guide by a factor of four, and the forest is dry and brown from February to May. The [ethical elephants guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/elephants-siem-reap-ethical/) sets out the criteria and judges it against them. A third version exists for the energetic: Phnom Kulen itself, the mountain 48 kilometers north with the waterfall, the reclining Buddha at Preah Ang Thom and the River of a Thousand Lingas. It has a separate $20 ticket, vehicles must go up before 11:00 a.m. because the road is one-way, and the drive takes 1.5 to 2 hours by car ($50 to $80 for the day, a tuk-tuk cannot make the climb). It is a full day, not an afternoon, and it belongs in the [4 to 5 day itinerary](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-4-5-days-itinerary/) rather than here. The [Phnom Kulen guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/phnom-kulen/) has the full case. ### 6:00 p.m.: The slow evening Back from the lake or the forest by 5:45 p.m. This is the night for the long dinner. Cuisine Wat Damnak, in Wat Damnak village between Psar Dey Hoy market and Angkor High School, serves chef Joannès Rivière's Khmer tasting menu at $45 per person, $38 vegetarian, plus 5 percent service and 10 percent tax. It opens Monday to Saturday for dinner from 6:30 p.m., last orders 9:00 p.m., closed Sundays, with reservations at least 24 hours ahead. The limitation: it does not admit children under 12, the menu changes often and is not negotiable, and from December 21 to January 2 it serves a festive menu at a price not published in October 2026. The [food guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-food-guide/) covers the alternatives at every price. If the budget is spent, the $4 noodle stalls behind the Old Market close around 9:00 p.m. and are a better last meal than anything on Pub Street. ## By Situation ### You are a couple on a first trip to Asia Follow the plan as written, with a guide on day two and Phare on night two. If night three is Cuisine Wat Damnak, reserve before you leave home. Stay in Wat Bo for the quiet. The one change: on day one, skip the Terrace of the Elephants and give the extra half hour to Ta Prohm. ### You are traveling with children Day one as written, but start at 3:00 p.m. rather than 2:00 p.m. and make Ta Prohm the only temple before sunset: children remember the trees and forget the Bayon. On day two, the sunrise works for children over about eight if there is breakfast immediately after. Younger ones do better sleeping in and meeting you at Angkor Wat at 7:30 a.m. Day three is version B, the elephant afternoon, with the tasting menu replaced by Khmer Kitchen. Children under 12 enter the park free. The [Siem Reap with kids pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-with-kids/) and the [Angkor with kids guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-with-kids/) have the stair counts. ### It is raining The rainy season runs May to October and the rain comes in the afternoon, usually between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., usually for an hour. Keep the mornings as written: the sunrise is often better under broken cloud, and the temples empty. Move the small circuit on day one to 3:30 p.m. after the storm, and swap day two's grand circuit afternoon for the Angkor National Museum, open 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. from October to March and until 6:00 p.m. from April to September, where two hours puts the stone you have been looking at in order. The museum does not publish its admission price online. A local guide updated in January 2026 and visitor reviews give $12 at the counter. Day three on the lake is better in the rain than most people expect: the water is high and the boat has a roof. The [rainy season guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-rainy-season/) makes the case for the whole season. ### It is April The hottest month, with an average daily high of 35.8°C (96°F) and days of 38°C to 40°C. Khmer New Year falls in the middle of it, when the town fills with Cambodian visitors and some restaurants close for three days. Compress the plan toward the edges of the day: small circuit from 3:30 p.m., sunrise as written and out of the park by 9:00 a.m., grand circuit from 3:30 p.m., Banteay Srei at opening. Nothing between 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The lake is low, so day three is version B or a day by the pool. Two liters of water per person per half day, and a hotel with a pool is not optional. The hot season guide covers the New Year closures. ### You are on a budget The pass is the fixed cost. Everything else shrinks. Share a tuk-tuk, or rent a bicycle for days one and two: the small circuit is flat and 17 kilometers, and the park by bicycle at 6:30 a.m. is a different place, though the [Angkor by tuk-tuk, car or bicycle guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-tuk-tuk-car-bike/) is honest about the heat on the way back. Skip the guide and read the museum's free text panels instead. Phare's $18 section is the cheapest evening in the plan. Day three, take the tuk-tuk to Banteay Srei and the lake, and eat at Khmer Kitchen and the stalls. Sleep at Onederz, two minutes from Pub Street, with four pools and dorm beds. The [daily budget pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-daily-budget/) prices the whole thing. ### You are here for photographs Buy the seven-day pass for $72, ten dollars more than the three-day, and use it on all three days plus whichever morning you want to return to. Do the sunrise on day two as written but stay until 9:00 a.m. for the galleries. Add a second early morning on day three at Ta Prohm at 6:00 a.m., before Banteay Srei, when the light comes through the trees and the paths are empty. Pre Rup at sunset, Srah Srang at sunrise and Ta Som's east gate are the three frames most people miss, and the Angkor photography guide covers lenses and the drone ban. Skip Phare for a sunset at Angkor Wat's west causeway instead, open until 6:00 p.m. ## What to Skip in Three Days Beng Mealea and Koh Ker. Each is a full day, each has its own ticket ($10 and $15), and each belongs in a four- or five-day plan. Phnom Bakheng at sunset, which closes at 7:00 p.m. and spends the hour before it as a queue. A second sunrise, unless you are a photographer with the seven-day pass. Chong Kneas. The Roluos group, which is for a fourth day or a second visit, and which the [how many days for Angkor guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/how-many-days-angkor/) places correctly. Baphuon's stairs on day one. Any tour that promises Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Bayon, Banteay Srei and the Tonle Sap in a single day: it can be done, and the people who do it see none of it. And Pub Street for dinner, which has its own guide for a reason. ## Where to Stay for Three Days Three days means three or four nights in one hotel, and the right one is within fifteen minutes of the park, has a pool you will use at 11:30 a.m. and is quiet at 9:30 p.m. Four areas do this: the Wat Bo side of the river, the river road north of town, the Royal Gardens quarter and the streets around the Old Market. The [where to stay pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/where-to-stay-in-siem-reap/) sorts the whole town. The six below are confirmed open in October 2026 and cover the range. Angkor Village Hotel comes first because this plan's dinner-show evening takes place in its own grounds. The other five follow by entry rate, lowest first. ### 1. Angkor Village Hotel (Wat Bo, mid to upper range) The honest verdict: a timber hotel around ponds, with no published room-only rate. On Street 26 off Wat Bo Road, a five-minute walk from the Old Market, with wooden Khmer-style buildings, 43 rooms in six categories from Petite to Suite, a pool, a spa and the Apsara Theatre in the grounds. The hotel says it has been run by the Piot family for over 30 years, and it has been a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World since 2008. It is 15 minutes by tuk-tuk from the park. Packages in October 2026 start at $320 for two nights with breakfast and two dinner-show tickets. The limitation: the buildings date from the mid-1990s, with wooden stairs and no elevator mentioned on the hotel's site, the Petite rooms are 20 square meters, and it is not a resort. ### 2. Onederz (Old Market, budget) The honest verdict: a hostel with four pools, two minutes from Pub Street. Four pools including one on the roof, 24-hour reception, pool hours 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., laundry at $1.50 a kilo, and dorm beds listed at about $5 to $6.50 in 2025 as well as private rooms. The limitation: it is a hostel next to Pub Street, so the 4:30 a.m. departure on day two will be shared with people coming home. ### 3. Viroth's Hotel (Wat Bo, boutique) The honest verdict: a mid-century-styled hotel on the quiet side of the river, with published rates. Thirty-five rooms, 31 of them deluxe, on Street 24 in Wat Bo village, four minutes' walk from Wat Bo pagoda and eight from Pub Street across the river. Opened 2015, renovated 2024, with a 20-meter pool and a spa. Published rates start at $139. The limitation: the design is cool to the point of austere, and there is a separate Viroth's Villa on Street 23 that booking sites confuse with it. ### 4. Shinta Mani Angkor (Royal Gardens quarter, upper range) The honest verdict: an upper-range hotel in town rather than on the resort strip, with pool villas sold only in packages. One hundred and five rooms and suites plus ten Bensley Collection pool villas, in the tree-shaded streets between the river and the Royal Gardens, with a central pool and a staff-training foundation that the hotel says it funds. Rooms from about $160 in aggregator listings, and Angkor tours from $94 net. The limitation: it is large, the main-building rooms face each other across the pool, and the published packages ($10,500 for two for a multi-stop tour) are aimed at a different trip from this one. ### 5. Sala Lodges (Sala Kamreuk, boutique) The honest verdict: restored wooden houses, each a different size and layout, which suits couples and families with older children. Eleven traditional wooden Khmer houses dating from 1956 to 1985, moved from villages and rebuilt on stilts around a 20-meter pool at No. 498, Sala Kamreuk, a kilometer or so southeast of the center. About $165 to $250 a night in 2026 listings. The limitation: wooden houses mean wooden stairs, thin walls and no elevator, and the location needs a tuk-tuk for every meal. ### 6. Jaya House River Park (river road, boutique) The honest verdict: a 36-room garden hotel north of town with two pools. On River Road in Treang village, six minutes by tuk-tuk north of the Old Market, with free tuk-tuk transfers into town and a plastic-free policy. Every room has a balcony or direct access to the garden and pool. Aggregators showed about $338 for a January night in 2026. The limitation: it is out of walking range of dinner after dark, and in high season it books out months ahead. ## What It Actually Costs Prices in US dollars, per person, two people sharing a tuk-tuk, before the hotel. Change under $1 comes back in riel at about 4,000 to the dollar. Torn or marked dollar notes are refused everywhere, including the ticket office. | Item | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Notes | |---|---|---|---|---| | Angkor Pass, 3 days | $62 | included | included | Angkor Enterprise, $37 for one day if you cut a temple day | | Tuk-tuk, shared | $6 to $8 (half day) | $15 to $18 (sunrise and grand circuit) | $15 to $20 (Banteay Srei and lake) | $18 to $25 per tuk-tuk for a small-circuit day, $25 to $30 for the grand circuit, $25 to $35 with Banteay Srei, about $5 more for sunrise | | Licensed guide, shared | none | $15 to $25 | none | $30 to $50 per guide per day, English. Some agencies add a sunrise fee | | Tonle Sap boat, Kampong Phluk | none | none | $15 to $22 | Paid at the pier, paddle boat into the forest extra | | Elephant afternoon, version B (instead of the lake) | none | none | $110 | Operator's published price per person, transport included | | Phare, the Cambodian Circus | none | $18 to $38 | none | Children 5 to 11 $10 to $18 | | Apsara Theatre dinner show (instead of Phare) | none | not published | none | Dinner 7:30 p.m., show 8:30 p.m. Ask the theater when booking | | Meals | $12 to $20 | $12 to $20 | $20 to $60 | Cuisine Wat Damnak $45 plus 15 percent, or $4 noodles | | Water, tips, museum | $3 to $5 | $3 to $5 | $3 to $17 | Angkor National Museum $12 at the counter if it rains | | **Day total** | **$83 to $95** | **$63 to $106** | **$53 to $119** | | Three days, lake version, modest meals: about $200 per person. Three days with a guide on day two, Phare in section A and the tasting menu: about $260. Swap the lake for Kulen Elephant Forest and add about $90. A solo traveler pays the full tuk-tuk and guide, which adds $40 to $60 over the three days. A hotel adds anything from $8 a night in a dorm to $200 and above at the boutique end. The [daily budget pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-daily-budget/) shows how this compares with a week in the rest of the country, and the money guide explains the torn-note problem. ## What Other Guides Get Wrong 1. **Putting the sunrise on day one.** It is the most common error in every three-day plan online and the one with the highest cost. You have just landed. The sunrise is at its best on day two, when you know the park and have slept. 2. **Doing the small circuit in the morning.** The circuit is designed for tour buses that start at Angkor Wat at 8:00 a.m. and reach Ta Prohm at 10:30 a.m. with four hundred people. At 2:30 p.m. the same temple has forty. Run it backward and late. 3. **Ignoring the midday.** Plans that show a temple at 12:30 p.m. were written by people who have not stood in one at 12:30 p.m. in April. Between 11:00 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. the plan is the pool. 4. **Treating the Tonle Sap as a year-round half day.** From March to July the lake is low, Kampong Phluk stands over mud and the boat trip is a long channel to a disappointment. Check the month before booking, and if the water is low, go to the forest instead. 5. **Pricing the trip in temples instead of tuk-tuk hours.** The pass is $62 and fixed. The variable is the driver: a park day, a Banteay Srei day and a sunrise start are three different prices, and a solo traveler pays all of them alone. 6. **Finishing with Phnom Bakheng.** The hilltop sunset that every list includes closes at 7:00 p.m., faces away from Angkor Wat, and fills with a queue by 5:00 p.m. Pre Rup, twenty minutes east, has the same sun and a tenth of the people. ## Detailed Guides - [Siem Reap in one day](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-1-day-itinerary/): the only order that fits Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm into a single day without the heat winning. - [2 days in Siem Reap](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-2-days-itinerary/): what you give up when the third day goes, and why it is Banteay Srei rather than the sunrise. - [4 to 5 days in Siem Reap](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-4-5-days-itinerary/): where Beng Mealea, Phnom Kulen and Koh Ker fit once the first three days are done. - [First time in Siem Reap](https://www.angkortourism.org/first-time-siem-reap-guide/): the ten things to settle before landing, from the pass to the dress code to the torn notes. - One week in Cambodia: how many of seven days Siem Reap deserves against Phnom Penh, Battambang and the coast. - Siem Reap without the temples: a full day for the temple-fatigued, with the lake, the forest, the museum and the kitchen. - 24 hours in Siem Reap on a layover: whether Angkor is possible between two flights and what the 50-kilometer airport does to the answer. - [Angkor Wat sunrise](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-wat-sunrise/): where to stand, what time to leave and whether it is worth the alarm. - [Small circuit vs grand circuit](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-small-circuit-grand-circuit/): what each loop covers, how long each takes by tuk-tuk and which to do first. - [How many days for Angkor](https://www.angkortourism.org/how-many-days-angkor/): an honest count by traveler type, from the layover to the photographer's week. ## Where to Go Next The three days above lean on a handful of decisions made before you land, and each has its own guide. The [Angkor Pass guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/angkor-pass-tickets-prices-hours/) settles the ticket, the app and the free sunset the night before a pass starts. The [where to stay pillar](https://www.angkortourism.org/where-to-stay-in-siem-reap/) goes beyond the six hotels above to every neighborhood and price. If the dates fall between May and October, the [rainy season guide](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-rainy-season/) will change the afternoon of day two, and if they fall in April, the hot season guide will change everything between 10:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. And when the third day is done and the question is whether to stay a fourth, the [4 to 5 day itinerary](https://www.angkortourism.org/siem-reap-4-5-days-itinerary/) answers it. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Is 3 days enough for Siem Reap? Three days is the right length for a first visit, and more than most people need for the temples alone. Two temple days cover Angkor Wat at sunrise, the small circuit (Bayon, Ta Prohm) and the grand circuit (Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som) without rushing. The third day buys Banteay Srei, 40 to 60 minutes north, and an afternoon off the temple trail on the Tonle Sap or in the forest at Phnom Kulen. What three days does not buy is Beng Mealea, Koh Ker or Battambang. Those need a fourth and fifth day. Four nights, three full days, is the shape to book. ### Should I do the Angkor Wat sunrise on my first day? No. Most people land in the afternoon, sleep badly in a new time zone, and then set a 4:30 a.m. alarm. The sunrise becomes an endurance test and the rest of the day is lost to tiredness. Put the sunrise on day two. Spend the first afternoon on the small circuit from 2:00 p.m., when the tour buses have left Ta Prohm, and watch sunset from Pre Rup. You learn how the park works, how long a tuk-tuk takes and how the heat behaves before the one morning that depends on all three. ### How much does 3 days in Siem Reap cost? For two people sharing a tuk-tuk, the three days in this guide cost roughly $200 to $260 per person before the hotel: a $62 three-day pass, about $75 to $90 in tuk-tuk hire across three days, split two ways, $15 to $22 for the Tonle Sap boat, $18 to $38 for Phare and $60 to $90 in meals. A licensed guide for day two adds $30 to $50 split between you. Swapping the Tonle Sap for the elephant afternoon, published at $110 per person, adds about $90 per person. Hotels run from $8 dorm beds to $200 or more at the boutique end. ### Do I need a guide for Angkor? For one of the three days, yes, and day two is the one. A licensed guide at Angkor Wat and the grand circuit explains the bas-reliefs, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, the difference between a Hindu and a Buddhist temple and why Jayavarman VII's faces are everywhere. Guides are licensed by the Ministry of Tourism and cost roughly $30 to $50 a day for English in 2026 rate lists, booked through a hotel desk or directly. Day one on the small circuit and day three at Banteay Srei work without one, with a tuk-tuk driver who knows the order. ### What is the best order for the Angkor temples over three days? Afternoon first, sunrise second, far temple third. Day one from 2:00 p.m.: Ta Prohm, then Bayon and the Angkor Thom walls, then sunset at Pre Rup. Day two from 5:00 a.m.: Angkor Wat for sunrise and its interior until 8:30 a.m., then a break, then the grand circuit from 2:00 p.m. (Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon). Day three from 7:00 a.m.: Banteay Srei before the buses arrive at 9:00 a.m., then the Tonle Sap or Kulen. This order puts each temple in its best light and never repeats a road. ### Is the Tonle Sap worth it on a 3 day trip? Worth it from about August to February, when the lake is high and Kampong Phluk's stilt houses stand in water, with a flooded forest you can enter by paddle boat for a few dollars more. From March to July the water retreats, the houses stand over mud and the boat ride becomes a long trip up a channel. In that period swap the lake for the elephant afternoon described in the guide or for the Phnom Kulen waterfall. Skip Chong Kneas in any season: it is the closest village to town and the one most set up to extract money from visitors. ### Where should I stay for 3 days in Siem Reap? Within a five-minute walk of the Old Market on the Wat Bo side of the river, or on the river road north of town. Wat Bo gives you quiet nights and a short walk to dinner: Viroth's Hotel on Street 24, Angkor Village Hotel on Street 26, Sala Lodges a little further out. The river road gives you Jaya House River Park with its two pools, six minutes by tuk-tuk from town. The budget option in this guide is Onederz, two minutes from Pub Street. Everything in this plan is 15 to 20 minutes by tuk-tuk from any of these. ### What should I do in Siem Reap in the evening? Phare, the Cambodian Circus, on one of the three nights. It starts at 8:00 p.m., lasts about an hour and ends with time to meet the performers. Tickets are $18 to $38. On another night a seated Apsara dance performance with dinner, either at the Apsara Theatre on Street 26 in Wat Bo, with dinner from 7:30 p.m. and the dance at 8:30 p.m. (price not published, ask when booking), or at one of the buffet dinner shows on Sivatha Boulevard. Keep the third night for a long dinner: Cuisine Wat Damnak's $45 tasting menu books 24 hours ahead. Phare is over by about 9:15 p.m., early enough for a town that wakes at 4:30 a.m. ### What should I skip with only 3 days in Siem Reap? Beng Mealea and Koh Ker, which each take a full day and have their own tickets ($10 and $15). Phnom Bakheng at sunset, where several hundred people queue for a hilltop that faces away from Angkor Wat. Chong Kneas on the Tonle Sap. A second sunrise. The Angkor National Museum unless it rains, in which case it is the best wet two hours in town (8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. from October to March). And Pub Street for dinner, which is covered elsewhere on this site and is not where the food is.