Some places live on your travel bucket list for so long that you start to wonder whether the actual experience can possibly live up to the expectation.
For me, Angkor Wat was one of those places.
In December 2016, I took a solo trip through Southeast Asia that included three days in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Angkor Wat had been near the top of my travel list for years, and I knew before arriving that I didn’t want to experience it by simply joining a bus tour, taking a few photographs and moving on.
So I hired a private guide.
It turned out to be one of the best decisions I made on the trip.
Exploring Angkor with Angkor Journeys
I booked my tour through Angkor Journeys and spent my time exploring the temples with Kanha, the company’s owner.
If you’re looking for a knowledgeable, safe and exceptionally hospitable guide, I can’t recommend her highly enough.
Kanha treated me like a VIP from beginning to end.
Every pickup was on time. Transportation was in a comfortable, air-conditioned van—a luxury you learn to appreciate very quickly after spending several hours walking through temples beneath the Cambodian sun.
And then there were the towels.
After trekking around the ruins in the heat, I’d return to the van and be handed an ice-cold, jasmine-scented towel.
It’s a small detail.
Ten years later, I still remember it.
More importantly, having a private guide completely changed the way I experienced Angkor.
Angkor isn’t a single temple. It’s an enormous archaeological landscape containing temples, reservoirs, ancient roads and the remains of successive capitals of the Khmer Empire. The UNESCO World Heritage site extends across roughly 400 square kilometers.
You could spend days here and still only begin to understand it.
With Kanha, I wasn’t simply being driven between ruins. I had someone explaining what I was looking at, why it was built, how Hindu and Buddhist influences changed over time and how each temple fit into the larger story of the Khmer Empire.
And because we weren’t tied to a large group, we could adjust the itinerary, arrive at certain temples at better times and travel beyond the places where most visitors congregate.
That made all the difference.
Sunset: The Perfect Introduction to Angkor
My introduction to Angkor came at sunset.
There is something particularly memorable about seeing these temples for the first time late in the day.
The Cambodian heat begins to break. The stone changes color as the sun drops lower. Shadows stretch across structures that have been standing here for hundreds of years.
And then, gradually, the jungle gets quieter.
If your schedule allows it, I recommend doing exactly this.
Don’t make sunrise at Angkor Wat your first encounter with Angkor.
Go into the archaeological park the evening before.
Watch the sun go down.
Then return the following morning in darkness.
The two experiences couldn’t feel more different.
Sunrise at Angkor Wat
The next morning started painfully early.
This is one alarm you don’t ignore.
We left Siem Reap in darkness and drove toward Angkor Wat before sunrise. When you arrive, the temple is initially little more than a silhouette.
Then the sky slowly begins to change.
Angkor Wat’s five towers emerge against the horizon. The surrounding palm trees become visible. If the water is still, the entire temple appears again in reflection.
You’ve seen the photograph a thousand times.
It doesn’t matter.
Standing there is different.
As daylight begins to illuminate the temple, you also begin to understand its scale.
Angkor Wat was constructed in the early 12th century during the reign of King Suryavarman II, originally as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu before gradually becoming a Buddhist site.
But you don’t need to know any of that to appreciate your first view.
Just stand there for a while.
The sunrise crowd can be substantial, but once the sun is up and people begin moving, the experience changes again.
That’s when you actually explore Angkor Wat.
Inside Angkor Wat
The photographs everyone knows show Angkor Wat from across the reflecting pools.
The details are inside.
Long galleries are covered with extraordinary bas-reliefs depicting battles, religious stories and scenes from the Khmer Empire. Corridors lead into courtyards, steep stairways rise toward the central sanctuary and almost every change in elevation reveals another perspective of the complex.
This is another reason I recommend hiring a guide.
Without context, the carvings are beautiful.
With someone explaining the stories represented in them, the walls begin to make sense.
And don’t rush.
It’s tempting to treat sunrise as the experience and immediately move on to the next temple. Give Angkor Wat several hours.
The famous silhouette is only the introduction.
Angkor Thom & the Faces of Bayon
From Angkor Wat, continue toward Angkor Thom, the enormous walled city that served as a later capital of the Khmer Empire.
At its center is Bayon.
If Angkor Wat impresses you with scale and symmetry, Bayon feels almost surreal.
Massive stone faces stare outward from its towers in seemingly every direction. As you move through the temple, they appear and disappear between columns and doorways.
Some seem to smile.
Others simply watch.
It’s difficult to find an angle where you aren’t being observed by a face carved into stone.
Bayon was one of my favorite temples precisely because it feels so different from Angkor Wat.
Nearby, the Terrace of the Elephants and Terrace of the Leper King provide another glimpse into what Angkor Thom once was. This wasn’t simply a collection of religious monuments—it was an enormous functioning city.
Ta Prohm: When the Jungle Takes Over
Then there is Ta Prohm.
This is probably the temple most people recognize after Angkor Wat, even if they don’t know its name.
Huge tree roots pour over walls, wrap around doorways and seem to consume portions of the temple.
Nature and architecture have become almost inseparable.
Ta Prohm was deliberately conserved in a way that retained much of the relationship between the ruins and surrounding jungle, creating a very different experience from the more restored Angkor Wat.
It’s beautiful.
It’s also popular.
This is where having a private guide and flexible schedule helps. Arriving at the right time—or simply walking a little farther away from the main groups—can completely change the experience.
But some of my favorite moments at Angkor came even farther away from the crowds.
Beyond Angkor Wat: The Temples on the Outskirts
If you have more than one day in Siem Reap, don’t spend all of it on the standard temple circuit.
Go farther.
The distances increase, the roads become quieter and the number of tour buses begins to decline.
This was where having Kanha as a private guide became especially valuable.
Some of Angkor’s less-visited temples don’t have the immediate name recognition of Angkor Wat, Bayon or Ta Prohm.
That’s part of their appeal.
Preah Khan
Preah Khan is enormous, atmospheric and comparatively peaceful.
The temple was built during the reign of Jayavarman VII and once functioned as much more than a religious site. Today, its long corridors, collapsed walls, carvings and encroaching vegetation make it one of the most rewarding places to simply explore.
In some ways, it provides the atmosphere people hope to find at Ta Prohm—with fewer people around.
Walk through a doorway.
Turn down another corridor.
Keep going.
Eventually, you may realize you can’t hear anyone else.
At Angkor, that’s a special feeling.
Ta Som
Smaller Ta Som offers another opportunity to experience the relationship between the temples and jungle without the crowds found at the most famous sites.
One of its iconic gateways has been overtaken by the roots of a tree, creating the kind of scene that feels quintessentially Angkor.
The temple doesn’t require hours.
That’s okay.
Not every stop needs to be monumental.
Part of the pleasure of having several days here is being able to appreciate smaller temples without constantly asking whether they’re important enough to justify your time.
Banteay Srei
Farther from Angkor’s central monuments is Banteay Srei.
The temple is smaller than many of Angkor’s famous structures, but the detail is extraordinary.
Built from reddish-pink sandstone, Banteay Srei contains some of the most intricate carvings you’ll see anywhere around Angkor.
Getting there takes additional time.
Go anyway.
The drive itself gives you a chance to see more of the Cambodian countryside, and the temple feels distinctly different from the massive monuments closer to Siem Reap.
This is exactly why I wouldn’t try to “do Angkor Wat” in a day.
You’d miss too much.
Sometimes the Smaller Temples Are the Ones You Remember
The temples farther from the primary tourist circuit created some of my favorite moments of the trip.
At the major sites, you’re constantly reminded that Angkor is one of the world’s great tourist destinations.
At the smaller temples, you can occasionally forget.
You hear insects and birds instead of tour groups. Jungle surrounds the stone. A corridor disappears into darkness. Tree roots push between blocks that were placed there centuries ago.
For a few minutes, it can feel like you’re discovering something.
Obviously, you aren’t.
But that’s the magic.
Angkor is one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites, yet it’s large enough that you can still find corners that feel remarkably quiet.
Where I Stayed: Park Hyatt Siem Reap
After spending an entire day climbing stairs and walking through temples in the Cambodian heat, returning to the Park Hyatt Siem Reap was a welcome contrast.
The hotel sits in central Siem Reap, making it convenient both for evenings in town and early-morning departures toward Angkor.
The property combines Khmer-inspired design with Art Deco elements and was redesigned by architect Bill Bensley.
But after a 4:00-something-in-the-morning wake-up call and hours exploring temples, the feature that matters most is much simpler:
The pool.
Come back to the hotel.
Shower.
Find the pool.
Order a drink.
Repeat tomorrow.
The Park Hyatt gave me exactly what I wanted from a hotel on this particular trip—a comfortable, quiet place to recover between very long days of exploring.
Siem Reap After the Temples
It’s easy to treat Siem Reap simply as the gateway to Angkor.
Don’t.
The city deserves at least a little of your time.
After spending the day around ancient temples, Siem Reap is relaxed and easy to explore in the evening. Restaurants, bars and markets provide plenty to do without requiring another complicated itinerary.
And after waking up before sunrise, you probably won’t want one anyway.
Have dinner.
Walk through the market.
Get a massage.
Have a drink.
Go to bed.
You’re going to be waking up early again.
Three Days Was the Right Amount of Time
Could you visit Angkor Wat in one day?
Yes.
Should you?
I wouldn’t.
One day gives you enough time to see the headline attractions: Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm.
But it turns one of the world’s great archaeological sites into a checklist.
With three days, the rhythm changes.
You can experience sunset without worrying about squeezing in another temple.
You can wake up for sunrise and still spend several hours actually exploring Angkor Wat.
You can travel farther from the main circuit.
And when the heat becomes exhausting, you can return to the hotel rather than forcing yourself through one more ruin because it’s your only day.
If I were planning the trip again, I’d still give Siem Reap at least three days.
A Private Guide Is Worth It
Of all the recommendations I could make about Angkor, this is probably the strongest.
Hire a good guide.
Angkor Wat is visually spectacular without knowing anything about it.
But understanding what you’re seeing makes the experience infinitely better.
A knowledgeable guide can explain why one temple is Hindu and another Buddhist, identify the stories carved into the walls, describe the kings responsible for different phases of Angkor and help you understand how an enormous civilization once functioned here.
And practically speaking, a private guide makes the day easier.
Transportation is waiting when you’re ready. You have somewhere cool to escape the heat. Your schedule isn’t dictated by 30 other people.
In my case, I also had Kanha handing me a freezing jasmine-scented towel every time I climbed back into the van.
It’s difficult to go back to normal sightseeing after that.
Final Thoughts
I traveled to Siem Reap because I wanted to see Angkor Wat.
I left realizing that Angkor Wat was only part of the reason to go.
Yes, I’ll always remember watching the towers of Angkor Wat slowly emerge from darkness at sunrise.
But I also remember Bayon’s stone faces.
The enormous roots swallowing Ta Prohm.
Walking through nearly empty temple corridors farther from the main circuit.
The Cambodian countryside outside the archaeological park.
Kanha explaining the history behind something I otherwise would have walked straight past.
And, yes, those jasmine towels.
That’s why I’d resist the temptation to fly into Siem Reap, spend one frantic day seeing Angkor Wat and leave.
Stay a little longer.
Wake up before sunrise.
Watch the sun set over Angkor.
Hire someone who can help you understand what you’re seeing.
And most importantly, once you’ve seen the famous temples, keep going.
Some of the best parts of Angkor are farther down the road.
