How many days do you need at Angkor Wat?

It is the first question almost everyone asks us, and the honest answer is that Angkor is bigger than people expect. The archaeological park covers about 400 square kilometres and holds more than seventy temples. Angkor Wat itself is one building in it.

Most visitors spend between one and three days. Here is what each actually gets you, so you can decide before you book flights.

The short answer

One day at Angkor

A single day is enough for the three temples everyone comes for: Angkor Wat, the walled city of Angkor Thom with the Bayon and its stone faces, and Ta Prohm, the one with the trees growing through it. That is the “small circuit”, and it is a full day in the heat.

It works, but it is busy. You start before dawn if you want the sunrise, you are walking by seven, and you will want a long break in the middle of the day. Our one-day private Angkor tour follows this route with a guide and an air-conditioned car, and our sunrise tour starts at the reflecting pools.

• Do not try to add Banteay Srei as well. It is 37 km further out and it will cost you the afternoon.
• Buy the one-day pass, not the three-day one.
• Bring more water than you think you need, and something that covers your shoulders and knees.

Two days: the comfortable minimum

A second day changes the trip. You can split the small circuit over two mornings, add the “grand circuit” temples such as Preah Khan and Neak Pean, and still be back at the pool before the worst of the afternoon heat.

It also gives you room for one thing that is not a temple. A lot of our guests use the spare half day for the Tonle Sap floating villages or a street food tour by tuk-tuk, which is a very different side of Siem Reap. Our two-day private tour is built this way.

Three days: what we recommend

Three days is the length we suggest to most people, and the one our guides enjoy most. You see the main temples without rushing, and you get out to the places that make Angkor make sense.

A three-day shape that works

• Day one: sunrise at Angkor Wat, then Angkor Thom, the Bayon and Ta Prohm. Rest at midday.
• Day two: the grand circuit, then Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean, the river of a thousand lingas in the forest.
• Day three: further out, to Phnom Kulen, Beng Mealea, or the lake.

The three-day pass covers any three days within a ten-day window, so you can take a day off in the middle without wasting it. Our three-day private tour follows this pattern, and we change it around whatever you most want to see.

Five days or more

If temples are the reason you came, the seven-day pass is good value and the park empties out the further you go. Koh Ker, a two-hour drive north-east, has a stepped pyramid and almost no one on it. Beng Mealea is a collapsed temple you climb through. Both were on the UNESCO list before most visitors had heard of them.

What actually decides it

The heat

From March to May the middle of the day is punishing. In those months, plan half days: out early, back by eleven, out again at three. That makes three relaxed days better than two hard ones. Our guide to the best time to visit Cambodia goes through the seasons month by month.

Temple fatigue

It is real. After three or four days of carved stone, many people stop seeing it. Mixing in a lake, a market, a cooking class or a bike ride keeps the temples interesting for longer.

The rest of Cambodia

Angkor is not the whole country. If you have ten days, three at Angkor and the rest in Phnom Penh, Battambang, Kampot or on the coast makes a better trip than a week of temples. You can see how we combine them in our Cambodia tours.

So, how many days?

Two days if your time is short, three if you can spare them, one only if you must. And if you are still not sure, tell us your dates and what you like, and we will send you a plan that fits. You can also read our travel FAQs or browse our Angkor Wat tours.