Trip overview
This is the same two-city, six-day combination we run in reverse elsewhere, just flipped: Siem Reap comes first for three nights covering the full Angkor circuit and a Phnom Kulen mountain day, and only afterward does an overland transfer carry you south to Phnom Penh for the final two nights.
Once you land in the capital, an evening boat ride takes you past the palace and the newer riverside development on Diamond Island as the light fades, and the day after that is given to Tuol Sleng and the palace grounds ahead of your flight home. Ending the trip this way means the last full day is spent on the country’s recent past rather than its ancient one.
Trip highlights
- Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon and Ta Prohm, with sunset at Pre Rup
- Phnom Kulen mountain: the River of a Thousand Lingas and a reclining Buddha
- An overland transfer from Siem Reap south to Phnom Penh
- A sunset cruise on the Mekong past the Royal Palace and Diamond Island
- The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda in the capital
- Tuol Sleng (S-21), the former Khmer Rouge interrogation site
Your day-by-day itinerary
Day 1: Arrive Siem Reap, orientation drive
Your hotel is the first stop after landing, reached by a straightforward transfer, and a loop through town afterward helps orient you before the heavier days of touring begin. Evenings are unplanned.
Day 2: Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm
King Suryavarman II commissioned Angkor Wat early in the twelfth century, and it opens the circuit before the South Gate carries you into Angkor Thom, the Khmer empire’s final walled seat of power, ending at Bayon Temple, where dozens of stone faces gaze out from its towers.
Beyond the Terrace of the Elephants and the adjoining Terrace of the Leper King lies Ta Prohm, its walls still gripped by banyan roots much as explorers first found them. Sunset at Pre Rup temple closes out the day.
Day 3: Phnom Kulen mountain excursion
Phnom Kulen rises about 58 km north of town, a mountain both Hindus and Buddhists treat as holy ground, and by local tradition the place where the Khmer empire itself began under King Jayavarman II. Riverbed carvings known as the River of a Thousand Lingas and a boulder shaped into a reclining Buddha are the day’s central stops.
A shaded picnic beside a waterfall inside Kulen National Park breaks up the afternoon, and heading back you pause in Banteay Srey village to watch palm sugar cooked down the old way, before the drive continues on to Siem Reap for one last night.
Day 4: Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, Mekong sunset cruise
You check out and settle in for a good six hours in the vehicle heading south to the capital. Once your room is ready there is time to rest before an hour on the water as evening falls, drifting past the palace, houses raised over the river, and the glass towers rising on Diamond Island.
Day 5: Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and Tuol Sleng
Cambodia’s monarchy has called the Royal Palace compound home since 1866, and it takes up a good part of the morning together with the Silver Pagoda beside it, floored in close to five thousand silver tiles and sheltering both a gold and a crystal Buddha figure. A stop at Wat Ounalom, long treated as the seat of Cambodian Buddhism, finishes off the morning.
Afternoons here go to Tuol Sleng, an ordinary secondary school before the Khmer Rouge turned it into the S-21 interrogation centre, where your guide sets out what happened there in plain terms and gives you space to move through at your own speed.
Day 6: Departure from Phnom Penh
The morning is open until a private car takes you to Phnom Penh International Airport for your onward or homeward flight. No sightseeing is planned for this final day.
What’s included
- Hotels in the class you choose, twin or double occupancy, with breakfast each morning, or an equivalent property if the one named is full.
- All meals written into the day-by-day programme below.
- A private air-conditioned vehicle for every transfer and excursion in the programme.
- An English-speaking local guide at each stop on the route.
- Every boat trip, river crossing and cruise named in the itinerary.
- Entrance fees for the sites listed in the programme.
- Drinking water in the vehicle and on boat days.
- Government tax and service charge.
Not included
- International and domestic flights, and rail tickets.
- Visas, and any fee collected at a border post.
- Travel insurance.
- Meals and drinks that are not written into the programme.
- Personal spending such as laundry, phone calls, minibar, souvenirs and watersports.
- Early check-in, late check-out and room upgrades.
- Anything added on the day at your request outside the printed programme.
- Gratuities for your guide and driver.
- Costs arising from weather, flooding, road closures or other events beyond our control.
- Bank transfer charges.
Booking this trip
- Days
- 6 days / 5 nights
Sending this does not charge you. We hold the space and confirm within 24 hours.
Entry requirements, our payment terms and cancellation policy for Cambodia trips are set out on the [Cambodia travel information](cambodia/travel-information) page.
Send your travel dates and party size and we will check hotel availability in both cities and reply with a quote.