Ultimate Cambodia in Two Weeks

Welcome to Cambodia! Upon your arrival in its capital, Phnom Penh, you will be greeted by your private guide and driver at the airport and then driven to our handpicked hotel downtown. Have a good rest, and you can then stroll around the hotel in busy areas of Phnom Penh to feel the city vibe.

► Dinner Recommendation: Sleuk Chhouk Restaurant
It is a typical Cambodian restaurant both in cuisine and decoration, costing $20 to $25 per person. Sitting in the plant-surrounded garden while tasting local specialties like Amok Fish or Khmer Traditional Tuna Fish Paste will be a delightful enjoyment. It is near the Royal Palace, taking a 5-minute taxi ride from the five-star hotel or a 10-minute ride from the four-star hotel.

► How to Take a Tuk-tuk in Cambodia
Tuk-tuk is the most convenient transportation in Cambodia and can reach most places downtown. Grab app is widely used to hail a tuk-tuk since it can be paid with credit cards or cash without bargaining and is also available for takeout orders.

Accommodation: Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh (5 stars) or Sunway Hotel (4 stars)

Your Phnom Penh tour today starts from the Royal Palace, still the living place for the King of Cambodia. Its architecture was designed in the traditional Khmer and religious style, with minarets on each palace’s roof. The exterior of most palaces is painted in golden and white, with yellow standing for Buddhism and white for Brahmanism. Kings of all dynasties were crowned in the Throne Hall and worshiped Buddha in the Silver Pagoda, famed for its lavishly appointed floor of nearly 5,000 silver bricks. We need to take off hats and shoes to visit the palaces’ interior, where photography is prohibited.

Neighboring it is the National Museum of Cambodia. Though small in scale, it showcases relics in a compact layout. You can closely look at many statues from Angkor ruins despite mutilation. It would be helpful to learn about Khmer history before we visit Angkor Wat in the following days.Next, prepare to face the suffering of Phnom Penh people once in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21 Prison) and Choeung Ek Killing Fields. The brutal massacres of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979 have left bloody memories for those who lived through that period. Some 20,000 people were imprisoned in nearly 200 prisons in Tuol Sleng, where the preserved instruments and certain photos of victims will evocate your imagination of how they were tortured. You may take pictures with two survivors if we’re lucky to meet them here. Choeung Ek, at which the remains of more than 8,000 prisoners have been found, is remote from Phnom Penh downtown and had witnessed the execution of over 300 people daily at its peak.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh (5 stars) or Sunway Hotel (4 stars)

Today, we will drive for 5 to 6 hours to Battambang. Located in western Cambodia and bordering Thailand, Battambang is a transport and trade hub between the two countries. It is rich in rice and fruit from its fertile land, known as the “Granary of Cambodia.”

Considering you might be tired from the long car ride and we may arrive relatively late in Battambang, we will arrange no other visit for the rest of today. If your energy permits, you can go for a walk by yourself to the Battambang Provincial Hall, an icon of French colonial buildings that now serves as a historical museum exhibiting cutters, swords, farming tools, musical instruments, etc.

► Where to Have Dinner in Battambang: Lonely Tree Café
A 10-minute taxi ride from our selected 4-star hotel or a 5-minute one from the 3-star hotel will take you there. The whole café is decorated with an exuberance of green plants, serving beverages and meals, and Cambodian cuisine generally costs $4 per dish. What makes it different is that it is a social enterprise formed in conjunction with an Australian Catholic Church organization to support local education, disability assistance, medical treatment, and the preservation of Cambodian culture. It employs the disabled and vulnerable groups, who have made many souvenirs by hand sold on the first floor of the café.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Maisons Wat Kor (4 stars) or Bambu Battambang Hotel (3 stars)

Today, we will spend an entire day touring in Battambang. The first destination is Wat Banan, a temple atop Banan Mountain, offering breathtaking views of the Sangker River, stretching palm groves, and a patchwork of rice paddies. You will see five sandstone pagodas mingled with fiery red flowers of Delonix regia. Locals who come to worship usually carve on cacti in the temple to pray for their wishes to come true. Then, follow your guide to take the bamboo train, which used to be common transportation in Battambang villages. In the days when there was no engine, locals sat on the bamboo board and pushed it forward like rowing boats. Now, engine-powered bamboo trains serve only as a well-known tourist experience instead of a means of carrying goods.

In the afternoon, climb and explore the Phnom Sampeau Mountain. Beyond being surprised by the commanding view from the mountaintop, you will be shocked by Killing Caves, into which the corpses of people executed by the Khmer Rouge were dumped, now housing a large glass monument storing the skulls of the victims and many Buddha statues including a golden reclining Buddha. At around 5:30 pm, we will go down the mountain to watch millions of bats flying out of caves for food hunting in nearby farmland. The bats-formed swirling wind will last 30 minutes to an hour, highly spectacular in the setting sun.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Maisons Wat Kor (4 stars) or Bambu Battambang Hotel (3 stars)

This morning, we will leave Battambang and drive for about 3 hours to Siem Reap. After check-in at the hotel, take a short break, and you will have lunch first.

After that, transfer to Tonle Sap Lake, where you will take a boat ride to visit floating villages where many Vietnamese refugees live, with their houses, churches, schools, and other buildings floating on the lake. Why are Vietnamese people here? Follow your guide to unveil the history. Sitting on the boat, bobbing gently in the wake of each wave, you can experience the floating life shortly while waiting for the sunset. At nightfall, we will send you back to the hotel, or we can also send you to certain relaxing places for nightlife like Pub Street, if you’d like.► Recommended Restaurant for Dinner: Sokkhak River Restaurant
Designed with a pretty garden, the restaurant is punctuated with ponds and tropical flowers, overlooking the Siem Reap River. Its dishes combine classic French cuisine and Cambodian delicacies, costing $15 to $20 per person. As a must-try, Beef Lolak is cooked with local beef from free-range cattle, its meat tender and juicy with Cambodian black pepper-seasoned marinade and sauce. After dining, you can roam to the nearby Old Market or Pub Street within a 5-minute walk. Or directly return to the hotel, taking about 10 minutes by taxi.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Anantara Angkor Resort (5 stars) or Tara Angkor Hotel (4 stars), Siem Reap

★ Crowning Touch of Your Tour: Angkor Wat Sunrise
As the most prominent and best-preserved site of Angkorian ruins, Angkor Wat is a bucket list destination with a pull on tourists worldwide. So, we will view the stunning sunrise at Angkor Wat and admire the temple’s splendid architecture and delicate carvings. Your guide will arrange the schedule for sunrise viewing in advance and pick you up on time in the early morning. We can pack a meal from the hotel on departure, so you can enjoy a breakfast picnic in Angkor Wat instead of returning to the hotel. Even if it’s too cloudy to see the sunrise that day, don’t worry; we will flexibly change the date for sunrise viewing according to the weather as long as you are in Siem Reap.After breakfast, continue to explore Angkor Thom, constructed in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII and the last capital of the Khmer Empire (802-1431), covering an area of about 9 square kilometers (3.5 square miles). A must-see in Angkor Thom is the Bayon Temple in the center, whose 54 pagodas symbolize 54 states at the time. Casually looking up when visiting Bayon, you will have eye contact with the famous “Khmer Smile,” named after the four-faced smiling Buddha statues on each pagoda. Walk northward to the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of Leper King, two grand platforms to watch abundant carvings of animals, mythical creatures, and deities.

Keep going north out of Angkor Thom to Preah Khan, meaning the “Holy Sword”, the only temple in the Angkor complex manifesting ancient Roman and Greek architectural styles, best demonstrated by a Mediterranean-style two-layer circular-pillar building, where said to once store the holy sword given by King Jayavarman II to his heir.

Then, come to the Ta Keo Temple. Uncompleted though spanning two dynasties, still, Ta Keo’s construction gives a glimpse into how Angkor temples were built - stacking stones together first to build up the main body and engraving reliefs on the wall, and that’s why many sculptures on the cracked walls are misaligned. The last site of today is Ta Prohm Temple, named after trees instead of carvings or buildings, and you will know why when seeing the lush vitality of intertwining trees and ancient temple ruins, which have also lured the movie director to shoot Tomb Raider here.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Anantara Angkor Resort (5 stars) or Tara Angkor Hotel (4 stars)

★ Explore Off-the-beaten-track World Heritage: Prasat Thom
This morning, we will drive for 2.5 hours to the Koh Ker ruins with numerous temples dotted in luxuriant forests, and Prasat Thom at its center, which takes a nearly 10-minute walk from the entrance. As the capital of the reign of King Jayavarman IV (928-941) - the emperor regarded as a usurper, Prasat Thom has long been one of Cambodia’s most remote and inaccessible temples; it was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site in 2023.

Along the way, you will first see Prasat Krahom, which has impressive carvings, meaning “Red Temple” because it was made of red bricks. Also, Prasat Bram, a collection of brick pagodas, is almost entirely engulfed by strangler figs. Finally, Prasat Thom. Beyond appreciating its pyramid look - which exhibits a distinct Mayan style - on the ground, you can climb up to the top of a 40-meter-high (130-feet) and 55-meter-wide (180-feet) sandstone pyramid via a wooden ladder on its side, gasping at the commanding view of surrounding rainforests.

On returning to Siem Reap, we will stop at Beng Mealea after a 1-hour drive. It is a Hindu temple hidden in the dense jungle, the most original and adventurous in Angkor ruins. Despite poor dilapidation and overwhelming plants, its mystery has found favor with photography enthusiasts worldwide. Remember to put on your comfortable sports shoes; we will walk into the deep ruins with the help of winding wooden stairs. Finish visiting, and we will drive you back to the hotel.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Anantara Angkor Resort (5 stars) or Tara Angkor Hotel (4 stars)

After admiring many Angkorian temples, we will leave Siem Reap for Kampong Thom by driving for 3 hours, to visit Sambor Prei Kuk, a pre-Angkorian temple complex dating back to the Chenla Kingdom (late 6th to 9th century). The name translates as temples in the forest in Khmer. Unlike Angkorian temples affected by the transition from Hinduism to Buddhism, temples in Sambor Prei Kuk were in a pure Hindu style, demonstrated in their distinctive architecture. Your guide will detail how it differs from Angkor architecture and how the architectural style has evolved. You can immerse yourself into the mysterious temple in a 2 to 3-hour tour here.

After that, we will drive for about 40 minutes to the hotel in downtown Kampong Thom. Take a short break, and you will be guided on a walking tour to the nearby villages to enjoy the tranquil countryside scenes of this picturesque town.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Kampong Thom Palace Hotel (4 stars) or Sambor Village (3 stars)

Today, we will drive for 3.5 hours to Kratie, a small town in eastern Cambodia on the bank of the Mekong River. A stretch of river in northern Kratie is home to Irrawaddy Dolphins, an endangered freshwater dolphin of 7,000 globally, but only about 100 in the Mekong River. So, it would be fortunate to come across an Irrawaddy dolphin on our cruise on the Mekong River.

Tonight, you will live in our handpicked resort on Koh Trong Island in the Mekong River. The resort comprises 11 traditional Khmer-style wooden bungalows, allowing tourists who are into nature and exploration to indulge in a primitive Cambodia. All public spaces are furnished in typical Khmer style, where you can feel an exuberant old-fashioned Cambodian village vibe.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Rajabori Villas Resort, Kratie (3 stars)

In the morning, we will make it to Kampong Cham by driving for 2.5 hours. In this tranquil town with the Mekong River running through, we will travel through the countryside and visit Wat Nokor ruins, the most extensive temple complex in Kampong Cham dating back to the 11th century. Beyond its black-sandstone appearance standing out from common red sandstone from the same period, murals that depict religious torture scenes are not to be missed. In addition, you will see a more modern temple distinctively differing from the original Angkor buildings, creating a mixed architectural style. After a lunch break, we will drive for another 2.5 hours to Phnom Penh and escort you to the hotel.

► Dinner Recommendation in Phnom Penh: Mealea Restaurant
It is in the Palace Gate Hotel near the Royal Palace, taking a 15-minute walk from the 5-star hotel or a 10-minute taxi ride from the 4-star hotel. Both Western food and Cambodian cuisine are available, and the latter is more impressive, especially Beef Saraman, Steamed Fish Amok, and Tapaer, a dessert made of sticky black and white rice with syrup and coconut shavings. It costs $30 to $40 per person.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh (5 stars) or Sunway Hotel (4 stars)

Today, we will leave Phnom Penh for Kep by stopping at Phnom Chisor Temple. After a 1.5-hour drive, arrive at Phnom Chisor Mountain, and the temple is on its top. Along about 200 gentle stairs to the mountaintop, you will see Phnom Chisor Temple, built in a typical Angkor style with intricate reliefs and towering spires. Besides, you can overlook the plains of Cambodia from the top, glistening rice paddies looking like the boundless ocean in the rainy season.

Drive for another 2.5 hours to Kep, and we will send you to our well-selected mountainside resort. You can relax at the hotel or hang out on the beach for the rest of the day.

► Where to Go in Kep: Crab Market
It is a 10-minute walk from your hotel. Kep is famed for blue crabs, which are huge with plump crab meat and are particularly fresh and cheap in the Kep Crab Market. Stir-fried crabs with Kampot pepper will captivate your taste buds. Continue meandering to Kep Beach after dining; you can take a photo with the landmark of a great blue crab statue while admiring the sunset.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Veranda Natural Resort, Kep (4 stars)

This morning, follow your guide to visit Phnom Chhngok Cave Temple in Kampot, an impressively off-the-beaten-track Hindu temple dedicated to the God Shiva. Built on a hillside, this 7th-century temple filled with stalactites is still well preserved today. Your guide will narrate how the temple was excavated while leading you through the cave and help you take clear pictures with extra lighting.
* Note: The cave temple is closed on weekends, and we can tour Kep National Park as an alternative if you’d like.

Go downhill and drive for 40 minutes to a pepper farm, where you will comprehensively learn about pepper by observing the organic farm, watching pepper planting, and telling the differences between over 10 kinds of pepper by tasting. We will have lunch on the farm, primarily specialties made of their own-planted pepper, as well as pepper-flavored Americano and ice cream.

In the afternoon, you will be escorted directly to the hotel in Phnom Penh by driving for 2.5 to 3 hours.

Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
Accommodation: Hyatt Regency Phnom Penh (5 stars) or Sunway Hotel (4 stars

Now comes the end of your best Cambodia vacation package. Your guide and driver will transfer you to the airport and see you off. Wish you a happy journey! If you want to tour other Asian countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos, please contact our travel consultants for customized itineraries.

► Free Time Suggestions for Your Information
If your flight schedule permits, you can get an eyeful at the Central Market, taking a 5-minute tuk-tuk ride from the hotel, a touristy market where you can buy local trinkets and souvenirs. You can also go for a massage at the Bodia Spa near the 5-star hotel - or a 10-minute tuk-tuk ride from the 4-star hotel - to relieve the fatigue of the long trip.

Meals: Breakfast