Cambodia travel advice

Dave Tucker, from our supplier The Beyond Tourism Co., shares his Cambodia travel advice on how best to visit Angkor Wat: “Ask your operator how they will do sunrise at Angkor Wat differently. Everyone goes for dawn, so sometimes it’s not quite the special, serene experience you’re expecting. For example, we approach through the back gate, or you can go a bit later when the tour groups have left. Everyone wants to see the famous sunrise over the towers of Angkor Wat so there can be a lot of other people trying to do it at the same time.”

“You can actually start your journey to Cambodia in Saigon. You can get up the Mekong by boat from Vietnam and end up at the port of Phnom Penh, and that’s a lovely place to start, a really nice way to get there.”

Our supplier, Nathan Horton, lives in Phnom Penh and leads photography tours around the country. Here’s his Cambodia travel advice: “According to the travel brochures Phnom Penh has got a handful of tourist attractions, so most people who come here are very pleasantly surprised about how nice it is. It’s rapidly growing out of its turbulent history and growing into a beautiful city. There’s a very nice riverfront, it’s got bars, restaurants, nightclubs – but more than that, it’s just really interesting to walk around. It’s a real city just teeming with life, and that makes it a dream for anyone who likes street photography. That sets it apart from Siem Reap – nearly everything is there to support tourism – whereas Phnom Penh is very much a real city and a window into the lives of Cambodians. You’ll be constantly surprised and entertained by walking around aimlessly.”

“They do the nicest coffee in the world in Cambodia as far as I’m concerned, in Phnom Penh’s Russian market. It’s just a little stall with a handwritten sign that says “Probably the best iced coffee in the world” and they’ve probably never been anywhere else in the world – but they’re not wrong!”

Liddy Pleasants, from our supplier, Stubborn Mule Travel, shares her Cambodia travel advice: “The towns up in Kratie, in the north, are really friendly, laid-back places. You can go out onto the bamboo thatched huts on the Mekong River, and go on boat trips to look for the Irrawaddy dolphins. There’s towns on both sides of the river so you can get a small wooden ferry that shuttles from one side to the other and go wandering through really pretty scenery of paddy fields and little temples and small villages; it’s a good glimpse of rural life that you don’t necessarily get if you’re sticking to the main tourist routes.”