Siem Reap

Arrive before 5:30am for the reflection pools. You need an Angkor Pass, bought online or at the official ticket office, never at the gate.

The 200-odd serene stone faces of the Bayon, then the Terrace of the Elephants and the Baphuon inside the old walled royal city.

The jungle temple where silk-cotton roots swallow the galleries. Go early or late; the central corridors bottleneck badly at midday.

Nightly 8pm show of acrobatics, live music and theatre by graduates of a Battambang arts school. Ticket sales fund the school.

A half-day run north-east: the pink sandstone carving at Banteay Srei, then the collapsed, half-cleared sprawl of Beng Mealea.

Siem Reap-Angkor International opened in 2023 under the code SAI, replacing old REP. It sits 50km east of town, so allow an hour.

Six to seven hours on National Road 6. Departures are frequent; express minivans are quicker but tighter than a full-size coach.

The Sangkae River boat takes six to seven hours in high water and is the scenic option; buses do the same trip in three to four.

November to February: dry, cooler mornings and the best light on the temples.

May to September. Wet season, green moats, big discounts, short downpours.

Late December to early January, plus Khmer New Year in mid-April.

Angkor Wat before dawn, then walk the bas-relief galleries once the tour groups drift off to breakfast.

Tuk-tuk to Angkor Thom for the Bayon's faces and a walk along the Terrace of the Elephants.

Back to town for fish amok or a Khmer noodle bowl near the Old Market, out of the midday heat.

Ta Prohm as the light softens, or trade temples for a massage and the Angkor National Museum.

Sundowner on a rooftop, dinner off Pub Street, then the 8pm circus show at Phare.

An hour south on the Tonle Sap: houses on six-metre stilts and a flooded forest you paddle through. Best September to December.

Thirty-odd kilometres north-east and easily combined: Cambodia's finest carving, plus a small, sobering museum on clearing ordnance.