7-Day Cambodia Itinerary: Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, and Phnom Penh

7-Day Cambodia Itinerary at a Glance

Before you go — the ticketing and timing details that shape this route

Angkor Enterprise reformed its ticketing in January 2025. The three-day pass now costs $62 and is valid across any 7-day window rather than requiring three consecutive days — a change confirmed by the state news agency AKP. That single rule is why a missed morning here doesn't sink the plan: this itinerary still runs its three park mornings back-to-back on Days 2-3-4 for convenience, but the pass doesn't demand it, so a rained-out day can shift later in the week instead of costing you. A one-day pass runs $37, and a 7-day pass valid across 30 days costs $72 — worth it only if you're planning a fourth or fifth temple visit. These figures were current as of the reform's rollout; reconfirm on the Angkor Enterprise page before you buy, since Cambodian heritage-site pricing has shifted before without much notice.

Check Cambodia's e-visa requirements before you fly, too — processing has been fast in recent years, but rules and fees change, so confirm the current steps directly through Cambodia's official e-visa portal before booking flights.

Angkor Wat closes around 6pm, which gives plenty of room for a full day inside the main park. Banteay Srei closes near 5pm and Kbal Spean near 3pm, and both sit a commonly cited 40-50km outside the main circuits — treat that figure as a rough estimate rather than a fixed number, since quoted distances vary by source and starting point, and confirm the actual mileage with your driver or a map app before planning a tight afternoon around it. Either way, treating either site as an afternoon add-on to an Angkor Thom day risks arriving after closing. They get their own half-day here.

The Siem Reap–Phnom Penh road is roughly 230km. Bus listings show real variation — 5.5 to 6.5 hours, $11-20 depending on operator and stops — so this plan builds a buffer around the transfer day instead of assuming a fixed arrival time. It's worth cross-checking that range against an operator's own posted schedule (Giant Ibis and Mekong Express both run this route) or a current guidebook before booking, since aggregator listings can lag behind real timetables.

In Phnom Penh, the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda run a split schedule: 8-11am and 2-5pm, closed midday, $10 cash only, shoulders and knees covered. This comes from an independently maintained visitor guide rather than the palace's own office, so confirm the current schedule at the gate before you plan around it — royal functions and state events can alter palace hours without much notice. Arriving at 11:15am means waiting three hours or skipping it.

Day 1 — Siem Reap: arrival and first sunset

Afternoon: Land in Siem Reap, check into a guesthouse near Pub Street if you want nightlife within walking distance, or Wat Bo if you'd rather sleep through the 4:30am alarm tomorrow without street noise tonight.

Late afternoon: Head to the official Angkor Enterprise booth and buy the 3-day pass this afternoon, not the morning of sunrise entry. A pre-dawn ticket line adds 20-30 minutes you don't want to lose before a 5am opening.

Evening: Catch sunset along the Angkor Wat moat or from Phnom Bakheng's lower terraces instead of paying for one of the dedicated sunset viewing platforms — the moat view costs nothing and the crowds are thinner.

Eat early and sleep early. Day 2 starts before dawn.

Day 2 — Angkor Archaeological Park: sunrise and the Small Circuit

Morning: Be at the west entrance by 5am for sunrise over the reflecting pools. Walk the bas-relief galleries on the south and west walls before 8am, when the tour buses arrive and the corridors fill up.

Mid-morning: Move to Ta Prohm for the root-strangled ruins, then Banteay Kdei nearby — both are short tuk-tuk hops from Angkor Wat proper.

Afternoon: The Small Circuit wraps by early afternoon. Park hours run to around 6pm, so there's room for a second, slower pass through anything you rushed in the morning crowd.

This is day one of the 3-day pass. The back-to-back scheduling here is for logistical ease, not a requirement — see the ticketing note above if a morning gets rained out.

Day 3 — Angkor Thom and the Bayon

Morning: Enter Angkor Thom through the South Gate beneath the face towers, then continue to the Bayon — commonly cited as 54 towers and roughly 200 carved faces, though exact counts vary across surveys and restoration campaigns. If the precise number matters to you, check the APSARA National Authority's current figures rather than treating either number as fixed. Either way, the temple is worth more time than a quick lap suggests.

Midday: Walk the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King, then Baphuon just beyond.

Afternoon: Pre Rup or East Mebon, both quieter than anything you've seen so far today. No 5am start needed this time — the Bayon's light works fine mid-morning.

Day 4 — Banteay Srei and Kbal Spean: the half-day outside the circuits

Banteay Srei sits roughly 40-50km from Siem Reap by common estimate — treat that as approximate and check your driver's actual route if timing matters — and closes around 5pm. Go in the morning — treating it as an afternoon detour after another temple risks arriving close to closing with the light already flat on the pink sandstone carvings.

Kbal Spean, the riverbed carved with a thousand lingas, is on roughly the same road, about the same approximate distance out, and closes near 3pm. Pair the two in one morning-to-early-afternoon run rather than splitting them across separate days — splitting them means paying for the same long drive twice.

Return to Siem Reap by mid-afternoon. This is a lighter day by design, after three temple mornings in a row.

If you have the stamina for a longer detour, Beng Mealea — a collapsed, jungle-reclaimed temple further out — is a reasonable swap, but it competes for the same afternoon window as Kbal Spean, so pick one.

This closes out the 3-day Angkor pass.

Day 5 — Tonle Sap and the road to Phnom Penh

Early morning: Boat departure before 8am to Kampong Phluk floating village on Tonle Sap, ahead of the midday tour groups.

Midday: Back in Siem Reap by midday, lunch, check out of the guesthouse.

Afternoon: Board a VIP bus to Phnom Penh. Operators cover the 230km route in roughly 5.5-6.5 hours for $11-20 depending on the company and stops — worth confirming against the operator's own posted schedule, since aggregator times shift. A 1-2pm departure lands you in the city with daylight left, even on the slower end of that range.

Evening: Check in near the river, walk Sisowath Quay, and have dinner close by.

Day 6 — Phnom Penh: Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek

Morning, right at 8am: The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda open 8-11am, then close until 2pm — arriving right at opening gets you through before the window shuts. Entry is $10, cash only, and the dress code covers shoulders and knees. These hours come from an independently maintained visitor guide rather than the palace's own office; confirm at the gate, since royal functions can alter the schedule without notice.

Mid-morning: Continue to Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields, roughly 15-20km outside the city depending on route — check the exact distance with your driver or a map app rather than treating any single figure as fixed. The hours and price here are the shakiest numbers in this itinerary: a firsthand visitor account from May 2025 lists open roughly 7:30am-5:30pm, with combined entry and audio guide around $6, but no Ministry of Tourism or Choeung Ek Genocidal Center page could be verified for this draft. Check the site's own ticket counter, or Cambodia's Ministry of Tourism listings, before building a tight morning around either figure.

Early afternoon: Continue to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, open 8am-5pm with $5 international adult admission. Visiting Choeung Ek first is a pattern repeated across firsthand traveler accounts — not an official rule, but it follows the historical sequence: the prison, then the site where prisoners were taken.

Leave the evening open. This is an emotionally heavy day, and a quiet dinner serves it better than another scheduled stop.

Day 7 — Phnom Penh: National Museum, markets, departure

Morning: The National Museum of Cambodia, the terracotta-roofed building near the Royal Palace, holds the country's main collection of Khmer sculpture. Give it an hour, more if stone carving interests you.

Midday: Central Market (Phsar Thmey) for the art deco dome, or Russian Market for a rawer, more crowded last stop.

Afternoon: Time your transfer around your actual flight or bus schedule, not the museum visit — Phnom Penh traffic to the airport can run long at peak hours, and there's no official number to quote here, so check current estimates with your hotel or driver before fixing a departure time.

If you're continuing overland into Vietnam or Thailand, confirm border crossing hours ahead of time rather than cutting the transfer close.

How to Choose: Adjusting This 7-Day Cambodia Itinerary

Traveling with only 6 days, drop the separate Banteay Srei/Kbal Spean day and fold Banteay Srei into the Angkor Thom day instead — you'll trade a fourth temple morning for one longer day 3.

If Angkor is the main draw, use the 30-day pass instead of the 3-day one to add a fourth temple morning, and compress Phnom Penh to two nights, keeping only the Palace and one genocide site.

If history is the priority, keep all three Phnom Penh nights and split the Palace visit from Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek across two separate mornings instead of stacking all three in one day.

Travelers prone to temple fatigue by day 4 should swap that day for rest and a Beng Mealea visit instead — its collapsed, jungle-reclaimed structure reads differently from the maintained stonework at Angkor Thom or Banteay Srei, which can revive interest rather than add to the fatigue.

On the bus-versus-flight question: given the 5.5-6.5 hour range on the Siem Reap–Phnom Penh bus, a morning departure is safer than an afternoon one if you have same-day plans in Phnom Penh. Flying saves transit time on paper, but airport transfer logistics on both ends can cancel out most of the gain. Before locking any of this in, running the draft through an itinerary validator or an AI trip planner is a fast way to catch overlaps between opening hours and transfer windows that are easy to miss on a first pass.

FAQs About This 7-Day Cambodia Itinerary

What changed in the 2025 Angkor ticketing reform, and how much does each pass cost?

Angkor Enterprise's January 2025 reform dropped the requirement that the 3-day pass ($62) be used on consecutive days — it's now valid across any 7-day window. A 1-day pass is $37, and a 7-day pass valid over 30 days is $72, useful only if you're adding a fourth or fifth temple morning. The consecutive-day scheduling in this itinerary (Days 2-3-4) is for convenience, not a rule: the window exists as a buffer if a rained-out or exhausted morning needs to shift later in the week. Reconfirm current pricing on the Angkor Enterprise site before buying.

How long is the bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh?

Operators cover the roughly 230km route in 5.5 to 6.5 hours, with fares between $11 and $20 depending on the company and stops. It's worth checking that range against an operator's own posted schedule before booking, since aggregator listings can lag behind real timetables.

What are the Royal Palace's opening hours in Phnom Penh?

The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda run a split schedule: 8-11am and 2-5pm, closed midday. Entry is $10, cash only, with shoulders and knees covered. This comes from an independently maintained visitor guide rather than the palace's own office — confirm at the gate before you go, since royal functions and state events can change the schedule without much notice.

Should I visit Choeung Ek or Tuol Sleng first?

Visiting Choeung Ek before Tuol Sleng follows the historical sequence — prisoners were held at Tuol Sleng before being taken to Choeung Ek — and is the order most firsthand traveler accounts describe, though it isn't an official rule. Choeung Ek's own hours and pricing come from a single traveler account rather than an official source, with no Ministry of Tourism or site listing confirmed for this draft, so check both at the site's ticket counter before planning a tight morning around them.

How accurate is the 54-tower, 200-face count at the Bayon?

It's a widely repeated approximation rather than a single fixed figure confirmed by one authoritative survey — restoration work and counting methods have produced slightly different totals over the years. Treat it as a useful shorthand, not an exact statistic, and check the APSARA National Authority if you need a precise count.