# Siem Reap: map, what to do and when to go

Siem Reap is the base for the temples of Angkor, the former capital of the Khmer empire, whose first monuments stand 6 km to the north. To the south, 12 km away, lies Tonlé Sap, the largest lake in Southeast Asia, with stilt villages you visit by boat.

Canonical: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/
Language: en. Extended author commentary and itinerary notes may remain in Portuguese. Dates below belong to individual sources; this is not live availability.

## Direct answer
- **Siem Reap: Beng Mealea and Koh Ker?** Beng Mealea is 77 km east, about 1 hour 20 minutes by car: a 12th-century temple the same size as Angkor Wat, left in collapse and crossed by wooden walkways.
- **Siem Reap: money?** In Siem Reap, whole amounts are paid in dollars and the change comes back in riel, in the same purchase, at about 4,000 riel to the dollar.
- **Siem Reap: when?** Siem Reap has three seasons, and each changes what you can do at the temples and on the lake.

## Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, and the small circuit
Buy the Angkor Pass the day before, at the Angkor Enterprise office on Apsara Road, and arrange a 4:45am departure with your tuk-tuk driver (US$15–20 for the day).
- Angkor Wat
- Angkor Thom and the Bayon
- Ta Prohm

## Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean, and the museum
Leave at 8am for Banteay Srei, 37 km to the north, and arrive ahead of the buses; set aside an hour for the pink sandstone carving from 967.
- Banteay Srei
- Angkor National Museum

## Tonlé Sap, workshops, and the Khmer city
Spend the morning in Kampong Phluk, 16 km to the south, on a boat trip of about an hour and a half among the stilt houses, a trip that only makes sense from September to January.
- Tonlé Sap: Kampong Phluk and Kampong Khleang
- Artisans Angkor and Phare, the Cambodian Circus

## Angkor Wat
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-angkor-wat
Siem Reap
The largest religious monument in the world by area: 162 walled hectares, a moat about 190 m wide, and a central tower 65 m high. Built between 1113 and 1150 by Suryavarman II, it is the only major temple at Angkor that faces west, and its outer gallery holds 800 continuous meters of bas-reliefs, with the Churning of the Ocean of Milk in the east wing and about 1,800 apsara figures spread across the walls.
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## Angkor Thom and the Bayon
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-angkor-thom
Siem Reap Municipality
A 9 km² walled city founded by Jayavarman VII around 1200, with five monumental gates and causeways of 54 deities pulling a serpent. At its center stands the Bayon, with 216 stone faces on 54 towers and an outer gallery that records everyday 12th-century scenes: a market, a cockfight, a kitchen, childbirth.
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## Ta Prohm
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-ta-prohm
Siem Reap
A Buddhist monastery from 1186 where conservators decided to leave the roots of fig and tetrameles trees over the galleries instead of removing them. An inscription found on site mentions 12,640 people in the temple’s service, and restoration has been run since 2004 by the Archaeological Survey of India in partnership with APSARA.
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## Banteay Srei
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-banteay-srei
Siem Reap
37 km north of downtown, a temple from 967 dedicated to Shiva, built in pink sandstone by a brahmin rather than a king. The high-relief carving is the deepest and best preserved in the entire Angkorian complex; this is where André Malraux tried to remove pieces in 1923, an episode that ended in a criminal trial.
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## Preah Khan and Neak Pean
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-preah-khan
Siem Reap · Up to half an hour
Preah Khan (1191) covers 56 hectares, with corridors that narrow progressively and a two-story building with round columns, rare at Angkor; the World Monuments Fund has worked there since 1991. A few minutes away, Neak Pean is an artificial island with five linked pools, probably a therapeutic complex, surrounded by the Jayatataka Baray.
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## The Roluos Group
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-grupo-de-roluos
Rɔluəh, Prasat Bakong District
Thirteen kilometers southeast, the oldest temples in the region: Preah Ko (879), Bakong (881), and Lolei (893), what remains of Hariharalaya, the capital before Angkor. Bakong is the empire's first sandstone temple-mountain and still has an active monastery within its grounds.
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## Phnom Bakheng
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-phnom-bakheng
Siem Reap · One to two hours
A 65 m hill with the state temple from about 907, the oldest at the Angkor site proper. It's the classic sunset spot, with access to the top limited to 300 people at a time: the line starts around 4pm and the walk up takes 20 minutes.
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## Angkor National Museum
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-museu-nacional-de-angkor
Up to half an hour
Opened in 2007 on Charles de Gaulle Avenue, the one that leads to the temples, it's organized into eight themed galleries with originals removed from the temples, including a hall with more than a thousand Buddha images. It works best as preparation before your first visit to the park rather than as a standalone outing; set aside about ninety minutes.
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## Tonlé Sap: Kampong Phluk and Kampong Khleang
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-tonle-sap
Siem Reap
Villages on stilts 6 to 10 meters tall, built for the lake's yearly swings. Kampong Phluk is 16 km south of the city; Kampong Khleang, at 50 km, is considerably larger and gets far fewer visitors. The flooded forest is only navigable from September to January, and between March and May the boat never leaves the canal.
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## Artisans Angkor and Phare, the Cambodian Circus
https://nilopelomundo.com/en/place/siemreap/#g-lugar-artisans-angkor
The Artisans Angkor workshop, founded in 1992 as a trade school for young people from the countryside, is free to visit and shows stone carving, lacquer work, and silk weaving. At night, Phare brings together artists trained at the Phare Ponleu Selpak school in Battambang for a daily acrobatics show running since 2013.
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**Siem Reap: Beng Mealea and Koh Ker?**
Beng Mealea is 77 km east, about 1 hour 20 minutes by car: a 12th-century temple the same size as Angkor Wat, left in collapse and crossed by wooden walkways.

**Siem Reap: money?**
In Siem Reap, whole amounts are paid in dollars and the change comes back in riel, in the same purchase, at about 4,000 riel to the dollar. Bring clean dollar bills: torn, marked, or very worn notes are often refused.

**Siem Reap: when?**
Siem Reap has three seasons, and each changes what you can do at the temples and on the lake. From November to February the weather is dry and relatively cool, between 22 and 33 °C, with lower humidity and clear skies.

**Siem Reap: safety?**
In Siem Reap, violence against visitors is rare, and the realistic risk is to your belongings.

**Siem Reap: amok trey?**
Freshwater fish in kroeung curry paste with coconut milk and egg, steamed in a banana-leaf basket until it sets into a firm custard, with a noni leaf at the bottom.


## In the Nilo app
- Plan these 3 days on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/guide/siemreap/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-itinerary
- Mark your hotel on the map: https://nilopelomundo.com/en/app/map/siemreap/?utm_source=llm&utm_medium=markdown&utm_content=door-stay

## Full editorial guide (Portuguese)
https://nilopelomundo.com/llm/siemreap.md