Welcome back to the wonders of Angkor and to the as-great-as-before Sofitel Angkor





Cambodia had among the most crazy entry rules during Covid, but last november, they finally decided to become reasonable and easily accessible for vaccinated people, with only a PCR test before flying there and a rapid test on arrival at the airport & no more quarantine, money deposit to cover medical expenses and other crazy stuffs. After 3 years of absence, it was time to go back to my favorite hotel .

Now that I have said that, the main problem is to reach Siem Reap. Preparing the trip, I was struggling to find flights and, checking on FR24, I was in total shock to discover that there was only one flight a day in REP , on SQ to/from SIN. There are a few more options going to PNH, all inconvenient in term of timing and connection times, but then there is no more domestic flights . My trip was in february. A few additional flights are being added at the moment and during the weeks to come and domestic flights are restarting slowly. So I took the SQ via SIN option from CDG. My SIN-REP-SIN flights had a lot of French people on them. For those of you who knows Siem Reap, you can imagine the economic catastrophe caused by the pandemic, as the city is heavily relying on tourism. Most hotels are closed, especially the huge ones where all the Chinese people on package tours are going. Same for restaurants : the nice ones along the river downtown Siem reap are all open, but in the pub street area, only a few are open. For Accor hotels, the Grand Hotel d'Angkor (Raffles) and the Ibis Style are closed, but the most important : the Sofitel is open . The Sofitel managed to attract some domestic guests from PNH as well as some company seminars. There was one company seminar during my stay with 180 persons and for sure this is helping their business. I have to say that those people have been very discret and quiet and did not disturb at all the regular guests. Once they were gone, the occupancy was low for sure, but at least the country is reopening slowly. And it's absolutely great to visit the Angkor temples almost empty. Great pictures guaranteed.

I stayed one week (the minimum to enjoy the hotel ). I am very happy to say that the hotel is as beautiful as before and the service as perfect as before Covid. Contrarily to many hotels, there is no downgrade at all of the product and offering. Of course, the facilities are adapted to the occupancy : the main restaurant (citadelle) was open only for breakfast when the company seminar was there and then breakfast/lunch/dinner was served only at Mouhot's dream restaurant. But the menus of the different restaurants were all available. The main bar, the pool bar/lunch are open, as well as the Spa. The club Millésime is also operating normally. Depending on the number of eligible guests, they were either proposing a small buffet for canapés or they were bringing you a selection of very good freshly prepared ones (see pictures below). Turndown service is still provided.
A few of my long-time staff members are unfortunately gone for another temporary or permanent job/life, but others were still there and the welcome was as wonderful as before.

I had the great surprise to be awaited at REP airport by the hotel limousine that was offered for free to me (same for the return).



I was upgraded to Junior suite. This hotel has been extensively reviewed here so I won't add much, but I am happy to post a few new pictures to show you that the hotel is still the same, as nice as before.















The special dinner organized on the pool side for the company seminar attendees


Club Millésime / Mouhot's dream restaurant and the selection of fresh canapés bring during the happy hour cocktail time





The welcome amenity and note on arrival, and a 2nd one bring at mid-stay





A big thank you to the General Manager, Mr Pascal Tadin and all his team for their wonderful welcome and treatment and for having kept this hotel at the top during this terrible period, without any downgrading of the offer and customer experience.
For the FT readers here, it's time to book your flight to REP and your stay at Sofitel Angkor to enjoy Angkor with very few visitors.