papa papa

My wife and I are going to Cambodia. We will do three days or so at Angkor, but are open beyond that. I've heard of a couple floating villages, which sounds neat. We are interested in local and tribal culture, scenery, hiking, mountains, national parks, and random adventures. A homestay would be awesome. We are not so interested in spending lots of time in larger cities. Thanks for any suggestions you can provide!

babalooie21204

I'm in the same boat you are, traveling to Angkor end of Feb 2016, looking to figure out what to do.

Firemansam

We did angkor wat etc in 09, if you choose to do sunrise at angkor wat then before the masses leave, skip out and head to ta prohm, we got there at 7am before all the korean tourists rolled up and had the place almost to ourselves it was amazing. After that the place was packed.
We did a floating village but it was a tourist trap, i heard later there is another one nearby which is far better and not designed to rip off tourists, unfortunatly all the names are escaping me

Pub street in Siem Reap is great, very chilled and great for cheap cocktails and good food.

Stayed at the Angkoriana hotel, very small, across from the national museum, very cheap when booked through their own website.

glennaa11

There are lots of other temples and things to see in the countryside. They tend to be a lot less crowded.

I'm headed to Preah Vihear in December and really looking forward to it.

Goldorak

3 days is a minimum in Angkor and you may want to extend a bit and explore some further temples like Preach Vihear, Koh Ker and Beung Meala, but starting and returning from/to Siem Reap every day.
It seems you are looking also to less touristic and more nature parts of the country, so you may head up to Ratanakiri area (east Cambodia).
You should also spend 2 days in Phnom penh. I like also the Battambang area but there is not that much to see or to do (2 days max). The south of the country has also some nice "nature" area to go.
You say in your post "hiking, mountains, national parks, and random adventures" : keep in mind that Cambodia is still an undeveloped country for most part of it and that a large part of it is still full of land mines. The situation is improving year after year but it is still very dangerous to walk around in the not-yet-cleaned areas.

glennaa11

My travel agent suggested NE Cambodia/Rattanakiri to me as well, but it didn't fit in my upcoming trip. Maybe next year. Looks like lots of interesting nature up there, some waterfalls and so forth. And apparently very few tourists so probably not as much in the way of tourist infrastructure. He also has me overnighting at Preah Vihear. The plan is to stop of Koh Ker and Beng Mealea on the way there, arrive late afternoon near Preah Vihear and then visit the site starting the next morning for a while and return back to Siem Reap.

Southern Cambodia has some things worth seeing. I spent a couple of days in Kep a few years ago. Visited Bokor Mountain hillstation, Rabbit Island and took a ride on the Kampot River. On the way back to Phnom Penh we stopped at Phnom Chisor which has some very nice views over the surrounding area, but the 500+ stairs to the top just about killed me.

Other than the area around Tonle Sap I'm not sure there's a whole lot in the way of "tribal culture" like there would be in Northern Thailand, Laos or Myanmar.

RustyC

Am really glad I got to Angkor in Feb. 1997, even though the Khmer Rouge took it briefly later that year and the trip was memorable for being mobbed at the pier by guesthouse touts with unairconditioned GHs going as cheaply as $1/night and everyone wanting to take you around on a motorbike for $6/day. And you had to take the malaria pills back then. But the crowds were much smaller everywhere!

Also got out there in 2000 and you could see Banteay Srei by then without an armed guard. things were starting to get built up then. Bangkok Airways started flying directly in, others followed and broke the monopoly and that was all she wrote. The standard advice has always been to give it 3 days.

Rattanakiri would be a great trip and might just still be relatively lightly touristed. Phnom Penh has grown a lot but is nothing like BKK, KUL, SIN or even SGN in size...would guess it's still more on the order of a Khorat or Chiang Mai. There's the palace and the Pol Pot-era sites.

Have been to both Sihanoukville and Koh Kong, but the former is probably much more built up today. Battambang is said to be more colonial-like and less-tourited a backwater, but Battambang and Siem Reap provinces got more than their share of the landmines planted back in the day, as the KR's last stand was in the northwest.

sandy86

I stayed there 3 days and it is enough to visit Siem Reap. First day for Angkor Wat temple with balloon to view temple, second day visit tonlesap lake and last day free for walking around city or shopping.

Goldorak

There is much more to see than just Angkor Wat

dsquared37

Rattanakiri and Mondulkiri don't have much tourism and soon they also won't have many trees. The area is being torn asunder for wood which is then mostly shipped out of country. The same with the adjacent areas in southern Laos' Attapeu Province.

Kep is indeed a gem but the lodging seems way overpriced.

Tourism was beginning to get out of hand well before PG's monopoly was broken. The first I noticed the craziness was 2008. Thankfully I can still arrange multiple day trips while avoiding the masses.

However I'm jealous you were there in those early years.

I've given up pursuing that train of conversation. If people only want to do a silly tethered balloon ride and Angkor Wat then less hassle for me in other locales.

Goldorak

You are correct indeed . A few less people in the other jewels of Angkor.

RustyC

Hard to believe they wouldn't want to at least see the Bayon and Ta Phrom.

'Bout all they need now is to build the McDonald's on the road to Siem Reap.

dsquared37

Chances are the only reason it hasn't happened is because the 'play ball' fee is too steep.

FoggyBridges

Angkor, Bayon, Ta Phrom- must sees! Although I think one of my favorite temples was Bantrey Srei- lovely.
I did 3 days and it was not enough. When I go back I plan on a week so I can do temples in the morning and sit by the pool in the afternoon

Also highly suggest Phnom Pehn- royal palace, national museum, and the FCC has great dinner views. Also, killing fields/S 21, while sad are an important part of Cambodia's history.

Goldorak

I could not agree more with you. That's what I do every year now : stay minimum 6 days in a lovely hotel (Sofitel Angkor) and spend 1/2 days resting at the pool and the other half exploring temples or doing anything else in SR.