Budget Travel in Siem Reap & Angkor Wat
A visual guide from the Siem Reap and Angkor Wat travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
The single biggest line in a Siem Reap budget is the Angkor pass, and it is worth planning around. Tickets come in one-, three- and seven-day tiers — currently around US$37, US$62 and US$72 — and are sold only at the Angkor Enterprise office on Road 60, never at the temples themselves. Almost everything else is cheap by regional standards. A clean guesthouse room in the Wat Bo lanes costs a fraction of the same comfort in Bangkok, and a plate of grilled pork over rice from a morning cart is a couple of dollars.
What things cost
Expect roughly US$12 to 25 a night for a tidy guesthouse with air conditioning, and US$40 to 80 for a good mid-range hotel with a pool — less in the wet season, when rates drop hard. A city bicycle rents for a few dollars a day. A tuk-tuk for the small temple circuit is typically US$15 to 20, more for the grand circuit and more again for the run out to Banteay Srei. Street plates run about US$2 to 4, restaurant mains around US$6 to 10, and draught beer on Pub Street falls well under a dollar during the long happy hours. Phnom Kulen, Beng Mealea and Koh Ker charge separately.
Where the savings are
Buy the three-day pass rather than three singles: it is valid across a ten-day window, so you can rest a day in between without wasting it. Tickets bought late in the afternoon usually admit you for that evening and still count from the following morning — worth confirming at the counter. Cycling the small circuit removes the largest daily cost, and the terrain is flat. Eat where residents do, at Psar Leu in the morning and Road 60 at night, and spend riel on small purchases so you do not lose value on change. The wet season, June to October, cuts room rates sharply, and the temples genuinely look better wet.