River Cruises and Boat Trips in Siem Reap & Angkor Wat
A visual guide from the Siem Reap and Angkor Wat travel guide — see all posters in Visual Guides.
The Siem Reap River through town is barely wider than a lane and no boats run on it. Everything on water happens 15 to 50 km south, where that river empties into the Tonlé Sap — a lake that swells to several times its dry-season size each summer when the Mekong backs up into it, floats whole villages higher up their stilts and drowns a forest you can then row through. The trips sold in town are essentially variations on going out to look at that.
Which village, which boat
Chong Kneas, about 15 km out below Phnom Krom, is the nearest and the most heavily worked; go if time is short, and be firm about add-ons sold mid-trip. Kampong Phluk, roughly 30 km east, has the tall stilt houses and the flooded forest, best explored in small rowing boats from about September to November. Kampong Khleang, some 50 km out, is the largest of the lake villages and the least staged — a longer drive for a considerably better afternoon. Prek Toal, a Ramsar-listed bird sanctuary reached after roughly two hours afloat, is a dawn trip between about December and February for pelicans and storks.
Longer journeys
When the water is high, usually from around August into January, a passenger boat runs from the lake up the Sangker River to Battambang in seven to nine hours — cramped, slow and easily the most interesting way to travel in Cambodia, passing floating schools and fish farms the whole way. Small ships also work the Tonlé Sap and Mekong between Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City on multi-day itineraries; the Siem Reap end shifts between Chong Kneas and Kampong Chhnang depending on water levels, so confirm the embarkation point close to departure rather than at booking.