Phnom Penh to Siem Reap: How to Reach Angkor Wat from the Capital

Three ways to cover the 320 km between the cities

320 km of road separate the two cities. Coaches are scheduled at 6 hours. A flight from Techo International Airport (KTI) into Siem Reap-Angkor (SAI) is scheduled at 1 hour 5 minutes, and a private car uses the same highway as the coach, minus the fixed timetable.

Fly if your temple time is short. The 09:00 departure lands at 10:05, and with 34 km and roughly 50 minutes still to drive into town, you are in Siem Reap around midday while the park stays open until 6:30 PM. A daytime coach makes sense when the fare counts for more than the hours. A private car earns its place if you are travelling with luggage or small children, since you set the departure time instead of working around a schedule.

• Once you are in town, Angkor Wat is 6 km north of the centre, about 12 minutes by road
• An afternoon arrival still buys you temple time: entry runs from 5:00 AM to the park's 6:30 PM closing, with Angkor Wat the first to shut, at 5:30 PM
• Timetables on this route move, so confirm flight and coach times with the operator on the day

Flying from Techo to Siem Reap-Angkor

Flights leave the capital from Techo International Airport (KTI), the Phnom Penh point in Air Cambodia's schedule search. Air Cambodia serves Siem Reap daily. Cambodia Airways flies the route twice a day on ATR 72 aircraft and lists KR801 at 09:00-10:05.

The airport at the Siem Reap end sits further from town than the temples do. Your flight lands at Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport, which took over commercial traffic from the old Siem Reap International Airport (REP) on 16 October 2023, so an older booking reference to REP means this same place. Arrivals and departures share a single passenger terminal, so a short hop up from the capital puts you straight from the aircraft into a hall built for up to 7 million passengers a year. Allow about 34 km and roughly 50 minutes by road once you are out of arrivals and heading for the city centre.

A morning flight leaves a usable afternoon. Landing at 10:05 and reaching a hotel around midday, you still have hours before the 6:30 PM park closing, and the main temple is open to 5:30 PM. An evening flight gives you a hotel evening and nothing more.

The coach from the capital, departure by departure

The coach route is given as 320 km and 6 hours. Three slots run in daylight, at 8:45 AM, 9:45 AM and 12:30 PM, and two run overnight, at 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM. The operator's route page lists one break, a driver change of roughly 15 minutes in Kampong Thom town, and no bathroom stops along the way, so deal with coffee and water before you board.

Take the 8:45 AM. Six hours from that slot puts you in Siem Reap with an afternoon in hand and time to sort a pass before the counters close at 5:30 PM. The 12:30 PM gets you in for dinner and little else.

The night runs look efficient and are the ones to skip. Official advice is that Cambodia has one of the highest road accident rates in Southeast Asia and that driving after dark raises the risk sharply, which outweighs a saved hotel night. Departure times shift, so check the current schedule with the operator on the day.

Private car, road conditions and why daylight matters

A private car covers the same 320 km, and what you are paying for is the departure time rather than any gain in speed. Allow about 5–6 hours by car, and most of a day once you add stops.

Season changes the road. The monsoon runs June to October, when storms damage roads, cause landslides and bring flash flooding, so the dry months are the easier time to make this trip and the ones to choose if a temple date is already fixed at the other end.

Stay on main routes once you leave the highway around the rural temple areas, and keep to marked paths: unexploded ordnance remains a hazard in parts of the countryside. Finish any driving between sites before dark.

One long day from the capital, or a night in Siem Reap first

The organised trip from the capital runs 15 hours, which is what 320 km of road in each direction plus temple time comes to. The version listed on this site takes in Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Ta Prohm with an English-speaking Angkor guide, air-conditioned transport, a traditional Khmer lunch and travel insurance, from $159, rated 4.9 ★ (76 reviews). The Angkor temple pass is not included.

First light is the one thing a single day from Phnom Penh cannot deliver. Angkor Wat opens at 5:00 AM, and sunrise falls between about 05:39 in late June and 06:31 in mid-January; nobody leaving the capital that morning will be standing on the causeway at that hour. The Bayon and Ta Prohm keep their gates shut until 7:30 AM, so a long day arriving mid-morning still fits those three temples sensibly.

Stay a night if your itinerary has one to spare. Fly, or take the 8:45 AM coach, sleep in Siem Reap and start the next day at the park's 5:00 AM opening with a guided morning from town. Picked up the following dawn, the sunrise or sunset tour listed here fills 8 hours, starts from $18 and carries 5.0 ★ (13,742 reviews); an English tour guide, an air-conditioned vehicle, cold water and a cold towel come with it, while the pass is a separate payment.

• Take the 15-hour day trip from the capital if you have no night to give Siem Reap and want Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Ta Prohm covered in one go with a guide and lunch
• Travel up independently and join a tour from Siem Reap if you want dawn on the causeway, a second temple day, or the late afternoon, when Preah Khan stays open to 6:30 PM and Phnom Bakheng until the park's 6:30 PM closing
• Fly rather than ride if the temples are getting only one full day

Your first morning at the temples

The last leg is the short one. After 320 km from the capital, the temple sits 6 km from your hotel, a drive of roughly 12 minutes north of the town centre, with a driver at the wheel rather than you. Entry starts at 5:00 AM, early enough for a dawn start on your first full morning, and the day runs to 5:30 PM at Angkor Wat and 6:30 PM at the park gate.

Sort the pass on the evening you arrive. Siem Reap's main Angkor Enterprise counter sits at the junction of Apsara Road and Road 60, around 4 km out from the centre along the road that leads to the temples, with daily hours of 5:00 AM to 5:30 PM; the official help centre adds that anything bought after 5:00 PM counts for the next day, which suits travellers who land or pull in late from the capital. Those who have booked a guided morning can leave it to the guide.

Clothing is checked at the gate. Keep shoulders and knees covered in light fabric and carry a scarf or sarong, because official UK advice warns that you can be refused admission at religious sites including Angkor Wat if you are dressed too revealingly. The pass is scanned and verified by staff at each temple checkpoint before you go through, so carry it from the first gate to the last.

Questions people ask

Read also