Where Is Angkor Wat: Cambodia, Siem Reap and the Angkor Park

Angkor Wat location: country, province and nearest city

The country is Cambodia and the province is Siem Reap, in the north-west. Siem Reap is the city everyone uses as a base, and the temple lies 6 km out of its town centre on the northern side, a drive of about 12 minutes. None of the monument is inside the city: you leave town, pass the ticket area on Apsara Road, and enter the park.

Inside Angkor Archaeological Park, Angkor Wat sits at the southern end of the central temple group. Phnom Bakheng, the hill temple, stands about 1.5 km away. Ta Prohm is about 3 km to the north-east and some 12 km from the city. Banteay Srei, the outlying temple most itineraries add, is about 25 km north-east of the main group.

Which side you arrive on matters here, because the layout points west rather than east as most Angkorian monuments do. Twice a year, at the spring and autumn equinoxes, that orientation puts the rising sun in line with the central tower as you look along the western causeway. Walk that causeway, 350 m of it, and the two ponds used for reflection shots open out on either side at the third set of steps, beside the outer libraries.

Angkor Wat is one temple of many

The footprint you can trace on a map runs to 162.6 hectares, or 402 acres, which is why the ticketing authority calls it the largest religious monument in the world. Even at that size the temple occupies one corner of a far wider ticketed area: over 50 accessible temples sit inside Angkor Temples Park on a single pass, and the authority counts more than 90 temples across all the sites it sells tickets for. The UNESCO listing from 1992 runs to 40,100 hectares and takes in around 72 major monuments plus several hundred minor sites.

That spread is why the park is toured in loops rather than visited as a single stop. On the ground the inner loop measures about 17 km (10.5 miles), from Angkor Wat across to Srah Srang, back west by Ta Prohm and Ta Keo, then in through the Victory Gate on Angkor Thom's eastern side. The wider loop, about 25 km (15.6 miles), pushes east from Srah Srang to Pre Rup, East Mebon, Neak Pean and Preah Khan before returning to the Bayon by Angkor Thom's north gate.

Opening hours pull in different directions too. Angkor Wat opens at 5:00 AM for sunrise (Srah Srang and Phnom Bakheng also admit visitors from 5:00 AM), and it shuts again at 5:30 PM, while the Bayon, the Baphuon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei stay closed until 7:30 AM. At the other end of the day, Preah Khan takes visitors from 7:00 AM until 6:30 PM and Phnom Bakheng is listed to 7:00 PM, but plan to be down by the park's 6:30 PM closing. Entry to the park as a whole starts at 5:00 AM, with closing at 6:30 PM.

• Dawn at Angkor Wat, then the gates and walls of Angkor Thom while the Bayon is still shut
• Mid-morning for Ta Prohm, 3 km north-east of Angkor Wat and open from 7:30 AM
• The hours after Angkor Wat's 5:30 PM closing belong to Preah Khan, open to 6:30 PM, and Phnom Bakheng until the park's 6:30 PM closing
• A separate half-day for Banteay Srei, roughly 25 to 30 km from Siem Reap

Angkor Wat to Siem Reap distance, and where the ticket area sits

Official information puts the main Angkor Enterprise ticket office on Apsara Road at the corner of Road 60, approximately 4 km from central Siem Reap and on the way to the temples; it opens daily 5:00 AM to 5:30 PM. The main entrance area where passes are checked is roughly 5 km from the centre, and visitors are generally driven rather than self-driving. Treat the distances as planning figures and confirm timings with your driver on the day.

A staffed counter called Angkor Pavis also sits right by the main Angkor Wat entrance, on the same 5:00 AM to 5:30 PM hours, with further counters at Banteay Srei, Beng Mealea and Koh Ker. Staff scan and verify the pass at each checkpoint before letting you through, so it travels with you from the first gate of the day to the last. Because those counters sit along the road out of town rather than near your hotel, it is worth knowing that a tour guide can obtain the pass for you.

Why you sleep in Siem Reap and drive out each morning

There is no village at the temple gates to stay in, and the distances settle the rest: a 17 km loop on one day, a 25 km loop on another, a 25 km run north-east for Banteay Srei, and monuments that open at 5:00 AM, 7:00 AM and 7:30 AM. A driver who knows the gates and a guide who orders the temples around those opening times saves you the two hours most first-timers lose at locked doors.

The accommodation districts are compact. The Old French Quarter and Old Market area around Pub Street, Wat Bo Road east of the river, Taphul Village, Wat Damnak and Charles de Gaulle Boulevard cover almost everything. Charles de Gaulle is the main road towards Angkor Wat and about a five-minute tuk-tuk ride from Pub Street; Wat Bo Road is roughly a 15-minute walk from the same point.

Two practical constraints shape temple days. Stay on main routes and marked paths in rural areas around the temple complexes, where landmines and unexploded ordnance remain a hazard, and avoid driving between distant sites after dark, since road risk rises sharply at night. Dress for the whole day before you leave your room, shoulders and knees covered, because you will be 6 km from the hotel and foreign-office advice is explicit that revealing clothing can get you refused entry at religious sites, Angkor Wat included.

Getting to Siem Reap in the first place

Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (SAI) is the gateway. Commercial traffic moved here on 16 October 2023 from the old Siem Reap International Airport (REP), everything runs through one passenger terminal, and that terminal is built for up to 7 million passengers a year. It is farther from town than the temples are: the transfer to the city centre is about 34 km and roughly 50 minutes by road.

From Phnom Penh there are two shapes of day. In the air, the Phnom Penh end is now Techo International Airport (KTI), with Air Cambodia serving Siem Reap daily and Cambodia Airways listing KR801 at 09:00-10:05, a flight of 1 hour 5 minutes. On the ground the gap between the two cities is 320 km, which the coach covers in 6 hours; day departures are 8:45 AM, 9:45 AM and 12:30 PM, night runs at 10:30 PM and 11:00 PM, and the single pause is a driver change of roughly 15 minutes in Kampong Thom town.

Arriving overland from Thailand is not possible at present. Cambodia's land borders and crossings with Thailand remain suspended, the 20 km strip along that border carries foreign-office advice against all but essential travel, and the frontier temples themselves, Khao Phra Wihan/Preah Vihear, Ta Kwai/Ta Krabey and Ta Muen Thom, are closed. Bangkok trips are therefore flown. Bangkok Airways schedules PG905 out of Suvarnabhumi at 11:20 and into Siem Reap at 12:40, about 1 hour 20 minutes, and Cambodia Airways has run five weekly ATR 72 services between Siem Reap and Suvarnabhumi since 15 September 2026.

Check entry paperwork before you fly. A visa on arrival can be issued at Cambodian airports and at land border crossings, the e-visa needs at least four days' notice, and your passport has to carry six months of validity on the day you land.

Turning the location into a plan

Once you know where the temple stands in relation to town, the decisions fall out quickly. Base yourself in Siem Reap, travel the 6 km out with a driver and guide each morning, and give the outlying sites their own half-day rather than bolting them onto a circuit. If the dates are yours to pick, take the dry months: from June to October the monsoon brings storms that damage roads, set off landslides and cause flash flooding, and the drive out to the temples depends on those roads.

Pressure on the site has eased since the advice in most guidebooks was written. The park pass is a separate compulsory fee, and a tour guide is one of the official ways to obtain it.

Read the transport page on this site next for how the airport transfer and the daily runs into the park actually work, and the map page for the circuits and the gates. Then pick a guided day that matches your dates.

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