SIEM REAP

Siem Reap is becoming increasingly popular as a holiday destination and has numerous hotels and guesthouses, both luxury and budget, as well as Western-style bars and restaurants to enjoy. Many of these venues are located near the Old Market and the nearby popular Pub Street. In the surrounding countryside there are silk farms, rice-paddies and fishing villages to explore, as well as the bird sanctuary near Tonle Sap Lake, which is one of the largest freshwater lakes in Asia. The area is home to charming villages on stilts, or floating villages, built to accommodate monsoon flooding.

Climate: Siem Reap features a tropical wet and dry climate. The city is generally hot throughout the course of the year, with average high temperatures never falling below 300C in any month. Siem Reap has a relatively lengthy wet season which starts in April and ends in November.

Best time to visit: Even though June is part of the rainy season it is a good time to visit Siem Reap. The weather is not very hot as the few showers Siem Reap get generally cool the air to make it a more pleasant climate. June is also a great time to visit Siem Reap as the Angkor temples see fewer visitors at this time of year.

Getting here: Most visitors arrive in Siem Reap by air. There are direct flights from most major capital cities in Southeast Asia. It is a 40-minute-flight or a 6-hour-journey by road from Phnom Penh.