Two weeks is the dream; ten days is what most travellers actually have. Done well, a ten-day Cambodia tour carries you all the way from the temples of Angkor to the beaches of the Gulf of Thailand — and you keep one private driver and one vehicle the whole way, so the experience flows from morning to morning without changing hands.
Days 1–3 — Siem Reap and Angkor
Three days in Siem Reap to do Angkor properly: sunrise at Angkor Wat, the smiling faces of Bayon, the jungle of Ta Prohm, and a slower day around Banteay Srei and the Grand Circuit. We add a floating village on the Tonle Sap and one quiet experience — a cooking class, an ox cart ride or a monk’s blessing.
Day 4 — Battambang via the back roads
We drive 3 hours west to Battambang, Cambodia’s elegant second city, with French colonial shop-houses and a calm river. Afternoon: the famous Bamboo Train, a bat cave at sunset where millions of bats stream into the dusk, and a Khmer dinner on the riverside.
Day 5 — Battambang to Phnom Penh
A long but beautiful drive south along the Tonle Sap and the Mekong floodplain. We stop in the colonial town of Pursat for coffee, and arrive in Phnom Penh in time for sunset drinks on a rooftop above the river.
Day 6 — Phnom Penh, the gentle and the difficult
Mornings are for the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda and the National Museum’s extraordinary collection of Angkorian bronzes. Afternoons can be difficult: a respectful visit to S-21 and the Killing Fields is something most travellers want to do once, with a guide who knows the history.
Evening: street food on Bassac Lane, or a Cambodian fusion restaurant supporting young chefs from rural provinces.
Days 7–8 — Kampot and Kep, slow Cambodia
South to Kampot, a riverside town of red-tile colonial houses and the famous Kampot pepper plantations. We visit a working farm, taste the four colours of pepper, and stay in a wooden bungalow above the river.
Day eight: Kep, a small seaside town once loved by the French. Lunch at the crab market — fresh blue crab fried with green Kampot pepper is the dish you will talk about for years — then sunset from Bokor Mountain.
Days 9–10 — Koh Rong or Sihanoukville coast
We drive west to Sihanoukville and take a fast boat to Koh Rong Sanloem — white sand, clear water, low-rise bungalows, no traffic. Two nights of swimming, snorkelling, hammocks and, if you are lucky, plankton-lit night swims.
On day ten we return to the mainland for the flight home from Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville. If you prefer to fly out of Siem Reap, we add a half-day buffer and a comfortable drive back north.
Practical tips from our driver-guides
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