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Angkor Wat Hotel


CruisePrincess6

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We have booked Siddharta boutique hotel following recommendations on tripadvisor. Although we haven't been yet, the level of customer service when booking has been excellent.

Might be worth you following that link.

Waggie

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We stayed at Raffles Hotel and will probably stay there this Feb. as well. We were very happy with our accomodations.

Regarding guides and drivers, we made the mistake last time of hiring what we thought was a guide/driver. On the second day we finally realized he was not licensed to take us into any of the temples. Fortunately we had done some research and brought our book Angkor by Dawn Rooney otherwise we would have been completely lost. This time we have hired a legal guide Kim San who was recommended on these boards.

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If money is no object then it has to be Amansara which is right opposite Raffles Grand Hotel. We did a week at Amansara last year and it has to be one of the very greatest hotels we've ever stayed at. While the room rates initially seem very high (about US$1300 a day) you do get a lot for your money - all meals and alcohol are included as is your own personal guide and driver who take you on two trips a day to see the temples. And this isn't a busy, packagey place at all - just 25 suites and total peace and quiet.

 

http://www.amanresorts.com/amansara/home.aspx

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CruisePrincess - We wandered over to Raffles from Amansara thinking we might have a dinner there. In fact, we did once have dinner there in 1992 when none of the rooms were habitable and it was just functioning as a restaurant! Anyway, the Raffles today is undoubtedly a decent hotel but it's very big and packagey with an awful lot of tour groups milling around. As a cheaper alternative to Amansara there are several options in the luxury boutique category. My choice would be Heritage Suites -

 

http://www.heritagesuiteshotel.com/

 

Hope this helps.

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Yes, we know this place. We wandered around it and admired the old Citroens parked outside. It has bags of character and is on the same big square as Raffles. Compare the reviews on TripAdvisor with this and the Heritage Suites and look at the pics . . . either would be excellent choices, I think, if you prefer a smaller, more intimate and characterful place than Raffles or the Meridien or any of those big joints. The main building of Raffles has character but the various add-ons give it a more impersonal atmosphere.

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The Grand Angkor hotel (now the RAFFLES Grand Hotel d' Angkor) is NOT worth the extra money.

 

It used to be one of the best in Siem Reap as value for money. The hotel has been there for a long, long time and is very historic.

 

BUT it is now only one of many very expensive hotels in Siem Reap that have no actual value for money. Once that RAFFLES name got tacked on, the hotel got "upscaled", slightly refurbished and the per day price went through the roof. Same thing happened to the Beijing Hotel in Beijing. Beijing Hotel was the ONLY hotel Westerners could stay in for many, many years until China opened to the West. Many US Presidents slept there (Mrs Nixon learned Chinese cooking at the hotel), many world leaders stayed there, Mao had an office there and had meetings with many, many world leaders in the hotel. The hotel was totally equipped with spectacular security because the hotel was widely used by world leaders.

 

I could always book a business executive room french balcony room facing the main drag in the A bldg (the original historic part) WITH breakfast buffet for about $150-175 per night. Nightly drinks and snacks included.

 

Then Raffles got their name attached to the hotel (it is actually owned by the Chinese government under Raffles management). Now you can't touch the same room there for less than $400 per night. Not much is changed-you are paying for the name and heavy advertising/marketing expense.

 

Our company is currently heavily involved in the "Asian Organic Food Manufacturers" trade show in March 2014. The US contingent has the option to go Vietnam/Cambodia as a side trip sponsored by some of the Vietnamese fish shippers. Our office is in charge of finding hotel space for 100 or so people that have put down deposits. I think we will offer three levels of hotel space. There will be no meetings in Siem Reap-just tours of the temples, Tonle Sap lake dinner cruises, balloon flights, elephant rides and I hope the ultra light flights again.

 

For those with unlimited budgets, we will probably offer Amansara (about $800 per night) but we may offer Amatao (VERY private) at $400 per night.

 

For the majority with "normal" budgets, we will most likely book the FCC Angkor (the entire hotel-29 rooms + 2 suites-about $200 per night with normal booking) This is one of my favorite hotels in the entire area that average people can afford. The hotel used to be the old Governor's mansion. It is on the river and a short walk to night life and the markets.

 

They have a spa, a really cool BLACK salt water pool, pool facing rooms with great Cambodian outdoor beds to relax on, their own contingent of guides and cars with travel agency on staff (no need to go looking for a guide, transport or a tuk tuk driver) and a REALLY good restaurant/bar. Nothing fancy, just good food/drinks at decent prices.

 

The hotel offers lots of packages-buy 2 nights, get one free. Buy this, get dinner. Buy two nights, get guided tours, etc. etc.

 

Just to give you an idea-here's a package offered next year March (same dates as our Organic conference except in 2014). Pretty inclusive for the price:

 

$ 476.00 for 2 Nights Package + $ 180.00 x 2 Extra Nights

Rate per room in United States Dollars (USD) : More Details Total Cost:

$ 836.00++

Photo Tour - DLX Deluxe boutique rooms at FCC Angkor offer views of stylish black saltwater swimming pool, designed to accommodate your travel needs, from online facilities to essential oils.

 

DAY 1: Pick up, welcome drink (Room upgrade if available), Angkor pass (three days), Sunset with Tuk Tuk, Dinner @ FCC. Day 2: Breakfast, ½ Day Temple Tour (Angkor Wat, Bayaon, Taphrom) with English Speaking Guide, Lunch at your own choice (not inclusive). Visiting and shooting photo of floating Village @ Tonle Sap and seeing sunset on top of Phnom Kroam Mountain with a Professional Photographer Mr. Peter Oxley (Tuk Tuk, Boat, Entrance fee and photographer is include), Dinner with Peter and working on PHOTO editing. Day 3: Breakfast, Seeing Sunrise & Back to town to visit down town, old market

Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17

$476.00 included $180.00 $180.00 Departure

 

DON'T dump all your money on a hotel. As you can see, you can get a VERY nice hotel with a GREAT package for a really decent price. Enjoy!!!

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Another hotel to consider is the lovely Sojourn Siem Reap. http://www.sojournsiemreap.com/index.php

 

We, along with two other couples, stayed there for five days a year ago. Because it is out of the city (only a 10-15 minute tuk-tuk ride from downtown SR), it is a wonderfully quiet refuge from the noise and car exhaust of SR.

 

The individual bungalows are quite nice. This is not a typical "luxury" large-scale hotel. Rather, it is an unusual intimate experience. Quite up-market while not being self-consciously or self-congratulatorily posh.

 

The very close relationship of Sojourn to the village of Treak, in which it is located, is quite wonderful and pretty much worth the stay just for that connection. The village visit on one morning was one of the highlights of our two-week adventure in Vietnam and Cambodia, as was the excellent cooking class for four of us on another morning at Sojourn.

 

TripAdvisor rates Sojourn at or near the top of the list of hotels in SR. Despite my rather skeptical view of TA, in this case, I think that the ranking is quite appropriate.

 

Cheers, Fred

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Fred---Sojourn looks very nice and certainly priced right. My concern is that we plan to spend only 3 days and 2 nights and this hotel is further from the temples and Pub Street. Would that be a problem? Did you book a package or hire a private guide? Any additional information would be helpful.

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CP6 - In our experience there, the greater distance from the temples & Pub Street was not a significant factor, adding perhaps 15 minutes to the various journies.

 

As we were staying for a longer time, we took advantage of one of the packages (I don't remember which one). The hotel can arrange private guides, as they did for us.

 

One suggestion: Do not go with a day tour that includes a "gourmet picnic lunch" from the hotel, as it is not worth eating. Rather, invite your guide to have lunch with you at a good cafe or bistro nearby to whichever site you are visiting.

 

The hotel can arrange to have you picked up at the airport. The driver whom we used most of the time was a delightful guy who lives close to the hotel and was always there to take us places within a few minutes of our visit to the front desk.

 

Cheers, Fred

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