Angkor Wat and Siem Reep as a pre-cruise tour

[Folkfan13]

I found discussions on this site related to quick cruise excursions to Angkor Wat, that replace a couple of days on the ship (this is offered on the two week Princess Singapore to Singapore cruise), but I've found no discussions/reviews of a pre/post cruise tour to Angkor Wat.    Princess is marketing a 5 day Phnom Penh/Siem Reap and transfer to Singapore pre-cruise land tour.  The itinerary is two nights in Phnom Penh with a full day tour of the highlights of the city on the second day, then a flight to Siem Reap with one full day visiting Angkor Was, and one day seeing other highlights around the area.    This seems to be a brand new tour for Princess, so no reviews seem to be available.   The tour ends with the flight to Singapore, an afternoon and night exploring that city, and finally transfer to the cruise the next day.    Has anyone done something like this with other cruise lines?   Thoughts?

[hubofhockey]

There is a lot of discussion of pre and post cruise experiences in Siem Ream / Angkor Wat and it's been pretty recent.  

 

All I can say is that you are probably best off doing it on your own without the help of a cruise line.  Hotels are very inexpensive. Really good massages are cheap as well.  We chose Happy Angkor Tours for our tour company and did the small circuit one day and Banteay Srei and an elephant ride around the Bayon Temple the second day and had use of the driver the entire day the second day.  We stayed at the Grand Venus.  The entire three day weekend, including tours, flights, hotels, spa, and food was around $1500 for the two of us.  It was an amazing time.

[iancal]

We visited Siem Reap on an independent land trip.  It was incredibly easy to arrange the trip on our own.  We were in Thailand, on our way to  Vietnam for a month so we decided to include Cambodia rather than fly over it.  The best thing we did was research on tripadvisor to arrange a private guide for two days.  The guide made a world of difference for us.  He picked us up early in the AM and knew how to tour the site while avoiding the large tours.  Back to the hotel by 230/3 for a cold beer and a swim.

 

There are really no obstacles to doing this on your own.  There are plenty of inexpensive air options.  Visa was a non issue for us-it took less than 15 minutes at the airport.  The hotel was easy to book.  It was extremely inexpensive.   We travelled to other areas in Cambodia on our own.  Plane and mini bus.  Never an issue, language was not a problem.

Edited December 16, 2019 by iancal

[Folkfan13]

ianacal,     did your two day private guide include getting you from the airport to the motel, or did you do that on your own and then have him pick up up on the first tour morning?    I've looked at flights and certainly getting from Singapore to Siem Reap and back would be easy on our own, and we did private tours in Thailand many years ago that worked out well.    If I removed the Princess land tour from our booking and did Ankgor privately, I'd probably not do Phnom Penh (which is part of the Princess tour).  

[iancal]

He picked us up the next morning.  We flew in during the afternoon.  We exited the termial, and got a tuk tuk to our hotel.   There were lots of tuk tuks plus cabs.   We did not have our guide firmed up.   Foolishly we did that the afternoon we arrived.  The first person on our list was only available on one of the two days.  We went to another who was available both days.  He was very good.  He also picked us up one night and took us to an touristy event at a restaurant.  Local dancing, etc. We very much enjoyed touring Siem Reap on our own=especially at night.  Lots of good restaurants.  People were very friendly.

 

We enjoyed Siem Reap and Ankgor much more than we did Phnom Penh.  We actually enjoyed the Cambodian small town of Kampot  as much or more than Phnom Penh.  One reason might be that we had spent several winters doing independent land trips in Thailand and did a month of independent touring in Vietnam after Cambodia.  Not to say PP is terrible, it was simply that we found other cities had more to offer based on our preferences.

 

IF it were doing this again, we would skip Phnom Penh or replace it with another stop... perhaps Chiang Mai or Bangkok for a few days instead.   We have flown in the area often-many options for routes, airlines, and pricing.

 

Nothing wrong with cruise tours for those that are so inclined and willing to pay for the convenience.  We happen to be very independent travelers, have toured throughout the area.   It was be a snap for the average person to do this on their own.   We only travel with carry on.  If we had lots of luggage, and were flying in and out of Singapore we would arrange to store most of our bags in Sin and just take overnight bags for a few days.

 

IF you are so inclined, this is one that you can easily do on your own.....as you have already sussed out I suspect.

Edited December 16, 2019 by iancal

[Folkfan13]

Thanks for the reply.   Lots to think about.

 

[Hoyaheel]

Just a note that Cambodia licenses its tour guides -so whomever you hire to tour the Angkor Arch park will be licensed and know their stuff! (I asked our guide how many different language guides were available and I think he said at least 15? English & Chinese the most popular these days, but we heard MANY different languages as we toured around). To add to this note - you can hire a driver, but most drivers are not licensed guides. So you'd want both (though we did a 4th day with just a driver - honestly he knew as much as a guide, gave us background as he drove us between temples - we viewed the temples on our own and then went back to the car)

[hubofhockey]

Many Siem Reap hotels offer free airport pickup and dropoff.  Even if not, at most, it’s $10.  There is no other way to put it other than this is not a wealthy country and most things are cheap. Park passes aren’t though.  

[Milhouse]

Similarly, we've done Siem Reap twice as part of a land trip to Thailand once and Vietnam the other time with many of the same experiences mentioned in the other posts.  Siem Reap being such a tourist destination, they've got a lot of the process set so it's pretty easy to do it on your own (other than limiting excessive tourist pricing).

 

Both times we stayed at independent boutique hotels a few blocks outside of the Pub Street area.  Each time we arranged for pickup from the airport from the hotel.  Transport was via tuktuk which can get a bit squishy depending on how much luggage you have/people in your group.  It's a bit of a trip to get into town.

 

We found one guide off of wikitravel.  Popular guides you definitely have to book ahead.  Our hotel tuktuk driver also inquired about driving us to the temples.  As mentioned, some will just drive you to the temples along a circuit and you would have to hire a guide if you want commentary/insight.  

 

A caution on packing too much Ankor Wat in a day.  We went during hot season and humidity was pretty brutal.  We also got caught in a crazy downpour which we waited out at a restaurant.

 

 

Edited December 17, 2019 by Milhouse

[iancal]

We were there March 5-9. 2016.  It was hot.  We returned to our hotel between 2-3 each day.  DD found our guide. He was Angkor Sam.  He was excellent  Very knowledgeable plus an AC Lexus SUV.  We would not even consider doing the tour in a tuk tuk.  Too slow, too dusty.  Sam gave us lots of history, explained the various sites.

 

We stayed in a very nice small hotel.   Great breakfast, large pool facing room, very friendly people.  Just across the river that divides the town.  It was Central Indochine D'angkor Hotel.   We paid a total of $156 CAD for four nights-breakfast included, pool facing room (recommended).

Edited December 17, 2019 by iancal

[Hoyaheel]

We were there in late August/early September this year. People said we were crazy to think about going to Vietnam & Cambodia that time of year. Quite honestly - I live in NC and it was just like being home in August. But we're outside a lot in the summer and are used to the heat and humidity (and well aware of the need to hydrate - I have always consumed a LOT of water per day, no problem for me 😉 We are not the sort of people who retreat into AC all the time. So how much you "feel" the heat and humidity depends on what your norm is. We were more worried about rain - we did have a couple quick downpours - but sadly it was a very dry monsoon season this year (sad because they need the rain!)

 

We stayed a few days in Siem Reap because we like to explore on our own schedule - doing a 12 hour day at temples is not my idea of a fun vacation! But a few hours exploring a temple, nice lunch & pool time or foot massage, more exploring and then dinner? That sounds lovely, thank you 😉

[iancal]

While we were in Siem Reap a local travel agent arranged for our 30 day Vietnam visas.  Filled in the paperwork, took our pictures, and sent our passports to the Vietnam consulate in Battambang.  We had them back within 48 hours.  Excellent service.  The TA service was recommended on tripadvisor.  We planned for a month in Vietnam but were not sure when we left home exactly when we would be going there.

[dabear]

Agree with hubohockey. It's easy to arrange a trip to Anghor Wat, . We did it post cruise for 2 nights at a boutique 5* hotel, with pick up/return to the airport + other inclusions for a very reasonable price. we also arranged for a private guide to provide us with a sunrise but not sunset tour of Anchor wat. Great trip; don't miss it.