Hi Everyone,
Trying to plan a flying visit to Angkor in December and at this stage the cheapest flight option seems to fly in to HCMC and trying to get to Siem Reap from there. I will have 4-5 days in which to do a round trip. All advice would be welcome!!
Cheers
Hi there!
Where are you flying in from? Have you looked into the cost of connecting flights? While it may save you money to fly in to HCMC and take the bus to Siem Reap (~$20), it will eat up a lot of your time. Just be forewarned. You're ideally going to want two or three days to explore Angkor. Three is optimal, as the heat can tire you out and thus you can still have a few days to explore the vast ruins at a bearable speed. That leaves you with two days to take the direct bus, which, if I recall correctly, is a 12-hour ride with a short, half-hour stop in Phnom Penh (I only did the SR to HCMC leg, having flown into SR from Luang Prabang). That would be cutting it close if you had to be back to make a flight home from HCMC. It would be a shame, in my opinion, to spend so much time from a 5-day trip on a bus. Maybe bite the bullet and fly into SR so you can really get the most of your time or try to find a cheap connecting flight when you get to HCMC?
PS. Angkor Wat is UNBELIEVABLE. Enjoy!
I agree with #1. Two days at Angkor is a minimum, 3 preferable. Fly if you possibly can. Those bus rides are LONG and unpredictable.
Sorry, Princess. I didn't fly Angkor Air - it's very new! I checked wikipedia.com and it commenced operations last July! It should be fine though, because it says they do 78 flights a week. I flew Vietnam Airlines from Luang Prabang to Siem Reap and, as someone who absolutely HATES flying, they were fine if they're an option (the food left something to be desired though, haha).