Siem Reap tickets

Three days cover the two circuits of Angkor, Banteay Srei, the town and the lake, which is what the 3-day pass is designed for. A fourth day is the jungle temple of Beng Mealea, 65 km east and covered by the same pass, or the carved riverbed of Kbal Spean and the waterfall of Phnom Kulen, which needs a separate ticket, or the Roluos group of 9th-century temples on the way to the lake. The Angkor National Museum on the road to the park is the best use of a rainy afternoon.

The temples open every day of the year, so the planning is about hours and light: Angkor Wat opens at 5:00 for sunrise and the small-circuit temples close around 17:30, with Phnom Bakheng and Pre Rup kept open for sunset. Phare performs every night at 20:00 and adds 17:00 matinees on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from November to March. The Landmine Museum is open daily 7:30 to 17:30. The Old Market is a morning place. Khmer New Year in mid-April and the Water Festival in November fill the town and close the shops for days.

The Angkor Pass is about US$37 for one day, US$62 for three days within ten and US$72 for seven days within a month, free under 12 with a passport, sold only by Angkor Enterprise online or at the ticket office on the Apsara road, open from 4:30 to 17:30, with a photo taken at the counter. The Landmine Museum is US$7 and free under 13. Phare is US$38, 28 or 18 depending on the section, half for children. Artisans Angkor's workshop tours are free. The Kampong Phluk boat is around US$20 a person plus a small community fee, more if you add the mangrove canoe. Angkor National Museum is about US$12.

By tuk-tuk hired by the day: around US$20 to 30 for the small circuit, US$25 to 35 for the grand circuit and about US$10 to 15 more for Banteay Srei, a little more for a sunrise start, agreed the evening before and paid at the end, with the driver waiting at each temple. Cars with air conditioning cost about twice that. The Grab and PassApp apps give fixed prices for town rides. Bicycles and e-bikes are rented in town for the flat 6 km to Angkor Wat but the circuits are 20 to 30 km in the heat. The airport is 40 km west of town, about an hour by taxi.

Shoulders and knees covered for everyone, checked at Angkor Wat, the Bayon and Banteay Srei and enforced at the stairs to the Bakan, the top tier of Angkor Wat, where a scarf over a vest does not count; no climbing on the stones, no touching the carvings, no drones without a permit, and the pass shown at every checkpoint. The Bakan is closed on Buddhist holy days. Only 300 people at a time are allowed on Phnom Bakheng, so sunset there means being at the foot of the hill by 16:30.

About 6 km on day one, most of it inside Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and Ta Prohm plus the 15-minute climb of Phnom Bakheng; about 5 km on day two, with the long corridors of Preah Khan and the stairs of Pre Rup; and about 3 km on day three in town before the boat. The walking is on stone, sand and steep temple stairs, in heat, so hats, water and closed shoes matter more than distance.