We loved it. Very comfortable rooms, excellent service, very good restaurants. When we were there we ate one night in the special, extra-charge restaurant for one of the best meals of our lives. I still remember the desert..mango five ways. It turned out it was the rehersal dinner for the nextnight when the Prince was giving a dinner for Italian business reps. The garden had life-size ice sculptures of Cambodian figures which were melting as the dinner was delayed. But very beautiful.
Also, when we were there the lovely swimming pool was usually almost empty even tho the hotel was busy and the weather was hot.

We are all different. We visited when we were there and found it stuffy. It seemed to be a place for people who wanted to visit the temples without being in Cambodia. I would choose one of the small boutique properties like La Residence or the Victoria.

We stayed at the Sofitel in Siem Reap. It was very comfortable and quite lovely.

the pool area is fantastic.. it is old world

Kathie and I had more or less the same response. We stayed there eight years ago and there weren't nearly the number of hotels in Siem Reap that there are now. The rooms were wonderful--very spacious and light, with large, old-fashioned bathrooms. We didn't think the food was particularly good in any of the restaurants, but this was eight years ago. What was strange,however, was that all the restaurants were almost empty which wasn't fun. The pool is wonderful, however, and the service at the hotel was very good. I've only heard terrific things about La Residence; we stayed at two Victoria hotels in Viet Nam, one in Sapa and one in Hoi An, and thought they were good--not great--but that was eight years ago.

Truthfully, I think you'd be fine with any of these three. It sounded as if the Raffles Grand might be pricier than you'd like so that you might want to compare to the other two--or some others.

We stayed at Victoria HoiAn and liked it a lot, but La Residence d'Angkor is a step up - the architecture is beautiful, the pool is fabulous, the staff is wonderful, the room is huge.

We loved the Victoria Angkor, which is on the same park as the Raffles, but more authentic and less glitzy.

I want to thank each of you for taking the time to reply to my question. All I can say is TOO MANY CHOICES!! The Victoria, La Residence, and Sofitel all look wonderful, but with the reassurance of two of you I'm going to give Raffles a try. I like the idea of the history of the hotel. I'll keep you all posted via a trip diary.

FromLA,
As we are considering Raffles for next Dec trip, would love to hear what you think after your trip in February.

Posting live from Raffles in Siem Reap. We're enjoying our four night stay here. The rooms are comfortable, definitely not glitzy. Service is excellent. Don't find it stuffy or pretentious. Several high end tour groups have passed through. Breakfast buffet is excellent, the lunches were expensive and not memorable. Just finished an excellent lunch at the Victoria Angkor. There's a beautiful pool but we're too busy visiting the temples to try it.

How exciting to get a live report, Marija. Enjoy!