the roads are quite good to the temples actually, at least the main ones....

3 nites is fine actually....i did that and then left on the 4th day on the 7PM flight, having given me that last day a full day to tour as well...

you might just not get to the lake or to the outlying temples, but you will see the main ones....

3 nites alone in LP would also be fine...its a very slow place with not all that much to do.....we had four and i was ready to leave then....we had plenty of down times.....its a recharge your batteries kind of place...not bad for a single either

Thanks, and I would love to do both but it sounds like SR would be my first choice now-more to do as a single and hiring a guide to visit the temples each day although it sounds quite busy in Dec.

it may be busy, but a good guide will know how to avoid some of the crowds....book now!!

Ok, I'll book now, but should I just hire a guide from the Hotel de la Paix? They seem to have plenty of rooms/packages available for my dates and I've read good things about guides from the hotel that guests have hired.

Also, there are no really rough roads to/from hotel to airport or temples? Thanks.

It depends on which temples you go to. You will certainly find rougher roads in Cambodia than in the other places you are going. I know your concern is that you will be recovering from surgery, so a road that might feel ok to someone else might be painful for you. It's a tough decison - I loved LP and I loved the temples at Angkor. If it were me, I'd want a minimum of 4 nights in Siem Reap. We spent a week and didn't see nearly all the accessible temples.

Another option to consider is to cut one of your northern Thailand locations in order to visit both Angkor and LP.

i think you will be fine with the roads....just explain the situation to the driver/guide.....we had both a driver and a guide and i think that makes sense, esp. for you with limited time....they take you right to the major spots and sites with no fooling around....cost about $40-50 per day for the two of them....the other thing you could do is just stay near to SR where the roads for sure will be better...mostly they use toyota camrys so they are very comfortable and have good suspensions....

i would pre-arrange the guides, either use dara and/or ponheavy or have the hotel arrange it....but do that in advance....

I read somewhere on this board that you can now do a day trip to LP from CR-may look into that more or save LP for when I'm with my spouse. I want to be active, just don't want to be on really bad roads since I've got a new disc fusing in my neck.