Any recommendations for a guides or a tour company for seim reap and any hotel recommendtions?? THX!!

I can reco my guide - Chhor Elit - [email protected]. U don't really need a tour co as the guide will org a driver and pick up and drop from the airport is included in the driver's daily rate. For hotels pl advise budget.

Put Siem Reap or Angkor in the Forum search block and you will get a large number of threads on your subject.
Personally I can recommend Ponheary Ly as an excellent guide.
Casey.

We also enjoyed Ponheary Ly immensely. We benefittted from her services over the course of 3 full days -- she was easygoing, intelligent, generous, informative, warm, funny, and accommodating of our interests. She also shared a bit of her own personal experiences under the Khmer Rouge, which I think added a lot to our understanding of Cambodia. We spent 2 full days touring the major temples (and a few minor ones) and then took a daytrip with her another day into the countryside, up to a temple and a big waterfall and then on a short hike along a small river with butterflies everywhere -- it was absolutely lovely. One of the nicest things we did was just drive a bit out of town to watch the sunset behind a rice paddy, complete with water buffalo and locals fishing. We met some local people on several occasions -- and were even invited into the home of a bride-to-be getting made up for her wedding so that we could see what the preparations for a Cambodian wedding were like. The whole experience was just terrific. We stayed at the Pansea in Siem Riep which was beautiful, excellent, comfortable, and well-located, with a nice pool and great food -- but extremely pricey. I don't regret it a bit though (it was our honeymoon). If you are on a budget, Ponheary Ly and her family have a guest house and rent out rooms at very reasonable prices, and it's only about a block from the Pansea in a very good location.

lksk, I expect that Fodors would consider you posting a commercial website to book tours on every thread about Cambodia to be advertising, which Fodors prohibits.

Another concurrance - Ponheary Ly is my favorite guide. It's a treat to have a female guide, and she's so smart & knowledgable. Also, for 15$/night, her clean and comfortable guestrooms are an amazing deal. She even has cheaper rooms without A/C.

Just returned from Siem Reap (and, yes, Ankgkor Wat and the other temples are spectacular, far surpassing my expectations). We used the services of Ponheary. She was excelent. She was always timely, incredibly knowledgable and a pleasure. Since she is a former English teacher in the secondary school in Siem Reap, she actually taught English to many of the other guides working in Siem Reap. We were quite touched when Ponheary thanked us for hiring a female guide, explaining that many people choose males over her simply because she is a woman.

The other service that Ponheary can provide is hotel bookings. We checked through our very best sources and, for each hotel we checked, Ponheary, working through a local travel agent, came up with much better rates (and generally, better rates for a higher class of room). We stayed at the new FCC. If you like small, modern and understated (and a great restaurant), this hotel is a good choice. Sofitel is probably the closest hotel to the temples (and a beautiful property). Raffles Grand and Victoria--great hotels--also have excellent locations. If you need a break from SE Asian cuisine, try Pissa Italiana in town (mentioned in the New York Times recently) and then have a drink afterwards at the very cool bar a couple of doors away.

You cannot go wrong using Ponheary ([email protected]).

Los Angeles

Hi LSV,

As you can see from this thread, Ponheary is quite popular and as a result, she was a bit tired and frazzled when we booked her a few months ago. In fact, we had made a reservation with her but she passed us off to someone else after one day. Lucky for us, he was also great and I would recommend him as a guide as well. Here's an excerpt from our site (please visit for more info and photos on Cambodia http://www.thirteenmonths.com/cm06_lowdown.htm):

The cost of the driver, guide and car we hired was US$40/day plus discretionary tip. For a guide, we specifically recommend Kao Samreth (Sam for short). Sam used to be a teacher and he's very knowledgeable about the temples, not to mention being a great guy to spend the day with. His phone number is (+855) 12 763 462, email: [email protected]. Be sure to book ahead. Sam will set up a driver for you. And make sure to tell him that we sent you and that we miss him and his great explanations.

I can recommend a thoroughly charming guide called Veasna (pronounced Vesnu)

He enhanced our visit to the temples by being such a great companion.

He can be contacted on :
[email protected]
[email protected]
Tel: (855) 12 482 135

Tell him Colin & Julie sent you!


I kept a journal of our trip. Please feel free to read all about the four days we spent in Siem Reap with Veasna.

It can be found at:
http://www.colin-julie.com/travel.htm

Friends just returned from Siem Reap raving about an amazing hotel just opened called Hotel de la Paix.Opening specials of 165 USD per night with every 3rd night free.They have stayed at amazing hotels all over the world but said this was the nicest hotel they had ever stayed at.If you Google the hotel a website will appear.Happy travels!