I plan on spending my last full day of my SE Asia in Phnom Penh. I'll be coming from Siem Reap, and my original plan was to take a speedboat down the Tonle Sap in the morning and spend the rest of the day sight seeing in Phnom Penh. I thought this would be a good idea because I hear the boat ride is scenic and would give me a chance to see Cambodians who live in the area. My only concern is that the boat ride would take too long and wouldn't leave me enough time to see Phnom Penh. Would it be a better idea to fly to PP in the morning? Would I miss out a lot by not taking the boat ride? Also, does anyone know the best airline to fly between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh? How about the best boat transportation company?

Thanks a lot.

You may find these links helpful.
http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-...-guide-get.htm

http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-...sportation.htm

We are also going to be going from Siem Reap to Phnom Pehn, and are considering bus, private car and flying, but have no intention of considering the speedboat option. I also heard, a month or so ago, that the speedboats between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, had now been discontinued...I saw this posted by the man who had talesofasia.com on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree. Don't know if they have resumed or not.

OK...upon further checking, the boats are indeed running. I wouldn't take one though. They don't sound like a good experience to me.

fly

Why not fly out of Siem Reap in the evening, and then you'll have a full day in PP without losing any time at Angkor? Siem Reap Airline (booked thru Bangkok Air) is the way to fly between the two towns. If you have $25-30 to spare, you can hire a cab driver for the day in PP to take you around, especially if its rainy. The road out to the killing fields was very muddy, and tuk tuks were having trouble making it when we went. You can see most of the sights-Palace and Silver Pogada, National Museum, Killing Fields, Genocide Museum, Wat Phnom-in a very busy day.

Def avoid the boat, for 25$ its not that scenic and rather unsafe, and can take up to 10hours.
the mekong express coach is an option, about 10$, and takes 4-6 hours.
Flying is obviously the easiest, about 100$, with bangkok air.

a driver for the day should cost you $20, recomendations/advert are on talesofasia.com
we cost hired the guy the hotel sent to pick us up from the airport. Negotiations for the day started at an incredibly stupid 60$ and he wouldn't budge until we walked away and said we'd book someone via the hotel. We knew that we should be paying 20$ before we got there! - and to be honest, the price still seems inflated compared with how good the drivers in siem reap are, and what they do for you!

Great. Thanks everyone. Thanks for the website Kim and Alr837, it is very useful. All of you have made this decision easy now, I will take a flight via Siem Reap Airways. It only costs $85.