To Angkor Wat or not
 

Our family of five (kids 15, 12, 10) is planning a two week Thailand trip over christmas/new year. We are trying to decide whether to side trip to Angkor Wat. We are limited in time so it would come at the expense of our Thailand time. Right now, we are looking at a Bangkok, Chang Mai/Rai, Phuket itinerary. The kids are well traveled and into culture, but not sure about the attention span for the recommended multi day tour. We have visited the Mayan parallel at Tikal in Guatemala for one full day but not sure we could have stretched it out beyond two days w/o losing them. It was a huge hit, though. So, my questions:
1. would you sacrifice thailand time for Angkor Wat? Please don't say cut out Phuket as we will need the beach time :)
2. If so, what would be the minimum days needed to experience it w/ kids?

"Go to Angkor My Friend, to it's ruins to it's dreams." - P. Jennerat de Beerski, 1924.

Yes, give up some Thailand time for Angkor. How many days did you have planned in Bangkok?

It would be great if you had 3 or 4 days in Siem Reap, but if pressed for time you can see a lot in 2. 2 is better than 0.

Angkor covers a huge area, with dozens of accessible temples. It takes a full three days just to see all of the so-called major temples. In addition, there are other things you might want to do like visit Tonele Sap (half a day).

Do you know about www.theplf.org ? A visit to a school near Siem Reap and a gift to the school or scholarships for the children may well be the highlight of the trip for your kids.

You'll have to cut something else from your itinerary to do it (don't just cram it in by shortening your times everywhere else) but it really is incredible!

Yeah, cramming can suck, but if you know you will never get back to that area of the world, it is better to cram and go dizzy from rushing around than to miss Angkor

We faced the exact same dilemma when we were planning our 2006-7 xmas-week trip with our two boys, 13 and 16. Had been to Mayan ruins with the kids and one day was enough. (I also had been to Tikal, Macchu Pichu and Giza - one day had been enough at each of those as well).

After much vascillating decided that Angkor Wat was too iconic to miss.

We were all blown away by the temples and had a fabulous time, although 1.5 days of ruins was plenty for everyone. (But a school visit and floating village tour are also must-dos.)

Take a look at the Cambodia section of my trip report:

http://tinyurl.com/32jm4q

Happy to answer more questions.

My grandkids found going to the school with their donation the best part of their time in Angkor Wat, Thailand, and Vietnam. Certainly most meaningful. The temples of Angkor are a must-see. More important than Chiang Rai.

Kathie - you are always letting people know when they are plugging their site but here you are (several times) doing the same thing by advertising The Ponheary Ly Foundation. While they may do a good job there are many other organizations doing the same. It would seem that by giving their website and suggesting a gift you are soliciting for donations.

Scotters-

Kathie is not the only one recomending PLF. She/We are not soliciting donations, but are recommending the school visits.

I think many of us have met with Ponheary and gone to the schools, so know first hand that the school experience can be a memorable activity in Siem Reap, especially if you have kids with you.

One of my daughters was so impressed that she may go back and teach there, and Terryr's daughter did the same last year.

Ponheary will not even know how much (if any) a person has donated. Just ask and she'll make arrangements for a school visit.

If you have other ideas for short activities (1/2 day or a full day)that will both "do good" locally and enrich a visitor's trip, please share them. There's room for more!

crosscheck,
it is good to know there are other ADD families who can still enjoy culture. we did a school related thing in africa and it was great. Sounds like two nights in SR is about right?

Angkor is VERY special, I would definitely find time to include it. Three nights would give you two full days for the temples. Enough time for you to see the main ones.

We do have serious Temple ADD (museum ADD too) but Angkor offered enough climbing and Indiana Jones stuff to keep everyone happy. Plus the encounters with local kids were trip highlights (watching them make palm sugar, riding in boats past floating baskeball courts, giving out snacks at school).

Two nights would work if you also had two full days. We had three nights - lots of time to play and relax because we spent only a day and a half at the temples.

Loved wandering around Siem Reap at night. The kids had fun at the pool and game room in the afternoons (while I shopped).

The disadvantage to going Xmas week is the crowds, but the weather is a major advantage - because it is not too hot, you can take a shorter siesta and get more done in a day.

Many of us here do feel comfortable recommending the plf foundation because we have seen for ourselves that every dollar we give goes directly into supplies for the children with nothing spent on overhead. I wish I could figure out how to move the photo of the food my children purchased to this site. But the piles of noodles, juice were higher than the head of my 10 year old grandaughter, plus the school supplies were more than we could get at Staples. Makes you feel good.

Elainee, if you e-mail Lori through the site, I bet she can help you get your photo on-line.

send me the photo and the story. It will be on the site in 10 minutes flat.

[email protected]

Lori

Angkor's Aweigh!!

uhh...you get it.

Yes, you can get a good taste for the Angkorian temples.

If you choose 2 days of temples and such, do thiese at the least

Bayon, Angkor, Sky Temple (King's palace) Pre Rup and Ta Prohm.

Neak Pean in the Rolous Group is also a nice temple to visit. There are numerous other temples, some small et very interesting in just how diferent they are from the main Angkorian temples.

These are generally temples you can climb up, etc...good exercise for the kids. The temples I've mentioned can be done in 1 1/2-2 days, comfortably. You probably won't have time to do outlying temples like...Banteay Srei, Beng Mealea, Koh Ker or Banteay Chhmar, but the core Angkorian and Rolous temples are very nice also. Rolous Group temples predat theAngkorian temples by several hundred years. So, DO try to visit at least the most important Rolous temple, Neak Pean

Mark-

We stuck with the greatest hits and had time for Bantay Srei, which is right near the school. I think it's important to go there, not just because it's a wonderful temple, but you will get a real sense of the countryside (water buffalos, etc.) on the way.

Day 1 AM - School visit, Bantay Srey
Day 1 PM - Ta Phrom, Bayon, Behking for sunset(very touristy, maybe stay at Bayon)

Day 2 AM - Angkor Wat, Wat Threy (monastery, killing fields memorial), Floating village
Day 2 PM - free for swimming, shopping, etc.

crosscheck,
when you say holiday crowds, can you give me a sense? We heard horrible stories about Tikal over Easter and it was fine; lots of people but no disney like lines anywhere. did you have trouble booking hotels? How far in advance did you book? I get the sense that I may already be late.

Since you have only a couple of days available for the trip to Siem Reap, the cost may not be worth it, even if it a must place to visit. The airfare alone will be around $1600. It might be better to wait until you have more time and with the 5 of you to consider other cheaper methods of travel.

I agree that three nights, with two full days for sightseeing would be about right. A typical day would be to see temples in the morning, go to the pool for a few hours around lunch time, then back out to the sites.

davez,

We had the same concern about the crowds and agonized over whether to go during peak period.

Turned out that we had no problem booking Siem Reap hotels or flights just 6 weeks in advance for Dec. 22-25. (We did not decide to go to SE Asia until October when we found out we could use our mileage.)

Friends who went New Years weekend did say many hotels were sold out.

As far as the crowds, the vast majority of the tourists were tour groups from China, so it was not a "Disneyish" situation. Encountered virtually no Americans except one family that lived in Italy. Our hotel (Victoria Angkor) was full of Europeans on their way to or from Vietnam.

The ruins of Angkor cover such a huge area that it is easy to go off on your own. The only place that was overrun with tourists (80% Asian) was Behking at sunset and, to a lesser extent, Bantay Srei at around 10am.

The town of Siem Reap was bustling, but there was never a problem finding a place to eat. We did not have to wait on lines or even make reservations because I think most tourists stick to their hotels.

We too have heard horror stories about crowds during school vacations but we found traveling in Thailand and Cambodia to be relatively manageable - No flight delays, hotels were not too crowded, etc. But we did have to cut Luang Prabang from our itinerary because we were unable to get a flight (managed to find availability in a top hotel, though).