Over a million visitors each year use Siem Reap as a base for visiting the Angkor temples. The upside its popularity is a wide choice of quality hotels, restaurants, bars and shopping opportunities. A few pockets of authentic Cambodian atmosphere also survive in the local fresh produce market, and numerous performances of Khmer Apsara dance, music and shadow puppetry are staged in the evenings. Visitors interested in traditional Cambodian arts and crafts may also visit workshops of the renowned Artisans Angkor company, which has spearheaded the revival of silk-making, stone and wood carving, lacquering and painting in the area.

To make the most of the soft morning light, an early start is recommended when visiting Angkor Wat, the greatest of all the shrines created by the Khmers, and a vivid testament to the power, ambition and unbridled narcissism of the region’s ancient rulers. Colonnaded galleries of exquisite stone-carved apsaras (celestial dancers) enfold the corn-cob towers of the shrine, reflected to sublime effect in the lotus-dappled moat. No less emblematic of Angkor are the colossal smiling faces adorning the nearby Bayon, in the walled royal city of Angkor Thom, where you’ll also find the famous bas relief panels depicting battles with the Cham – some of the finest stone carving to survive from the Khmer era.

Begin the day at Ta Prohm, a hauntingly beautiful temple where the roots of giant banyans and strangler figs enfold much of the stonework, creating scenes little changed since the French adventurer Henri Mouhot re-discovered Angkor in the 1850s. Later, you’ll continue with your guide north to Banteay Srei, whose show-stealers are the voluptuous female deities standing in intricately framed niches around the base of the main sanctuary towers. Afterwards, consider spending under canvas on our popular ‘Jungle Safari’. Our camp is close to a wonderful temple tower that can be climbed, and which yields magnificent sunrise views over the forest canopy at dawn – surely one of the most magical views Southeast Asia has to offer.

The largest freshwater lake in Asia, Tonle Sap, swells to six times its usual size during the annual monsoons, when the waters of the Mekong back up and start flowing in the opposite direction. Huge numbers of wetland birds congregate on the water at this time. The best place to observe them is the Preak Toul Sanctuary, at the northwestern corner of the lake. Although reachable in a day trip from Siem Reap, it’s well worth spending the night in one of the stilted cottages next to the sanctuary in order to be there at dawn and dusk, when the vast flocks of painted storks and black-headed ibis are at their liveliest.

One of the most scenic drives in Cambodia leads from Siem Reap to Battambang, a venerable old city boasting a bumper crop of colonial-era architecture ranged along leafy, French-style boulevards. 

Anyone who enjoyed the dazzling performance by the Phare Ponleu Selpak Circus in Siem Reap may also wish to visit the company’s academy here in Battambang, where disadvantaged youngsters are trained in music, dance, circus acrobatics and juggling.

The Cambodian capital doesn’t feel in quite so much of a rush to embrace the future as its counterparts elsewhere in Southeast Asia. High-rise buildings are beginning to spring up, but they’re still outnumbered by colonial-era shophouses and the flaking facades of French-style villas. With its ranks of cafés, trinket sellers and strollers, breezy Sisowatch Quay is the place to head after you’ve freshened up from your journey. At the Foreign Correspondents Club, enjoy a sundowner while savouring the views over the confluence of the Tonlé Sap and Mekong Rivers.

Begin your morning city tour with a visit to the splendid Royal Palace and adjacent Silver Pagoda, whose central shrine holds a Buddha made from an enormous emerald. Then admire the impressive collection of antiquities at the National Museum before heading back to your hotel to prepare for your airport transfer and flight home.