Set off early from your hotel for a day of temple exploration by bicycle. Cycling is a great way to traverse the area, allowing you to control the pace of your day, and thanks to the flat terrain the going is easy.

For anyone wishing to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat, today is the ideal day as your morning is to be spent on an extensive visit to the magnificent 12th-century temple. As you wander amongst this sprawling temple site, take time to appreciate the meticulous workmanship and impressive bas reliefs. Back on your bike, continue cycling to the South Gate of Angkor Thom, Bayon Temple and other nearby temples, stopping whenever you please.

After a break for lunch at a local restaurant and some often very welcome shade, you can continue your touring by bicycle, or switch to four wheels and air-con! One suggestion would be to cycle the loop that takes in the fabulous Ta Prohm Temple, reclaimed by nature over the years as the roots of enormous fig trees and gigantic creepers break through the temple walls and stone carvings, followed by Banteay Kdei and Srah Srang. Every corner you turn reveals another ruin as outstanding as the last.

After your temple exploration return to Siem Reap and the remainder of your day is at leisure.

Cycling distance/grade: up to 30km, easy

Overnight      : Siem Reap  
Meal(s)         : Breakfast | Lunch

Departing after breakfast accompanied by your guide, your day will be spent travelling through a number of relatively un-touched villages and learning about the day-to-day lives of the local people. This is a world away from Siem Reap, and provides you with the perfect opportunity to get ‘off the beaten track’ and gain a better understanding of Cambodian rural life, along with an insight into traditional Khmer culture; something which few visitors are lucky enough to experience.

Your first stop is the village of Krabei Real, where there is time to explore the local market and to purchase some supplies for your lunch. Continue on, this time without the benefit of air-conditioning, using a more typical method of transportation for this region. The (almost!) pollution free ox and cart is still widely used throughout Cambodia, and allows you to travel at a gentle, almost hypnotic pace along the narrow, sandy, village roads. Winding your way through the rice fields, you’ll pass houses, schools and pagodas. Many of the families in this area are skilled rattan weavers, using techniques passed down through the generations to create a wide variety of crafts and day-to-day items to sell in the markets of the nearby towns.

After around an hour, arrive at the home of a local family. Having been welcomed by your hosts, there will be plenty of time to relax and chat with the family as they prepare lunch using the produce selected at the market (with your guide acting as interpreter). If you wish to assist then you are very welcome to do so, and this is also a fantastic opportunity to further your understanding of typical Khmer cuisine. This is likely to be very different from the dishes you may have sampled in the more westerner-orientated restaurants of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh!

Having enjoyed your lunch and returing to SiemReap.

Phare, the Cambodian Circus is not your average circus experience: the Phare performers use theatre, music, dance and circus arts to tell uniquely Cambodian stories. And these performers are not typical entertainers: they are all graduates of Phare Ponleu Seplak, an NGO school and professional arts training centre in Battambang that offers opportunities for disadvantaged youth. The nightly shows are inspiring and entertaining and just by purchasing tickets, you’re helping to provide education and employment to these young Cambodian artists.

At 7.30pm you will be transferred to the Phare big top to experience the show. Once the show has finished you will be transferred back to your hotel.

Overnight      : Siem Reap  
Meal(s)         : Breakfast | Lunch

SiemReap – KamPong Thom : 4-hour drive

The village of Kompong Khleang is one of the largest permanent communities on the Tonle Sap Lake and is home to over 20,000 people livng in gigantic stilt houses with an economy based on fishing. Morning, we’ll head from Siem Reap to the remote and unique community of Kompong Khleang and board a private boat where you’ll enjoy spectacular views as we visit a small island at the center of the village. Here we’ll see its market, school and brightly painted pagodas. After exploring the island, we’ll continue by boat to witness traditional life in this charming community on the waters of the great Tonle Sap Lake. Whether visiting during dry or wet season, spending time among the stilt houses and lively community of Kompong Khleang is an incredible experience.

Leaving the village, we drive further to Kampong Thom, stop at Kompong Kdei to see an old bridge of the Angkorean Era. Phra Phutthos, better know as Kompong Kdei bridge because of its vicinity with the city of the same name, was constructed at the end of the 12th century during the reign of Jayavarman VII. This is an important stone structure with more than twenty narrow arches spanning 75 meters. Receiving few visitors, Phra Phutthos is not with standing the longest corbel stone-arch bridge in the world and really worth the detour!

Continue and check in our stay at Sambor village, Kampong Thom. The remainder is free to stroll the local.

Overnight      : Kampong Thom
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

KamPong Thom – PhnomPenh : 4 – hour drive

After breakfast, we get out to visit Sambor Prei Kuk. Located outside of Kampong Thom, it is perhaps the most important grouping of pre-Angkorian monuments in Cambodia. Explore the main central complex and gain an insight into the early architectural styles of Cambodia.

Drive to Kampong Cham, this is a lively port on the banks of the Mekong River with some good examples of colonial-era architecture. After visiting the local market and exploring the town, travel into the countryside to the Spider Market in Skuon. This tiny crossroads town is famous for an unusual delicacy. Here, spider merchants sell different varieties of large, furry arachnids for locals and adventurous tourists to snack on.

Continue to Phnom Penh and transfer directly to your hotel.

Phnom Penh was once considered one of the most beautiful cities in the Orient and despite its recent turbulent history it still retains a certain Colonial charm. Today this rapidly developing city buzzes with energy and an air of opportunity as Cambodia advances into the 21st century.

Overnight      : PhnomPenh
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

In 1975, after years of guerrilla warfare, the radical Communist Khmer Rouge party, under its leader Pol Pot, seized power of Cambodia and declared ‘year zero’. They immediately abolished money and private property, and ordered the entire population of Phnom Penh from their homes and into the countryside to cultivate the fields. Over the next three years an estimated 2 million Cambodians died, many from starvation and exhaustion. Many others were tortured and executed for being supposed ‘enemies of the state’.

The morning is spent learning more about these terrible years, through visits to the infamous Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crimes and Cheung Ek, better known as the ‘Killing Fields’. It is an incredibly moving experience, but these are two visits you will be glad to have made. During your visit to Cambodia, you will barely meet a single person who didn’t lose a member of their family during these years, yet they are all willing to talk openly about it with you. They wish you to hear about it and see these places, to ensure that it never happens again.

Get back the city and visit the Champey Academy of Arts. The CAA is a dancing school set up to train orphans and children from poor families in the art of traditional Khmer dancing, providing them with a future career. The centre is located near the National Museum and any visitor to the training centre will confirm that the children enjoy their new found skill!

Lunch is at Friends, a ‘kindness restaurant’ where ex-street children are trained in hospitality and restaurant skills, helping them to break away from life on the streets.

After lunch,  visit the Royal Palace, situated on the site of the former citadel and built by King Norodom in 1866, the Palace still serves as the King and Queen's residential quarters. Also within the walls of the Palace is the Silver Pagoda, so called because of five thousand silver tiles that line its exquisite floor.

If time permits there is also the option of visiting the National Museum, which houses the worlds leading collection of Khmer art and sculpture, and Wat Phnom the founding site of the city. All are within easy walking distance of each other and are a great introduction to this laid-back city.

Overnight      : Phnom Penh
Meal(s)         : Breakfast | Lunch

Koh Kong – Ta Tai river: 5 – hour drive

Morning departure (driver only) for Koh Kong, south west from the capital. As you drive further west, your journey will take you along the Koh Kong Conservative Corridor which stretches along either sides of NR48 from Koh Kong Town to the Gulf of Sihanoukville. It is home to many of Cambodia’s outstanding natural sites including the southern and central Cardamom Protected Forests, the mangrove forests of Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary, the beaches of Koh Kong and the Botum Sakor National Park (not accessible).

Overnight      : Ta Tai River  
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

Your day is at leisure.

There are optional excursions arranged on a daily basis by the lodge. These include boat trips through the mangrove forest, trekking and waterfall visits and last just a few hours or all day.

Overnight      : Ta Tai River 
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

• Ta Tai – Sihanouk Ville: 4 – hour drive
• Sihanouk ville – Koh Rong Samloem: 1 hour boat

Your morning is at leisure until you take a boat to Tatai Bridge where you will be met by your driver for the 4 hour journey (driver only) by road to Sihanoukville.

On arrival in Sihanoukville, transfer to the port where you join a shared speedboat for the one hour boat ride to the island of Koh Rong Samloem.

These archetypal tropical islands, with talcum-powder white sand beaches and crystal clear waters are, as yet, largely untainted by tourist development. Upon arrival you will be welcomed by the resort staff.

Check in to your room and the remainder of your day is at leisure.

Overnight      : Koh Rong Samloem   
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

Your day is at leisure.

Overnight      : Koh Rong Samloem   
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

Your day is at leisure.

Overnight      : Koh Rong Samloem   
Meal(s)         : Breakfast

Sihanouk Ville: 4 – hour drive

Morning departure by shared speedboat for the journey to the mainland. On arrival at Sihanoukville port, you will be met by our driver and transferred to Phnom Penh Airport for your onward flight.

Meal(s)         : Breakfast