All products featured on Condé Nast Traveler are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.
As Cambodia's single biggest tourist attraction, the Angkor Wat temple complex never hurts for visitors. People begin lining up early (there's usually a queue by 4:30 a.m.) to buy tickets, which begin at US$20 for a single-day pass, and the crowds are often so thick, rumors have begun to swirl that Angkor Wat will start limiting the number of visitors, joining other UNESCO World Heritage Sites like Cinque Terre and Machu Picchu with more aggressive preservation efforts. That said, there is a way to bypass some of the craziness—if you plan ahead.
While in Siem Reap last month, I asked the excellent team at my hotel, the Angkor Anantara, to help me plan a visit to the temples. They recommended Mr. Hann, a veteran Angkor Wat guide who has been ferrying celebrities (like Jude Law and Sienna Miller) to the temples for decades, and who trained in a monastery before switching careers. Cambodians have free entry into the temples, and he often visits on his days off to find hidden spots and look for tiny details that others might not notice. His recommendation was to wake up at 4 a.m. so we could get to Angkor Wat by 5 a.m., when the site opens to visitor traffic. We went to the East Gate, which is much smaller than the iconic West Gate, and the only other people we saw were fruit and water vendors there to set up their stands before potential customers came flooding in.
Armed with flashlights, Mr. Hann ushered us through the pitch-black temple compound, talking all the while about the history and culture of Angkor Wat and occasionally stopping to train the light on a particular sculpture or wall detail. On the way to Angkor that morning, he'd asked a few questions about my own personal interests, and integrated them into the tour as well, highlighting depictions of female goddesses to satisfy my interest in women's history. I did miss the big, dramatic sunset over the tops of the main Angkor temple that many people come from around the world to see, but witnessing the slow, lovely dawn didn't feel like a compromise—especially since I didn't have to dodge a single selfie stick. Bits of sunlight began to creep in, and he deposited me on the edge of a small temple with a breakfast of fruit and pastries that the hotel staff had packed for me in a bag made of woven banana leaves. As the sun began to rise, I saw only two other people, both locals, one meditating in the cool morning air. I took a hundred photos, most without a single other human in them.
Within an hour, Angkor Wat felt like a mall. Visitors from the West Gate—which has a parking lot and is the primary entrance for tuk-tuks and tour buses—had made their way to the eastern side of the site, forming a two-hour line to climb to the top of the temple I'd just been on. Voices were a noisy mix of Korean, German, Chinese, French, and English. The temperature climbed northward, hitting 80 degrees by 7 a.m. I felt grateful, relaxed—and ready to get the heck out of there for the afternoon. Short of touring Angkor Wat on Google Street View, I can't imagine a better way to experience this gorgeous site, and I'm glad I crossed it off my bucket list in such a relatively stress-free way. Meanwhile, the day pass I purchased has my photo on it (a handy way to prevent resales) and made for a perfect souvenir that took up absolutely zero space in my carry-on.
Luckily, you don't have to book one specific guide or stay at one specific resort in order to have this kind of experience. Once you've enlisted a guide—note that tourism in Cambodia is strictly regulated, and you'll need someone who has a license and wears the required green shirt for easy identification—be sure to advocate for what you want, as most are happy to craft a custom itinerary. Give yourself plenty of time to get to the East Gate so you can enter the minute it opens, and if climbing to the top of the Central Angkor Wat Tower is a priority, make sure you're in line well before 7:30 a.m., when it opens, and keep in mind that only 100 people a day are granted access. (You can arrange that in advance through your guide or ask him or her to get you there early.) If you have more time in Siem Reap, consider purchasing a two- or three-day pass and experiencing the dawn a few times from different vantage temples for a fuller, richer experience—and absolutely no FOMO.
