Getting from Ho Chi Minh City to Siem Reap (and return)
· Updated · BootsnAll
Siem Reap is the town next to Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire and the largest religious monument ever built. It is the single biggest draw in Cambodia and a common next stop after southern Vietnam.
It is also a long way: about 550 km from Ho Chi Minh City, with a border in the middle.
Flying
An hour and a half direct, and on this route it is genuinely the sensible answer rather than the lazy one, because the overland alternative eats two days.
Note that flights now serve Siem Reap Angkor International Airport, which opened in 2023 about 40 km east of town and replaced the old airport close to the temples. The transfer in is longer than it used to be, so allow for it.
Overland, which means Phnom Penh
There is no useful direct bus. You go in two legs.
Ho Chi Minh City to Phnom Penh takes about six hours by direct bus from around 10 dollars, crossing at Moc Bai and Bavet, with the gate open 08:00 to 20:00. Phnom Penh to Siem Reap is another six hours or so on a good road.
Done in one day that is twelve hours of bus plus a border, and it is grim. Break it in Phnom Penh for a night. The capital deserves a day anyway, and it turns an ordeal into a leg of a trip.
Some operators sell a through ticket that does the whole thing including an overnight. Read what you are buying.
Visas
Cambodia gives visas on arrival at the land border to nearly all nationalities, and runs an e-visa. Carry US dollars in cash and a passport photo.
For the return into Vietnam, the e-visa is open to all nationalities, valid up to 90 days, 25 dollars single or 50 multiple entry, at evisa.gov.vn. Thirty-odd nationalities get 30 or 45 days visa free. Sort it before you travel.
The boat to Siem Reap
There is a boat from Phnom Penh up the Tonle Sap to Siem Reap, and it has a romantic reputation. Be careful with it: the lake level drops sharply in the dry season, the journey can become slow and uncomfortable, the boats have a patchy safety record and the fare is well above the bus.
In the wet season, with a reputable operator, it is a fine trip. In April it is not.
Angkor itself
Buy the temple pass for the number of days you will actually use. One day is enough to say you went and not enough to understand anything. Three is the sweet spot, and the pass is priced to encourage it.
Go to Angkor Wat for sunrise once, then avoid the crowds by inverting everyone else's schedule: the big temples in the middle of the day when the tour buses break for lunch, and the outlying ones in the late afternoon.