Best time to visit Angkor Wat

Cambodia · Southeast Asia

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Angkor Wat

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Sweet spot
Good
OK
Avoid
Busy

Go in Jan or Dec — 30C max, 2 rainy days. Feb is the next best.

Dry season: Dec–Mar, 6 or fewer rainy days a month.

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Things to do in Angkor Wat

Bayon Khmer temple in Cambodia
Ta Prohm Built during the time of king Jayavarman VII and is best known as the temple where trees…
Banteay Srey 37 km north of Angkor Wat.
Preah Khan Jayavarman VII's first capital, before the completion of Angkor Wat.
Neak Pean Not really a temple, this is an interesting quick stop.
Kbal Spean 8km north of Banteay Srey.
Phnom Bakheng The first temple-mountain constructed in Angkor, with a commanding hilltop location…

Tours and tickets in Angkor Wat

Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank

Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Angkor Archaeological Park), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.

Month by month

No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.

Month	Max °C	Rain days	Humidity	Sun h/day	Verdict	Why
Jan	31°	1d	64%	10.3h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual
Feb	33°	1d	63%	10.7h	okbusy	busier than usual
Mar	34°	4d	67%	11.0h	avoid	34C max, 4 rainy days
Apr	34°	7d	71%	10.8h	avoid	extreme heat: 12 days over 35C
May	33°	14d	78%	9.9h	avoid	33C max, 14 rainy days
Jun	33°	12d	79%	9.3h	avoid	33C max, 12 rainy days
Jul	32°	17d	81%	8.0h	avoid	monsoon: 17 rainy days, 241mm
Aug	32°	16d	81%	8.4h	avoid	monsoon: 16 rainy days, 223mm
Sep	31°	22d	86%	7.4h	avoid	monsoon: 22 rainy days, 364mm
Oct	30°	16d	85%	8.6h	avoid	monsoon: 16 rainy days, 253mm
Nov	30°	7d	78%	9.5h	okbusy	busier than usual
Dec	30°	2d	70%	10.0h	sweet spot busy	busier than usual

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at Siem Reap, 39 km from the airport (SAI): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest in January, February and November; quietest in April, May, June and September.

Then and now

Angkor Wat's December days now average 30.1°C, 1.1°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 3 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
1981–90	30.8°	32.7°	33.8°	34.0°	32.6°	31.6°	31.7°	31.4°	30.5°	29.8°	29.3°	29.0°
2017–26	30.9°	32.8°	34.0°	34.2°	33.1°	32.6°	31.9°	31.9°	30.7°	30.4°	30.3°	30.1°
Change	+0.1°	+0.1°	+0.2°	+0.3°	+0.6°	+1.0°	+0.2°	+0.5°	+0.2°	+0.6°	+1.0°	+1.1°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

How far Angkor Wat is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Cost of living	very cheap — prices run about 34% of the United States' (World Bank, 2025)
Currency	Riel
Languages	Khmer
Plugs	Type A and C and G, 230 V
Driving	On the right
Calling code	+855
Travel advice	avoid all but essential travel to parts — UK Foreign Office, updated 2026-03-19
Health	UK Foreign Office health advice

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank, refreshed 2026-10-07. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Being there

On arrival

Paying — US dollars and riel are both used, and change often comes in riel; dollar coins are not taken. Only upmarket places, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels take cards, usually with a 3% surcharge. Or use the National Bank's Bakong Tourists app: link a Visa card or Mastercard, top it up and scan the KHQR codes that shops show.
UPI, for visitors from India — Works at KHQR merchants across Cambodia, from restaurants and shops to tourist sites: scan the KHQR code with your UPI app.

Getting around Angkor Wat

Buy the Angkor Pass only from Angkor Enterprise, on its website or app, at its kiosks or at its ticket office on Road 60, 4 km from central Siem Reap: $37 for one day, $62 for any three days within a week, $72 for any seven days within 30 days; carry it, as it is checked at almost every temple. Get around by tuk-tuk or remorque, booked in Grab or with the fare agreed first. From the airport, the official shuttle bus runs to 7 Makara Road in town for $8, and Grab picks up 60 metres from the international exit.

Apps — Rides: Grab. Maps: Google Maps. Grab books cars as well as tuk-tuks and remorques, the last two at a fixed fare set upfront; with a tuk-tuk hailed in the street, agree the fare before you get in.

Generally speaking, two half-day tour options are offered, sun-rise (ends at the hottest time of day) and late morning (which includes sunset). Both last 4-6 hr depending on your tour. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Angkor Archaeological Park, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Open in Google MapsAngkor Wat on the map

Help

Emergency — police 117 · ambulance 119 · fire 118. In Siem Reap, the tourist police office is next to the ticket booth for the Angkor temples.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (17)

Angkor Wat in pictures

2016 Angkor, Angkor Wat, Brama Angkor Wat (30) — i

Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2016 Angkor, Angkor Wat, Brama Angkor Wat (21) — i

Marcin Konsek, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Angkor Wat with its reflection — i

Satdeep Gill, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Angkor Wat 027 — i

Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

20171126 Angkor Wat 4712 DxO — i

Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What Angkor Wat is like

Angkor Archaeological Park, near Siem Reap in northern Cambodia, is one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. It's also known for celebrating the engineering of the world's first hydraulic city and was the largest pre-industrial city on Earth, covering roughly 3,000 square kilometers. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing: Guides can be hired for about US$20 a day and are available for most major languages. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in: Angkor is about 20 minutes to the north, by car or motorbike, from central Siem Reap. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe: By local regulation, motorcycle and tuk-tuk drivers must at all times wear a numbered vest when on the job, which goes a long way towards preventing hassles and scams. More on Wikivoyage
Staying healthy: Touring the temples is a hot and sweaty job, so bring sunblock and keep yourself well hydrated. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Angkor Archaeological Park, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Angkor Wat

Nearby

Kind of place

Heritage

Angkor Wat is in Cambodia, Southeast Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

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