Choosing 3, 5, or 7 Days at Angkor
The Angkor Pass comes in exactly three lengths, and picking the wrong one is the single most common planning mistake for a first Siem Reap trip: buy a 1-day pass and realize on day two that Beng Mealea was never going to fit.
The classic 3 days matches the 1-day pass tier only if you stack it
A 3-day Angkor Pass costs $37 for one day, $62 for three, or $72 for seven, and the 3-day tier is flexible across any 3 days within a 10-day window, not three in a row. Day one covers the Small Circuit: Angkor Wat at sunrise, the South Gate into Angkor Thom, Bayon, Baphuon, the Terrace of the Elephants, and Ta Prohm, closing with a Phare Circus show in the evening. Day two shifts to the Grand Circuit: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, and Pre Rup, then an afternoon boat trip to the Kampong Phluk stilt village on Tonle Sap. Day three covers Banteay Srei’s pink sandstone carvings, Banteay Samre, and an Artisans Angkor stop before evening drinks in the Old French Quarter. book that combined stop for that third day rather than treating them as separate outings, since both sit close together northeast of town.
5 to 7 days is where the 7-day pass earns its price
Extending to 5 or 7 days adds three things the 3-day version skips entirely: Phnom Kulen’s Kbal Spean riverbed carvings and waterfalls, the jungle ruins of Beng Mealea and Koh Ker further east, and a Prek Toal waterbird safari on Tonle Sap if your dates land December through March. Give Beng Mealea and Koh Ker their own full day rather than bolting them onto a temple-heavy morning; book it as its own day , since the round trip alone runs several hours each way.
Buy the pass for the tier you will actually use
The official Angkor Pass tiers only make sense against a real itinerary: a 3-day pass wasted on two temple mornings and one rest day costs the same as one used properly, so decide the shape of the trip before buying rather than after. Children under 12 enter free with a passport for age verification.
Pace the days around the heat, not the map
March through May regularly hits 36 to 40°C by midday, so treat 06:00 to 10:30 as the working window on every one of these days, whether it’s day one or day seven, and push anything indoors, like Artisans Angkor or the Cambodia Landmine Museum , into the early afternoon lull.
Verdict: 3 days is enough for Angkor’s headline temples done properly; add the extra days only if Beng Mealea, Koh Ker, or a December-to-March Prek Toal window are genuinely on your list, not as padding.
Carry pristine, unfolded US dollar bills for every day of the trip, since torn or heavily creased notes get rejected at ticket counters and restaurants alike. For the day-by-day breakdown of what a longer week actually looks like, see the 7-day itinerary .