One week is enough to see the best of Cambodia if you spend it well. This day-by-day Cambodia 7 day itinerary splits a tight week between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh — temples, history, river towns — and tells you exactly what to sort before you fly.
For one week in Cambodia, spend four nights in Siem Reap and two in Phnom Penh, with one travel day between them. Use your Siem Reap days for Angkor: a sunrise at Angkor Wat and the central temples on day one, the Grand Circuit and Ta Prohm on day two, and the carved pink sandstone of Banteay Srei plus the jungle ruin of Beng Mealea on day three. Fly or take a fast bus to Phnom Penh, then give the capital two days for the Royal Palace, the National Museum, the Tuol Sleng and Choeung Ek memorials, and a sunset on the riverfront. Do not try to squeeze the southern coast into a single week — it dilutes everything. Before you go, you need a Cambodia eVisa: $80 USD for tourists, approved in 3 business days, plus a separate e-Arrival Card in the week before you fly.
You have seven days, a long flight on each end, and a list that probably reads Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, maybe a beach, maybe the Mekong. Here is the honest version: in a single week you get two places done well, not four places done in a blur. The combination that works for almost every first-time American visitor is Siem Reap and Phnom Penh — the temples and the capital — linked by one travel day. That is the spine of this itinerary, and everything below hangs off it.
Cambodia is bigger than it looks on the map, and the distances between the headline sights eat into a tight schedule fast. The southern coast around Sihanoukville and the islands, Kampot and Kep, Battambang in the west, the Mekong towns to the east — each is genuinely worth a trip, and each is a multi-hour journey from the Siem Reap-Phnom Penh axis. Try to bolt one on to a one-week trip and you spend a third of your days in transit. Save them for a return visit, or stretch the trip to ten days.
This guide lays out the week day by day, tells you how to move between the two cities, and flags the one thing that catches Americans out: the visa and the separate arrival card both need sorting before you fly. When your dates are firm you can apply in a few minutes, and for the full cost-and-documents picture our main Cambodia visa for US citizens guide pulls everything into one place.
Fly into Siem Reap-Angkor International (SAI) and give the town four nights. This is the heart of the trip and the reason most Americans come to Cambodia at all. Angkor is not one temple; it is a sprawling archaeological park covering hundreds of square kilometers, and three structured days lets you see the masterpieces without temple fatigue setting in. Buy a three-day Angkor pass — it is valid across a week, so you can take a rest day in the middle if the heat gets to you.
Land, get to your hotel, and shake off the flight with a gentle first afternoon. If you arrive early enough, do the small circuit — Angkor Wat itself in the softer late-afternoon light, then the walled city of Angkor Thom with the giant carved faces of the Bayon. Many travelers save Angkor Wat for a sunrise instead and use this first afternoon for the Bayon and Ta Prohm. Either way, do not over-schedule day one; jet lag and heat are a real combination.
This is the marquee day. Be at Angkor Wat before dawn for the sunrise behind the central towers reflected in the pool — yes, with a few hundred others, but it earns its reputation. Explore the main temple as the crowds thin after sunrise, head back for breakfast, then take the Grand Circuit in the cooler late afternoon: Preah Khan, Neak Pean, and the tree-strangled ruins of Ta Prohm, the one made famous by the films. Mornings early, long midday break, temples again from about 3 p.m. is the rhythm that works.
Day three goes farther afield. Banteay Srei, about 45 minutes out, is the finest stone carving in the whole park — deep pink sandstone cut like lacework. Pair it with Beng Mealea, a vast, largely unrestored jungle temple about an hour beyond, where you clamber over collapsed galleries with almost nobody around. This is the day that gives you the Indiana Jones version of Angkor, away from the crowds. Hire a driver for the day; it is the only practical way to reach both.
Day four is your travel day to Phnom Penh, covered below. If you would rather slow down, drop Beng Mealea and use a morning for the Old Market, the Angkor National Museum, or simply a swim and a long lunch before the journey. A week moves quickly, and one unhurried half-day in Siem Reap is never wasted.
The two cities are about 300 kilometers apart, and how you cover that gap shapes your whole day. There are three sensible ways to do it, and the right one depends on whether you are protecting time or budget.
The fastest is a domestic flight — roughly 45 minutes in the air, and it turns a travel day into a half-day, leaving you an afternoon in Phnom Penh. It is the priciest option but, on a one-week trip where every hour counts, often the smartest. The cheapest and most popular is the express bus or minivan: comfortable air-conditioned coaches run the route in about six hours, usually leaving mid-morning and arriving late afternoon. A private car or taxi sits in between on price, gives you door-to-door flexibility and a stop or two along the way, and takes a similar five to six hours.
Whichever you choose, book the link a few days ahead in peak season — flights sell out and the best bus times fill up. Our full breakdown of getting from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap and back lays out current prices, journey times, and which operators are worth booking, so you can lock the middle of your week before you land.
A practical note for a tight week: if you fly, you can keep day four almost intact — temples in the Siem Reap morning, a midday flight, and the Royal Palace or a riverfront dinner that same evening in Phnom Penh. If you take the bus, treat day four as a true transit day and start Phnom Penh fresh on day five. Plan it the way it actually falls rather than hoping to do both.
Phnom Penh is a different trip from Siem Reap — a real, busy capital on the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers, with a heavier, more recent history. Two full days plus a departure morning is the right amount. It is enough to cover the essential sights, sit with the harder ones, and still get a feel for the city over a riverside dinner.
Start at the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda, ideally in the morning before the heat peaks (note the lunchtime closure and the dress code — covered shoulders and knees). Walk a few minutes to the National Museum, which holds the finest collection of Khmer sculpture anywhere, and gives the Angkor temples you just saw a deeper context. In the late afternoon, the riverfront promenade along Sisowath Quay comes alive — a sundowner over the Tonle Sap is the classic first evening in the capital.
Day six is the hard, important one. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former school turned prison, and the Choeung Ek memorial — the best known of the killing fields — together tell the story of the Khmer Rouge years. The audio guides are excellent and humane. It is heavy, and most visitors find half a day is right, leaving the afternoon for something gentler: Wat Phnom, the Central Market dome, or the cafes and shops around the Bassac area. Be kind to yourself with the pacing here.
Your last day depends on your flight. International departures now leave from KTI Techo International, the new airport that replaced the old Phnom Penh airport in September 2025, so allow a little extra time to reach it and to clear an unfamiliar terminal. If you have a morning free, the Russian Market is the best spot for last-minute gifts and a final iced coffee, and a quick loop of the riverfront makes a fitting goodbye before you head to the airport.
A perfect itinerary is worthless if you cannot board the plane. Americans need a visa for Cambodia, and the easiest route by far is the eVisa, sorted online before you leave home. A Tourist eVisa is $80 USD all-in, approved in 3 business days, valid for 3 months from the date it is issued, and gives you a 30-day single-entry stay — far more than a one-week trip needs. It arrives as a printable PDF by email; print it, pack it, and you are set for immigration.
Two timing details matter for a tight trip. First, the tourist auto-extension ended in November 2025, so the 30-day stay is now a firm ceiling — not a problem for seven days, but worth knowing. Second, the eVisa is only half the entry paperwork. The Cambodia e-Arrival Card is a separate, mandatory step: 14 fields covering your flight, your first night, and a customs declaration, submitted online within 7 days before you arrive. You cannot file it earlier than that window, so the smart move is to set a phone reminder for the week you fly.
Once your dates are firm, apply online for the $80 USD Tourist eVisa, valid 3 months from issue with a 30-day single-entry stay.
Approval lands in 3 business days as a printable PDF by email; apply about two to three weeks out for a comfortable buffer.
Print the PDF and keep it with your passport — you show it at immigration when you land.
Within 7 days before you arrive, submit the separate e-Arrival Card: 14 fields covering your flight, first night, and customs.
Land with the eVisa PDF printed and the e-Arrival Card already submitted, then start your week in Siem Reap.
Sequence it like this: apply for the eVisa once your dates are firm — about two to three weeks out is the sweet spot — then handle the e-Arrival Card in the final week. If you are still deciding how long to spend, our guide on how many days you really need in Cambodia
The whole trick to one week in Cambodia is restraint. Two cities, done properly, beat four cities glimpsed from a bus window every time. Four nights in Siem Reap give Angkor the room it deserves; two nights in Phnom Penh give the capital and its history the same. Start your temple days at dawn, take the brutal midday heat off, and you will come home rested rather than wrecked — and if you have any flexibility, choosing the best time of year to visit Cambodia makes those early starts far more bearable. The travelers who try to add the coast are the ones who wish they had not.
If you find yourself with even a couple of extra days, they are best spent slowing down what you already have — an unhurried morning at a quieter temple, a cooking class in Siem Reap, a river cruise at sunset in Phnom Penh — rather than racing somewhere new. And if you can stretch to ten days, that is when the coast or Battambang genuinely earns a place in the plan.
When your week is mapped, the visa is the simple part: a $80 USD Tourist eVisa, approved in 3 business days, delivered as a printable PDF by email, with free resubmission if Immigration flags a correction and US-timezone support if you get stuck. When your dates firm up, apply for your Cambodia eVisa, then set a reminder for the e-Arrival Card the week before you fly. If you would rather give Cambodia more room, our 10-day Cambodia itinerary for first-timers shows what a longer week and a half unlocks.
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