Three nights in Siem Reap for Angkor, three nights in Phnom Penh for the riverfront and the harder history, one buffer night for the day you wish you had. Here is the honest 7-day Cambodia plan for Aussies in 2026 — costs in AUD, transport in plain English, and the eVisa timing baked in.
Three nights Siem Reap (Angkor Wat sunrise, the temple circuit, Phare circus) + three nights Phnom Penh (Royal Palace, Tuol Sleng, Choeung Ek, riverfront food) + one buffer night. Fly SYD/MEL → SIN → SAI (Siem Reap) for arrival, leave from KTI (Phnom Penh) at end — saves the internal flight ($45–60 USD / ~$69–91 AUD if you wanted to skip the bus). Budget ~$1,200–1,800 AUD per person for mid-range hotels + food + transport + the Angkor 3-day pass ($62 USD / ~$94 AUD). Cambodia eVisa is $80 USD (~$122 AUD) all-in, valid 3 months from issue, single entry.
Seven days is the sweet spot for a Cambodia trip from Australia. It fits inside a single week of annual leave, it covers the two cities every first-timer wants to see, and it leaves enough room that you do not have to choose between Angkor and Phnom Penh — you get both, with a buffer day for the inevitable slow morning. Anything shorter and you are either skipping the capital or rushing the temples; anything longer and you have headroom for the coast or the river towns, which is a different trip.
The maths is friendly too. From Sydney or Melbourne you fly via Singapore — SYD/MEL → SIN → SAI is the standard routing, around 9–11 hours flying time plus a short layover. If you push the Aussie long weekend (Thursday flight out, Sunday-week return), you can do this on five days of paid leave. Cambodia itself is on the same time zone as Bangkok and Jakarta, three hours behind AEST in the dry season, so jetlag is minimal coming or going.
This guide assumes you are sorting your paperwork properly: Cambodia eVisa ($80 USD ~$122 AUD, 3 business days, apply on the eVisa application page), and the e-Arrival Card filed inside the 7-day window before your flight. If you are still working out whether you actually need a visa, our pillar on whether Australians need a Cambodia visa covers it end to end, and the standalone eVisa-vs-visa-on-arrival comparison is worth a read if you are tempted to wing it at the airport.
Open-jaw flight — into Siem Reap (SAI), out of Phnom Penh (KTI). That single decision saves you doubling back at the end of the trip and removes a four-hour transit you do not need on departure day. Most Aussie travel agents will book this as a single itinerary on Singapore Airlines or Scoot at roughly the same price as a return into either city.
Inside the seven days, the shape is: three nights in Siem Reap for the temples and the circus, half a day in transit, three nights in Phnom Penh for the palace and the history, and one buffer night that you slot in wherever it makes sense (most Aussies tuck it on the front of Phnom Penh to handle the slow arrival from Siem Reap).
Siem Reap is your temple base. The town itself is small, walkable, and built around the Pub Street grid and the Siem Reap river. Most mid-range hotels sit within a 10-minute tuk-tuk of the Angkor ticket centre and 15 minutes of the main temple complex. Three nights gives you one arrival afternoon, one full sunrise-to-sunset day on the small circuit, and one full day on the big circuit with the circus to close.
Phnom Penh is denser, more chaotic, and more emotionally heavy than Siem Reap. The Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda are the obvious draws, but the trip pivots on the half-day at Tuol Sleng (S-21) and Choeung Ek (the killing fields) — these are not optional sights, they are the reason most Aussies say the city stays with them long after they fly home. The Mekong riverfront in the evenings is your reset.
Most flights from Singapore land into Siem Reap (SAI) early afternoon. Clear immigration with your printed eVisa and the scanned e-Arrival QR code, grab a tuk-tuk from the official rank ($10–15 USD / ~$15–23 AUD into town, fixed-price), and check in. Take a one-hour nap, then head straight to the Angkor Enterprise ticket centre east of town — pick up the 3-day pass ($62 USD / ~$94 AUD), which is the right pick for almost every 7-day itinerary. Bring your passport; you cannot buy the pass without it.
Spend the evening on a slow dinner in town — the Khmer barbecue places along Pub Street are touristy but solid for a first night, and the riverside restaurants north of the Old Market are quieter. Early to bed; tomorrow starts at 4:30am. If you want the full airport rundown for the SAI side, our Cambodia airports guide for Aussies covers the three terminals.
Pre-book a tuk-tuk driver for the day through your hotel ($20–25 USD / ~$30–38 AUD, English-speaking). Leave at 4:45am, be at Angkor Wat's west entrance by 5:15am, find a spot to the left of the central lily pond, and watch the sun rise behind the five towers. You will share the view with maybe 200 other people in shoulder season, 600 in peak — go to the left pond, not the right; the right is more famous and three times more crowded.
After sunrise, work the small circuit: Angkor Wat itself for 90 minutes, Bayon (the temple of the smiling faces) for an hour, Ta Prohm (the jungle temple from Tomb Raider) for an hour, and a long lunch at one of the local restaurants opposite Angkor Thom. Back at the hotel by 2pm for a swim and a nap, then out for the sunset at Pre Rup — quieter than Phnom Bakheng and the laterite walls turn gold at the right moment.
Day three is the longer drive. Same tuk-tuk driver, same early-ish start (6am is enough today), out to Banteay Srei — the small pink-sandstone temple 35km north of Siem Reap, with carving detail you will not see anywhere else on the circuit. Back via Banteay Samre, lunch, then East Mebon and Pre Rup before heading back to town by 4pm.
Evening: Phare, the Cambodian Circus. Tickets are $18–38 USD (~$27–57 AUD) depending on seating — the mid-tier seats are fine, the show is small enough that there are no bad seats. Buy in advance through your hotel or the Phare website; performances sell out in peak season. This is not a touristy circus — Phare is a Cambodian arts NGO that trains kids from disadvantaged backgrounds, and the storytelling is closer to Cirque du Soleil than to anything you have seen in Australia. It is the single best evening of the Siem Reap leg.
Two real options, and the right call depends on your budget and your patience.
Option A — fly. Cambodia Angkor Air and AirAsia run SAI ↔ KTI several times daily, $45–60 USD one-way (~$69–91 AUD). Actual flight time is around 50 minutes, but allow three hours door-to-door once you factor airport time at both ends. Worth it if you want maximum time on the ground in Phnom Penh, or if you are travelling with kids who will not survive a six-hour bus.
Option B — Giant Ibis. The Giant Ibis bus is the only intercity bus most experienced travellers will book in Cambodia. $13–15 USD (~$20–23 AUD), six hours direct from the Siem Reap terminal to the Phnom Penh terminal, working A/C, working seatbelts, working wi-fi, and a snack on the way. It departs around 8:30am and lands you in Phnom Penh mid-afternoon, plenty of time to check in and head to the riverfront.
Honest take: most Aussies on a 7-day trip take the bus. The internal flight saves three or four hours but costs four times more, and the bus journey is genuinely pleasant — flat countryside, rice paddies, occasional roadside food stops. The only case for flying is families with young kids or travellers with mobility issues. The full breakdown of arrival options sits in our Cambodia airports guide for Aussies, and the first-trip planning checklist we are publishing alongside this itinerary handles the booking sequence.
Whether you flew or bussed, your afternoon is the riverfront. Check into a hotel within walking distance of Sisowath Quay (the riverside boulevard) — that puts you 10 minutes from the Royal Palace and inside the small grid of restaurants, cafes, and street-food vendors that work for an easy first evening. Walk the promenade at dusk, get your bearings, eat something on a balcony, head to bed.
Start at the Royal Palace ($10 USD / ~$15 AUD entry) when it opens at 8am — go in long sleeves and long trousers or you will be turned away at the gate. The Silver Pagoda inside the palace complex, with its solid silver floor tiles, is the unexpected highlight. Allow 90 minutes to two hours.
From the palace, tuk-tuk south to Tuol Sleng (S-21), the former school turned Khmer Rouge prison, now a genocide museum. Entry is $5 USD (~$7.50 AUD) with the audio guide $3 USD extra (~$4.50 AUD) — take the audio guide. This is a hard hour and a half; allow yourself to feel it.
After lunch (light, you will not be hungry), tuk-tuk out to Choeung Ek — the killing fields, 17km south of the city. Entry $6 USD (~$9 AUD) inclusive of the audio guide. The site is small, the audio guide is exceptional, and the round trip from the city is about three hours. Most Aussies are back in town by 4pm and want a quiet evening; the rooftop bars along the riverfront are the right call.
Day six is the lighter day. Morning at the Russian Market (Phsar Tuol Tom Poung) for the silk, the silver, and the Cambodian coffee to take home — bring small USD bills, haggle politely, expect to pay 60–70% of the first asking price. Lunch at one of the cafes on Street 240 (Phnom Penh's small designer-and-coffee strip). Afternoon swim or massage at the hotel.
Late afternoon, do a Mekong sunset cruise — boats leave from the Sisowath Quay pier, $10–15 USD per person (~$15–23 AUD) for a 90-minute loop with a beer. Final dinner anywhere along the river. If your flight out is Day 7 evening, this is when you grab Cambodian coffee for friends back home and any last shopping.
The seventh day is the one that earns its keep. You will either spend it doing one of the three good Phnom Penh day-trip options, or you will spend it slowly. Both are correct.
If you wish you had more Siem Reap: tack the buffer onto the front of the trip instead, and run a half-day out to Kampong Phluk floating village on Tonlé Sap from Siem Reap on Day 4 morning before the bus. Boats leave 7am, you are back at the bus terminal by 1pm. The floating houses are at their best in green season (July–September) when the lake is full.
If you want one more Cambodian site from Phnom Penh: a day trip to Oudong, the former royal capital 40km north — three hours round trip, three hilltop stupas with panoramic views, lunch at a roadside restaurant. Quieter than the day before, easier on the legs.
If you just want a slow morning: do nothing. Long breakfast, an hour at the National Museum (next to the palace, $10 USD entry / ~$15 AUD, smaller and more digestible than Tuol Sleng), final coffee, packed up, tuk-tuk to KTI by mid-afternoon for the evening flight out. Aussies consistently say the slow morning is the version they would pick again. The seasonal best-time-to-visit guide for Cambodia is worth a final read before you lock the dates in — the experience of this same itinerary changes shape between dry and green season.
Bangkok stopover is fine — but the land border to Siem Reap is closed.
Read the 2026 update →Classic Indochina pairing — add Saigon to the back end.
See the combo guide →Slow-boat the Mekong if you have a second week.
Plan the Laos route →Open-jaw flight, three nights either side, one buffer in the middle or at the end, eVisa locked in 3–4 weeks before departure, e-Arrival inside the 7-day window. That is the whole shape. If your trip dates are still moving, the Australian application walkthrough covers the visa flow step-by-step, and the Australian tourist visa specialist guide covers the edge cases — dual citizens, kids, photographers worried about gear.
A final note on the bigger picture. Smartraveller's Cambodia advisory is worth a five-minute read before you book, especially if your route involves a Bangkok or Singapore stopover. The Thailand–Cambodia land borders have all been closed since June 2025, so an overland leg from Bangkok is no longer an option — every Aussie itinerary for 2026 starts with a flight in.
Next steps and related reading for Australians: apply for your Cambodia eVisa when you are ready to lodge, bookmark our Cambodia visa hub for Australian citizens as the single canonical reference, skim the FAQ on Cambodia visa after approval for quick answers, and use our glossary of Cambodia visa terms to decode any acronym in this guide.
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캄보디아 첫 여행이라면? 미국인들을 위한 솔직한 첫 여행 체크리스트 — 비자, 미국 달러 화폐 특이점, 안전 현실, 예방 접종, 사원 드레스 코드, 그리고 2026년 새로운 공항에 도착했을 때 실제로 어떤 모습인지
2025년 6월부터 태국-캄보디아의 모든 7개 육로 국경이 폐쇄되어 2026년 태국에서 캄보디아로 가는 미국인들의 유일한 방법은 비행입니다. 여기에서는 방콕-시엠립과 방콕-프놈펜 노선이 어떻게 작동하는지, 탑승 전 필요한 캄보디아 전자 비자, 그리고旧 포이펫 육로 계획이 더 이상 존재하지 않는 이유를 설명합니다.
캄보디아의 수도와 앙코르왓 사이의 195마일을 이동하는 세 가지 방법: $15 익스프레스 버스, 45분 비행기, 또는 느린 강 페리. 각 옵션이 미국 여행자에게 실제로 얼마인지, 얼마나 걸리는지, 그리고 어떤 여행에 적합한지 알려드립니다.
Most Aussie flights stop here — make the layover count.
