Day 1, Private Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat, Bakheng Sunset Tour

8:00 AM, Siem Reap hotel pickup and ticket office. The driver collects you at your hotel and stops at the Angkor ticket office first, so anyone without a pass gets sorted before the park gate.

8:30 AM to 12:00 PM, Angkor Thom. Enter through the South Gate, where rows of stone gods and demons line the naga balustrade. Inside the royal city, Bayon watches back with 216 carved faces across its towers. The morning also covers Baphuon, a massive three-tiered temple mountain, Phimeanakas inside the royal palace enclosure, the Terrace of the Elephants, and the Terrace of the Leper King with its carved passageways.

12:20 to 1:00 PM, lunch at a local restaurant near the temples, with a vegetarian option on the menu.

1:00 to 1:20 PM, Preah Dak village, a short stop to taste palm cake fresh off the charcoal grill.

1:20 to 2:00 PM, Ta Prohm. Silk cotton and strangler fig roots pour over the galleries of this 12th-century monastery, left partly as the jungle left it and made famous by Tomb Raider.

2:20 to 4:20 PM, Angkor Wat. The largest religious monument on earth, raised by King Suryavarman II for the god Vishnu in the early 12th century. You cross the long causeway, then walk galleries of bas-reliefs that retell the Hindu epics. The softer afternoon light flatters the stone.

4:30 to 6:00 PM, Phnom Bakheng. A short uphill climb ends on a hilltop with views across the forest canopy and the distant silhouette of Angkor Wat as the sun drops. You are back at your hotel by 6:30 PM.

Private Angkor Wat Sunrise and the Outer Circuit Temples

4:40 AM, pre-dawn hotel pickup. The exact time moves with the seasons, and your guide confirms it the evening before based on sunrise times. A thermos of hot coffee and a small snack can be arranged if you ask the night before.

5:15 to 6:30 AM, Angkor Wat reflecting pool. You take position on the quieter northern bank, away from the main camera crowd, while the sky turns pink. Between late November and early March the sun rises directly behind the five central towers.

6:30 to 7:30 AM, breakfast at a Khmer family-run eatery in town: kuy teav, a rice noodle soup with pork, or bobor, rice porridge with chicken or fish, plus fresh fruit and tea or coffee.

7:30 to 9:00 AM, Preah Dak village on the road north. Local women grill num pang, a sticky rice cake sweetened with palm sugar and wrapped in banana leaves; you try one straight off the coals.

9:00 to 10:30 AM, Preah Khan. The "holy sword" is the largest temple at Angkor after Angkor Wat, raised by King Jayavarman VII in the late 1100s in honor of his father. A foundation stele records a Buddhist monastery and university here with 1,000 monks and 300,000 laypeople in its service. The walk runs down a long causeway, past four-faced entry pavilions, the Hall of Dancers, and the cruciform central sanctuary.

10:30 to 11:15 AM, Neak Pean. An artificial island temple at the center of four connected pools, representing the mythical Himalayan lake Anavatapta. A wooden footbridge leads out to the circular platform, and the pools fill with water lilies from September to November.

11:15 AM to 12:15 PM, Ta Som. A small late 12th century temple where a giant silk cotton tree grows over the eastern gopura, a smaller cousin of the roots at Ta Prohm.

12:15 to 1:30 PM, East Mebon. King Rajendravarman II raised this five-tiered temple in the 10th century for Shiva, on an island in the middle of the Eastern Baray, a reservoir that measured more than 7 km by 1.8 km and is dry today. Look for the brick elephants and lions at the corners of the second tier.

1:30 to 2:30 PM, Pre Rup. Another 10th century temple mountain of the same king, also for Shiva. Its brick and laterite walls glow warm red after midday, and the climb to the top tier opens views over the forest toward Phnom Kulen. The name refers to an old Khmer word for a cremation rite.

2:30 to 3:30 PM, Banteay Kdei, a quieter Jayavarman VII monastery with long galleries and thin crowds. Then you return through the park checkpoint to your hotel, where the tour ends.

Private Kulen Mountain, Banteay Srei, Kampong Phluk Tour

8:00 AM, hotel pickup and the 48 km road northeast to Phnom Kulen, about 1.5 hours past stilt houses, rice paddies, mango orchards, and small wooden pagodas, with stops for photos of the countryside.

10:00 AM to 12:30 PM, Phnom Kulen National Park. The gate fee is $20 per foreign visitor, cash only, and small USD bills help since the booth can run short on smaller denominations. The summit holds three sights:

Kulen waterfall, the largest natural cascade in the wider Angkor region, with two tiers dropping about 15 meters into a swimming hole. Bring shoes with grip; the mossy rocks are slippery.

Preah Ang Thom reclining Buddha, an 8-meter statue carved into the crown of a sandstone boulder, with a pagoda restored in the 1980s that still holds services.

The River of a Thousand Lingas, where in 802 AD King Jayavarman II had more than 1,000 lingas and Hindu deity figures cut into the sandstone riverbed. The carvings read best in the dry months.

12:30 to 1:30 PM, lunch at a family-run restaurant near the summit: chicken with lemongrass, stir-fried morning glory, white rice, tropical fruit, and iced tea.

1:30 to 3:15 PM, Banteay Srei, 22 km south. The "citadel of the women" is a small 10th century temple raised by the royal guru Yajnavaraha for Shiva. Every surface carries some of the finest relief carving in Cambodia, cut into pink sandstone that glows warmer than any other Angkorian monument. The visit covers the three central sanctuaries, the two libraries, and the outer wall.

3:15 to 4:00 PM, transfer to the boat dock on Tonle Sap, 21 km southeast along NH6. The lake is the largest freshwater body in Southeast Asia and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 1997.

4:00 to 6:30 PM, Kampong Phluk by private boat. The route runs past stilt houses standing 6 to 10 meters above dry-season ground, sized for a lake that can rise about 4 meters in the wet season; mangrove forest on the village edge, a fish nursery and a dry-season roost for spot-billed pelicans; floating houses that rise and fall with the water year-round; and crocodile farms and fish smoking yards along the canal.

7:00 PM, hotel drop off in Siem Reap.

Traveling between late March and late June? Water levels drop at Kampong Phluk and some boats run aground. The village takes on a different rhythm and the photos lose their postcard look, which the operator is upfront about.

Day 4, private Koh Ker and Beng Melea

8:00 AM, hotel pickup and the road north to the Koh Ker group, a remote archaeological site that was briefly the capital of the Khmer Empire under King Jayavarman IV in the 10th century.

Morning at Koh Ker (entry pass $15): Prasat Thom, the state temple attributed to King Jayavarman IV, an imposing seven-tiered pyramid with shrines scattered around it, then the shrines of Prasat Pram, Prasat Neang Khmao, and Prasat Thnoeng, named for its giant carved linga.

Midday, lunch at a local restaurant.

Afternoon at Beng Melea, a 12th century temple that collapsed in on itself and was swallowed by trees, lianas, and moss. It is the most ruined site in the Angkor group and, for many travelers, the most atmospheric.

Late afternoon, return to your hotel in Siem Reap.

Tickets to budget on top of the tour price: the Angkor pass at $72 for seven days covers Days 1 and 2, the Kulen gate fee is $20 on Day 3, the Koh Ker pass is $15 on Day 4, and the Kampong Phluk boat adds $15. That comes to about $122 per person, paid separately.