Hotel
We stayed at Royal Crown. Good price. Good breakfast. Room was great. Swimming pool has saltwater. Was a block and over a bridge from Old Market, so like 4 min walk. 10-15 min tuk tuk ride to Angkor Wat.
I was recommended and would recommend Steung Siem Reap for location. I saw the location. Just around the corner from Old Market. We didn't stay there bc we couldn't get a hold of them to find out if 3 kids in the room was ok.
Another place I heard about from a friend, good for big families: "Paradise Angkor Villa We stayed here and really liked it. They have affordable 4- and 5-bedroom villas if you have a large family or that you can split with another family. "
Restaurants
Khmer Kitchen in Old Market
Great local food at good price, like $4 a dish. Had Fish Curry, Pumpkin Coco soup (not for kids like we thought it was going to be, still spicey), Fresh spring rolls, and beef Lak Lok which were great. Fish cakes not like Thai fishcakes. Great bc had good portion of fries for the kids. And yummy milk shakes for like $1.50.
Sugar Palm is not near Old Market, not near anything really. But GREAT food and cool setting bc it's in a local wooden house, cool dark wood tables and cool ceramic plates. I had read that this place has the best AMOK (Cambodian curry) in town and it was SO good. They steam it for 40 minutes (so be ready to wait a long time) but the wait was worth it, a frothy/creamy curry with so much flavor, almost dessert! This place is a bit more like $7 a dish. They also had a great fish salad and I think any of the salads there would be so good, such a variety of fresh ingredients. Kids had chicken stay with peanut sauce (ask for the peanut sauce separate bc it is a bit spicey) and vegetabe fried rice (this was REALLY good).
Our last meal was at Cambodian BBQ in the passage at Old Market. We did the fire mountain grill, which was so fun and tastey. $8/person for 5 different kinds of meat (including crocodile:) and comes with rice/noodle/vegetable broth that also cooks in the grill. The kids had a really good pumpkin soup here.
We loved Blue Pumpkin for a fun ice-cream outing but also for the quiche/pizza for the kids. And a caramel chocolate tart which was so good!
One place that looked really good but didn't get to eat at was Angkor Palm in Old Market, next door to Blue Pumpkin. Similar to menu at Khmer Kitchen but apparently all veggies organically grown. (The Littles ate here when they went and said it was great)
Oh and one night we got take out at Little India in Old Market and it was really good.
Temples
$20 One-day temple pass $40 for three days (doesn't have to be used consecutively)
Angkor Wat for sunrise I loved, I left hotel at 5am for it.
Bayon was Tom's favorite Temple.
Mine was Banteay Kidei. For the temple itself and also for the grounds, very peaceful to me.
PHnom Bakheng was cool to hike up to (10-15 min) and see views of the whole area (forest, river, etc.). At certain times of the day you can ride an elephant up. In the morning these elephants are at Bayon Temple for $15 a ride.
Other outings:
Night markets: There are a lot around and we enjoyed them. The one near our hotel called Siem Reap Arts Centre is across the river from Old Market (all lit up, you can't miss it). It is more spacious, less crowded, but sells same products. A bit more relaxing with kids.
We did Kampong Pluk on Tonle Sap Lake- a fishing village where the houses are up on stilts. The tuk tuk driver drove us out to the village where we caught a boat (still included in his $15 a day, even though it was 30-40 min away form our hotel). the drive out to the dock alone is amazing- red dirt road, fields, rural villages. We took a motorboat for $20 a person (they charged us $5 for all 3 kids). This was the only unpleasant experience we had bc at the ticket desk it doesn't list the price, just a bunch of guys telling us it was $20 a person- which relative to how much everything else costs in Siem Reap seemed like a lot. There were other tourists there who also felt like they were getting gypped so we all compared notes. Another group was being charged $30 each at first. It is silly bc they charge by person and not by boat. We all tried to get one boat together for a better deal but they wouldn't budge on the $20 each. In the end, we all went in separate motorboats which was a shame bc these boats were going out 75% empty so not environmentally friendly. Anyway, you take this motorboat 30 min into the village, you go through the villlage and out to the lake. THey stopped us before getting to the lake at a house where you can opt to change to a smaller boat rowed by a local for $5/person. This ride was really cool, getting deeper in to the village and through the "forest"/mangroves. IT was probably a half hour tour. At that house you can get drinks and food like fried rice and noodles.
We were actually just trying to get to Chong Khneas which is the floating village on Tonle Sap lake closest to Siem Reap, but Tip our tuk tuk driver that day recommended this place instead. One thing I really loved was the drive out to the lake through the fields and rural villages, on a red dirt road.
We went on a horse cart ride through the countryside that ended at Wat Athvea Temple. It was through Happy Ranch. It was $12.50 a person, half off for kids aged 5-9. They also do horseback tours which I think would have been really cool, starting at $22 a person, kids can go from age 2. Again, I loved seeing the local rural life.
We spent one afternoon at Jungle Junction- a newer restaurant opened by an Australian. It's a house converted into a family restaurant (burgers and local food). In the front yard, there is a great playground, a trampline, a bouncy castle, a sand box. Inside there's an indoor playground and a movie theatre where you can pick your movie and it's $1 per kid. There's also a karaoke room and a pool table upstairs. Anyway, the kids loved this as a break from all the sightseeing and really there aren't any other playgrounds that we found there. They have nannies on site who watch the kids- interesting. Anyway, Tom and I enjoyed some fresh lime juice and the kids had yummy smoothies.
If I had one more day there I would do the day trip to Kbal Spean temple (carvings/sculptures in waterfall) and see Banteay Srei too. Apparently an hour out of SR, 40 min hike to falls. Apparently $40 tuk tuk for the day.
Another thing that would be fun to do is a Cambodian cooking class. I saw one advertised at a restaurant on St. Sok San (can't remember name, maybe Cambodian Kitchen) for $10 for two hours, which included a trip to the market and a cooking class for a 3-course cambodian meal.
Other kid-friendly things to do that we didn't do:
Butterfly Garden restaurant in SR- kid-friendly, they have butterflies in the garden there.
Siem Reap Angkor Butterly Center - on the road to Banteay Srei.
Angkor Silk Farm
Angkor trade center has personal movie theaters you can rent and choose the movie. $8 for two people, $2 additional person. There's also a skate rink at the top floor, and an indoor playground/arcade on the floor below that (super loud).
Here's a photo of Kampng Pluk.
Here's a photo of Kampng Pluk.
