Plan the trip

When to go to Cambodia, month by month

Cambodia has three seasons and only one of them is sold honestly. This page says what each month actually feels like on a temple day, including the months we would talk you out of.

Plan my trip How many days you need

Three seasons, not two

The brochure version is 'dry season good, wet season bad'. It is wrong in both directions and it costs people either money or comfort.

Season	Months	What it is really like
Cool and dry	November - February	24 - 32 degrees, low humidity, blue skies, and every hotel full. The best weather and the worst crowds and prices.
Hot and dry	March - May	34 - 40 degrees. April is the hard one: Siem Reap regularly hits 38 - 40 in the afternoon and the stone radiates heat back at you until dark.
Wet	June - October	Warm, green, and rain in concentrated bursts rather than all day. September and October are the wettest. Prices fall by a quarter or more.

The thing nobody tells you about the wet season

Rain in Cambodia is usually one or two heavy hours in the afternoon, not a grey day. A wet-season temple morning is often cooler, greener and emptier than a January one. What the wet season genuinely ruins is unsealed road: Mondulkiri, Koh Ker and the Cardamoms turn slow and slippery from July to October.

Month by month, with what we would actually book

Month	Temples	Coast	Forest and back roads	Our verdict
January	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Best all-round month. Book early.
February	Excellent	Excellent	Good	As good as January, marginally warmer.
March	Warm but fine	Very good	Good, dusty	Underrated. Crowds thin from mid-month.
April	Hard	Hot but bearable	Very dusty	The month we talk people out of.
May	Hot, first storms	Mixed	Good until late May	Cheap. Start early, stop at noon.
June	Good	Mixed	Getting soft	Green, quiet, good value.
July	Good	Poor	Difficult	Fine for temples, wrong for the coast.
August	Good	Poor	Difficult	As July. Rivers high and photogenic.
September	Good, wet	Poor	Avoid	Tonle Sap at maximum. Best month for the lake.
October	Good, wet early	Improving late	Poor	Improves sharply after the 20th.
November	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	The sweet spot. Dry, green, not yet packed.
December	Excellent	Excellent	Very good	Peak. Christmas prices are real.

April, said properly

April is the hottest month in a hot country, and it is also Khmer New Year, which falls in the middle of it. Both facts matter and they point in opposite directions.

The heat is not an inconvenience, it is a constraint on the itinerary. At 39 degrees a temple day has two usable windows, roughly 06:00 to 10:00 and 15:30 to sunset, and anything you schedule in between will be endured rather than enjoyed. We do run April trips, but we build them around those windows, which means an earlier start than most people expect and a genuine break in the middle of the day.

Khmer New Year, usually 13 to 16 April, is the single best cultural moment of the Cambodian year and the single worst week for logistics. The country moves: Phnom Penh empties, the provinces fill, domestic transport books out, and many restaurants and small museums close for three or four days. If you want to see it, come for it deliberately and accept that the temple schedule bends around it.

The Tonle Sap has its own calendar

The lake is the reason to think about season separately from weather. In September and October the Tonle Sap is at maximum extent, the flooded forest is genuinely flooded, and the stilt villages sit in water. In April and May the same villages stand on dry cracked mud twenty metres above a shrunken channel, and a boat trip becomes a long drive to a disappointing puddle.

If a floating village matters to you, come between August and December. If you are here in the dry months, we will usually suggest you skip it rather than sell you a boat ride that is not worth the morning.

Crowds, which move independently of weather

Chinese New Year, late January or February: Siem Reap fills for about ten days.
Christmas and New Year: the most expensive fortnight of the year, hotels at 150 to 200 percent of November rates.
Khmer New Year, mid-April: domestic crowds, not international ones. Different feel entirely, and much more interesting.
Pchum Ben, late September or October: a fifteen-day ancestral festival. Pagodas are busy and moving to watch; almost no foreign visitors know it is happening.

Angkor itself is crowded by hour more than by month. Sunrise at Angkor Wat is busy every single day of the year. Four in the afternoon at Preah Khan is quiet even in December.

What we would book, if it were our own holiday

Late November: dry, still green from the rains, prices not yet at Christmas levels.
Early March: warm, thinning crowds, good light, coast still perfect.
Mid-September, if the Tonle Sap and green rice terraces are what you want, and you accept an afternoon of rain most days.

Whichever month you pick, the itinerary should change to suit it. Which is the argument for reading how many days you need next.

Common questions

Questions travellers ask most

Is the wet season really a bad time for Angkor?

No. It is often the better time. Rain falls in concentrated afternoon bursts, mornings are cooler than in the dry months, the moats are full and the stone is dark and photogenic. What you lose is guaranteed sunsets and easy access to unsealed roads.

What is the single worst month?

April, on heat alone, and July to September if your trip includes Mondulkiri, Koh Ker or the Cardamoms, because the roads there are unsealed.

When is the Tonle Sap at its fullest?

September and October. The lake can grow to several times its dry-season size, and the flooded forest at Kampong Phluk is only genuinely flooded in those months. By April the same villages stand on dry mud.

Does it rain all day in the wet season?

Rarely. A typical wet-season day gives you a clear morning, a heavy hour or two in the afternoon, and a bright evening. Plan temples early and you will barely notice it.