2-Night Temple City Of Angkor Wat excursion

[NMTraveller]

Angkor Wat.  We are going on an Asian cruise.  Has anyone done this multi day excursion?  If so what are your recommendations?  Is it worth it?  I noticed that it is a little pricey.  However we got off of the ship in New Zealand and the excursion was the highlight of the trip.  Is it better than the other excursion choices?  Is it over some sea days.  I wouldn't mind doing something else while the ship is just floating around.  There are two versions.  A 3 day and one that is a bit shorter.  Which is better?  It seems like there are a lot of overnight excursions for this cruise.  

 

Is there another forum that rates the Celebrity excursions.

What do we like?  We like history, nature, and culture.

Any help is appreciated.  This is our first time to Asia.

[dabear]

We just returned from an Asian cruise on Azamara. We choose to go to Siem Reap after the cruise rather than giving up 2 days within the cruise. Doing the post cruise trip was easy & far less expensive than going with the ship. We flew from Singapore on Silk Air (regional airline for Singapore AL) arranged a deluxe hotel that included transportation from/to the airport. We then arranged for a private tour that picked us up at our hotel, toured & returned us . All prices were reasonable. Great site and was one of the highlights of this trip. 

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[NMTraveller]

7 minutes ago, dabear said:

We just returned from an Asian cruise on Azamara. We choose to go to Siem Reap after the cruise rather than giving up 2 days within the cruise. Doing the post cruise trip was easy & far less expensive than going with the ship. We flew from Singapore on Silk Air (regional airline for Singapore AL) arranged a deluxe hotel that included transportation from/to the airport. We then arranged for a private tour that picked us up at our hotel, toured & returned us . All prices were reasonable. Great site and was one of the highlights of this trip. 

Thanks.  What were the other highlights?

[dabear]

We started in Hong Kong , had 3 stops in Vietnam. we enjoyed a 6 hour cruise in Halong Bay, and enjoyed Danang & HoI An, a town with a lot of 18th century architecture. In Ho Chi Min city we took a full day tour which included a rickshaw ride, a stop at the War remembrance museum (very one-sided but interesting). We enjoyed Bangkok as there are many interesting Buddhist sites and the Grand Palace.we had been there before & it's more built up now.  We enjoyed the local foods. Singapore was very modern. .We prefer old stuff. Overall a great trip, even in spite of the long flights.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[NMTraveller]

1 minute ago, dabear said:

We started in Hong Kong , had 3 stops in Vietnam. we enjoyed a 6 hour cruise in Halong Bay, and enjoyed Danang & HoI An, a town with a lot of 18th century architecture. In Ho Chi Min city we took a full day tour which included a rickshaw ride, a stop at the War remembrance museum (very one-sided but interesting). We enjoyed Bangkok as there are many interesting Buddhist sites and the Grand Palace.we had been there before & it's more built up now.  Singapore was very modern. We prefer old stuff. Overall a great trip, even in spite of the long flights.

 

Thanks!

[NMTraveller]

I will have to see if I can take off more time.  If I can't, should I skip the Hue/Danang excursions or the Ho Chi Minh excursions?  It seems like the Angkor Wat excursions replace one of the ports and one of the sea days.

 

I am not a new city person either.  I like the old architecture and sights.

Edited December 5, 2019 by NMTraveller

[taxatty]

We did a trip to Siem Reap before an RCI cruise out of Singapore earlier this year--agree that you can do it far cheaper than going with the ship's tour. We flew Jetstar Asia between Singapore and Siem Reap, which was far cheaper than SilkAir by catching one its frequent sales. We stayed at the Jaya House River Park hotel, which was terrific and supplied excellent private tour guides and airport transfers. We saw a lot of temples and the nearby Landmine Museum over three days and two nights. Sunrise at Angkor Wat was spectacular and worth getting up early for. The Phare Circus was also worth the short trip.

[dabear]

First choice is to try to get more time off. You could do 2 or 3 nights (EVEN 1 NIGHT  IF FLIGHT TIMES WOULD WORK)in Siem Reap depending on your flight & work schedule. Otherwise I would skip Ho Chi Min City as we thought Hoi Am was one of the best stops . In fact NY Times rated it #1 for places to visit in 2019. We also preferred using Silk Air, as it was part of Singapore Airlines, always rated #1 in the world & it was totally on time. We're  concerned with some discount airlines since if there is a problem, they usually don't have back up replacement planes. (ALSO LEGROOM CAN BE A PROBLEM (I'M 6'2"). When we booked, Silk Air was the same price as Jetstar & flight times were better for us. Things also are cheap in Cambodia. We stayed at Golden temple Retreat hotel & apart from transportation, included massages , lunch and dinner. We also did the sunrise but not sunset full day tour of Anghor Wat. Unfortunately it was cloudy so no sunrise. Still a great day tour visiting 3 of the major sites.

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[Poconolady]

15 hours ago, dabear said:

We just returned from an Asian cruise on Azamara. We choose to go to Siem Reap after the cruise rather than giving up 2 days within the cruise. Doing the post cruise trip was easy & far less expensive than going with the ship. We flew from Singapore on Silk Air (regional airline for Singapore AL) arranged a deluxe hotel that included transportation from/to the airport. We then arranged for a private tour that picked us up at our hotel, toured & returned us . All prices were reasonable. Great site and was one of the highlights of this trip. 

We are doing Siem Reap post Millenium cruise next month, We have our air, hotel arranged etc.  Can you recommend a tour guide or itinerary for Angkor Wat?

[Mark_T]

I would not choose to do the 3 day (2 night) trip, it amounts to one full day at Siem Reap sandwiched between two days of Vietnam tours and flights.

 

It does cover one sea day so that might be considered an advantage but the cost is far too high for what you are getting.

 

Either do it as a pre/post cruise tour on your own, or even better, do as we did and make it a separate vacation and book a Mekong river cruise.

[dabear]

1 hour ago, Poconolady said:

We are doing Siem Reap post Millenium cruise next month, We have our air, hotel arranged etc.  Can you recommend a tour guide or itinerary for Angkor Wat?

 

We used Happy Anghor Tours, which was highly rated on Trip Advisor. . Sam was our tour guide & was quite cooperative in making additional requested stops, personalizing our tour. We did the Sunrise but not Sunset tour. The other couple who shared our tour used Sam the next day for additional touring.

Edited December 5, 2019 by dabear

[NMTraveller]

8 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I would not choose to do the 3 day (2 night) trip, it amounts to one full day at Siem Reap sandwiched between two days of Vietnam tours and flights.

 

It does cover one sea day so that might be considered an advantage but the cost is far too high for what you are getting.

 

Either do it as a pre/post cruise tour on your own, or even better, do as we did and make it a separate vacation and book a Mekong river cruise.

I think that you miss 2 ports with the tour.  I probably could see missing one port but missing two seems like a little much.

[NCHPcruiser]

Siem Reap is probably best visited separately however if this is your one chance to visit I would absolutely do it!    Should you visit on your own we would highly recommend Ratanak Eath (ratanak_eath@yahoo.com).   His knowledgeable is encyclopedic and he is personable with excellent English (and professional photography skills).    A friend recommended him and we were so glad he did.   Ratanak is on Facebook as Angkor Guide - Private Tour 

[NMTraveller]

Thanks for all of the replies.  I am thinking that the Mekong River cruise sounds like a good way to go.  We are cruising on AMA Waterways next summer so we will see how me like river crusing and take it from there.  After further thoughts it seems like the excursion takes away too much of the cruise.