Where to stayed in Siem Reap?

This is a tricky question. Depending on your budget, you may find any range of accommodation around Siem Reap town, from guesthouse to 5-star hotel. Thanks to Angkor Wat, hotels are mushrooming around Siem Reap and that means fussy tourist like me get spoiled for choices!

So, after some comparison (Thanks Pei Chee), we finally decided to stay at Angkor Sayana Hotel and Spa. When we said comparison, it means comparing the price, location and its photos. However, the last point is really meaningless if those photos were taken long time ago or even by some really brilliant photographers. So be really careful with this. There was once that I booked a hotel in Penang justifying by only its photos. That place turn out to be a total disaster! I made my review at Trip Advisor for the first time because I am totally disappointed with that hotel/

Just my one cent, get recent reviews and photos posted by real guests from that hotel you are looking at. Trip Advisor (Who doesn't know) really provides lotsa information. We booked our hotel via Agoda and it's a good idea too if you are a frequent traveller. You may just want to fully utilise your cash rewards. (Of course there are T & C )

Location :


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Our hotel is located within walking distance to all tourist attraction areas in the Siem Reap town. Pub streets, The Night Market, Central Market and also the new supermarket are all within walking distance. I mean, if you can endure Angkor, there shouldn't be any problem at all, exploring the town by walking. But, if you really can't, Tuk Tuks are always waiting in front of the hotes and with just a minimum 1USD you can get to any places in the town. It would probably cost slightly more during night time and rainy days since you got less bargain power at that time.

The hotel exterior and the small lil'swimming pool.

 Its a gimmick. No one will ever use this. Its too tiny for swimming and there's definitely no privacy. The pool is located at the front corner of the hotel, right beside the motorway! Any, its still cool to have a pool in the hotel.

Review for this hotel was great (up to June 2012) : Clean, New, Friendly Staffs, etc and this is what we see...

The Great Lobby

The hotel is uniquely decorated with a touch of local cultural feel, focusing mainly on timber finishing. I started to think 'why did they put the timber flooring on the ceiling?"

House made lemongrass welcome drink and warm towel were served while the front desk was processing our room registration. It's totally refreshing especially after our long flight plus having to wake up in the wee hour!

Walla!! This is our room for 4 nights! I shared the room with Pei Chee

As our flight landed quite early in the morning, we only manage to checked-in to our rooms after returning from our half day tour from Artisan D'Angkor. The room in the picture is an upgraded room and it probably can fits in another 2 single beds! It's so spacious that I thought I can practice my dancing there. =D.

I am particularly very happy with the room. Not because it's clean and spacious, we were also greeted by towel elephants! And I thought we can only get to see this in their website! Bravo!

But for Huei Huei (H2) and Lau, it may be a slightly different story. On the first night, the air-cond in H2 room was kinda malfunction and the temperature could not be adjusted. So the room was like killing hot (probably same temperature as outside). They made a complaint and instead of sending the maintenance guy over, the hotel actually arrange another room for them. Problem solved? Not really.

On the second day, when everyone was really exhausted from the Angkor tour and can't wait to enjoy a hot shower, H2 and Lau were almost scared to death. While they were trying to open the door, someone actually open the door from the inside!! And that 'new occupant'was in her bathing robe and wet hair!!! WTH?!?

Eventually, she is the new guest for that room! So where are their belongings? They were so mad with the management and requested for a really good explanation.

What happened was, the 'new' room is supposed to be reserved for the 'new' guest. They were moved to the 'new' room temporarily while the hotel fix the air-cond (Which the hotel never inform them). The next morning, the hotel couldn't contact either of us as we left early for Angkor. But the problem is, we did not receive any call. I mean, if we did, there's definitely a record or something!

The reason for moving all their belongings from the 'new' to the 'old' room : "We couldn't contact you to move back to your original room. So, we moved it for you and I (The Manager) make sure everything is moved properly".

That's some kind of ridiculous answer! The hotel really shouldn't touch any of their guest's belonging without permission. That room shall be under the guest's possession so long they paid to stay there. First the hotel made their guest to move from room to room. Next, they moved their guest's belongings without permission! This must be some kind of joke or what?

Credit to Huei Huei

After some really heated complain, everything settled down. The hotel was really sorry for what happened. They compensated H2 and Lau with fruits and complimentary massage!! It's a blessing in disguise!

Well, other than this really shocking experience, I am still happy with this hotel.

Basically, the room is almost complete with everything you might need :-

• Safety Box
• Wardrobe
• Bathrobes
• Coffee or Tea making facilities with complimentary coffee and tea everyday
• Two complimentary distilled water everyday (Well, they will probably replenish yours twice a day when they come in for housekeeping, which implied to us)
• Refrigerator and drinks (Definitely not complimentary)
• Laundry Service
• Television (with lots of channel to choose from but too bad the TV is really tiny. I can barely watch it from my bed)
• Hair dryer
• Towels and toiletries

Don't worry about forgetting to bring your Universal Adaptor. You don't need one in fact.

I L-O-V-E Breakfast!! Especially buffet breakfast!!

The hotel room comes with daily buffet breakfast starting from 6am. Why so early? Err...to cater for guests that leaves early for sunrise at Angkor Wat or maybe for early flight like ours.

For the price we are paying, I bet you can never get any better breakfast anywhere. They served both English and Local cuisine. I mean, if you just can't live without bread and coffee in the morning, then hotel buffet breakfast is your best option. Or if you want to try some local dishes but just got too worried about the hygiene level, then hotel is also your best choice!

Top                      : Salad Boat!

Bottom Left      : Surprises awaits you! You must try their ginger chicken! (Alright, I actually missed that)

Bottom Middle : Cereals

Bottom Right    : Breads

Left               : Toaster

Top Right      : Congee

Middle Right : Jam

Bottom Right : They served different drink almost everyday. I remember they once served green pea drinks which turned out to be surprisingly alright!

Gone crazy on the day of departure and started to snap photos like freak. I guess that's the side effect of having so much leftover memory and battery in the camera!