10 Days in Cambodia with Kids — Family Itinerary
3 destinations · 10 days
At a Glance
- ✓ Angkor Wat at a kid-friendly pace
- ✓ Tonle Sap floating village by boat
- ✓ Wat Phnom's resident monkeys
- ✓ Hotel pool afternoons built into the schedule
- ✓ Kep beach & Rabbit Island day trip
- ✓ Crab market by the sea
Cambodia works well with children — short driving distances, cheap private transport, and enough variety to break up temple time with pool time. This route keeps Angkor unhurried, swaps the heaviest parts of Phnom Penh’s history for lighter alternatives, and ends with four unstructured beach days.
Day 1: Arrive in Siem Reap
Afternoon: Arrive, check in, and do nothing more ambitious than the hotel pool. Jet lag plus a full itinerary on day one is a bad combination with kids.
Evening: An easy dinner near the Old Market. Skip Pub Street’s later hours — there’s a quieter night market a block over that’s better suited to younger kids.
Stay: Siem Reap (hotel with a pool — non-negotiable with kids in this heat).
Day 2: Angkor Wat, Slowly
6:00 AM (optional): Older kids who can handle an early start can do the classic sunrise at Angkor Wat. With younger children, a 7:30am arrival still beats the heat and the worst crowds.
Morning: Angkor Wat’s outer galleries, then Angkor Thom and the Bayon — kids tend to love spotting the giant carved faces, it’s a built-in game.
Midday: Back to the hotel for lunch, swimming, and a rest during the worst heat (11am–2pm).
Late afternoon: Ta Prohm — the trees-grown-through-ruins look like something out of a storybook, and it’s a hit with most kids.
Stay: Siem Reap.
Day 3: Tonle Sap Floating Village
Morning: Boat trip to Kompong Phluk, a stilted village on Tonle Sap Lake. The boat ride itself is the highlight for most kids, and seeing a school, shop and houses built on stilts over water is a genuinely different sight.
Afternoon: Pool time and rest back at the hotel.
Evening: Phare Cambodian Circus — acrobatics, live music and storytelling with no language barrier; reliably a hit with kids of every age.
Stay: Siem Reap.
Day 4: Free Day in Siem Reap
Morning: Angkor National Museum (air-conditioned, interactive displays) or Angkor Silk Farm to see silkworms and weaving up close.
Afternoon: Hotel pool, or a quad-bike/ox-cart countryside ride for older kids.
Stay: Siem Reap.
Day 5: Siem Reap → Phnom Penh
Morning: Fly to Phnom Penh (45 minutes) rather than the 6-hour bus — worth the extra cost with kids.
Afternoon: Royal Palace & Silver Pagoda grounds — manageable in under 90 minutes and visually striking even for young children.
Evening: Riverside walk and dinner on Street 278.
Stay: Phnom Penh.
Day 6: Phnom Penh, Lightly
Morning: Wat Phnom, a small hilltop pagoda in the city centre with a resident troop of monkeys — a genuine kid favourite. (Older kids and teens who can handle it may want to add Tuol Sleng or Choeung Ek; both are heavy and better suited to ages 12+.)
Afternoon: Pool time, or the Phnom Penh Night Market area for an early dinner among food stalls and mats on the ground.
Stay: Phnom Penh.
Day 7: Phnom Penh → Kep
Morning: Private taxi to Kep (3.5 hours) — book a car with child seats if needed, as buses don’t carry them.
Afternoon: Arrive, settle in, and head straight to Kep Beach for a low-key swim.
Stay: Kep.
Day 8: Rabbit Island
All day: Boat out to Rabbit Island (Koh Tonsay) for a full day on a quiet, mostly undeveloped beach — shallow, calm water that’s easy with young swimmers.
Stay: Kep.
Day 9: Crab Market & Kep National Park
Morning: A short, flat loop walk in Kep National Park — manageable for most kids, with the option to turn back early.
Midday: Lunch at the Kep crab market — whole crab cooked with Kampot pepper, ordered fresh from the stalls and eaten by the water.
Afternoon: Beach time, hotel pool.
Stay: Kep.
Day 10: Departure
Morning: Slow morning, last swim.
Midday: Private taxi back to Phnom Penh (3.5 hours) for your flight home.
Practical Notes
Getting around: Private taxis with a driver are worth the cost with children — flexible stops, air conditioning, and no waiting at bus stations. Budget $35–60 per journey between cities.
What to pack: Sun hats, high-SPF sunscreen, and motion-sickness tablets for the Kep road (it has some winding sections). A printed photocopy of each child’s passport is useful for hotel check-ins.
Budget guide:
- Budget: $50–80/day for a family of four
- Mid-range: $120–220/day (assumed for this itinerary, including a pool at every stop)
- Luxury: $300+/day
Book ahead: Family rooms and pool-equipped hotels in Kep are limited — book 2–3 weeks ahead in peak season (Dec–Feb).
