Best place to stay at Angkor Vat Siem Reap, The Bayon Villa

We were here for 3 days for visiting world’s largest temple complex, Angkor Vat. Cambodia is often called ‘The kingdom of wonder’ and the ruins of Angkor Vat can probably be the reason for it. It is so huge that the sites are spread over tens of kilometres, makes it indeed a wonder city. Sitting on a Tuk-Tuk, a friendly 4 seat extension contraption, behind your regular motor bike, and taking the rounds of these ruins, does make you feel of being in wonder land. But those details later, my intention of writing this post is to introduce you with this lovely place which hosted us, during our stay of 3 nights.

The Bayon Villa

We booked this place via Booking.com and got a good deal. It is rated as 9.7 which is really a great rating, considering that close to 200 people have rated it. So lets get down to the regular drill list, plus-es, things to watch out for, so on and so forth.

1. Price – 5/5

So many of hotel bookings, have resulted in some loyalty points, genuis-discounts as booking.com people say it. And we did book it ahead of time. With all caveats done, we got the place for USD 132 for a total of 3 nights. I would suggest that any price under USD 60 for a day, is a great deal for this hotel

While we always plan ahead of time and were able to secure a good deal from Booking.com for ‘Bayon Villa, Siem Reap”, I would suggest that you do take some time and look for search for online coupons. Recently the folks from Latestindiandeals.in, reached out to me and I could see a lot of relevant travel related coupons which you can use

2. Location – 5/5

The reality check. No one aspires to be in Siem Reap for the city. Everyone comes here to go and experience the Angkor Vat. The temple complex is a bit away from the main city (under 30 minutes TukTuk ride) but then the reality is that after you done with all the walking and awe-ing on the scale, the craftsmanship, the stories, you look forward to some un-wind time. And for that, the city has a great street, aptly called, ‘Pub Street’. Good news is that the ‘Pub Street, as well as the other city-city places like Siem Reap night market is just a walk-away. They are about 1 KM and would take about 10 minutes. And after your evening revelry, if you are feeling too tired, any TukTuk will be happy to drop you back for USD 2 (for the whole Tuk Tuk).

3. Rooms and open spaces – 4/5

From what I could guess/see, there are four rooms. The whole place is a 3 storey building. Ground floor has the hosts + kitchen. There are two sets of stairs. Each lead to the solitary room on 2nd floor and the 3rd floor. Each room has a balcony, a good sit-out for evenings. Room itself is pretty large, with a large double-bed (not like the short queen beds you see all over Europe), chairs, mini-bar, TV (though it didn’t really really work for us) and more. We requested for an additional bed for our 11 year old and it was all set before we walked-in. The room was big enough to accommodate it. Crisp-clean sheets, toiletries, and a clean loo, was all we were looking for. And we got all of it,

View from the top

Balcony

Loo, Clean and Functional

Room

Dining Hall , Gazebo

The delight was that mini-bar was stocked (water, beer, coke) and it was FREE. In my traveling life, I do not recall anyone ever offering me a Free Beer or Coke.

The ground floor, has a nice large Gazebo to sit and interact with other guests. If you are driving down, then you can possibly park the car inside.

Unlike big hotels, there are no large lawns, or re-creational areas, so plan for it.

4. Food – 5/5

Breakfast was part of deal and they give you three options to choose from, viz. Bread-Eggs-Bacon-Tomato, Bread-Muesli-Eggs, Chicken Noodles. All of them come with a fresh juice, seasonal fruits and tea/coffee. There is no buffet and plan your time accordingly.

Menu

The place also offers a few local dishes like Khmer Chicken Curry, Pineapple Fried rice, Amok and more as a-la-carte. We did try a few of them and they were all really really good. Though food is very good, I would recommend that food is best have at the city restaurants (look for V Design restaurant, in Pub-Street area).

5. Hospitality / Service – 5/5

And now comes the most important part of the whole deal. We were offered a complimentary pick-up deal at airport. That is really a blessing, especially when you are coming from a different country. As we got in, nice cold towel were waiting for us along with a potion of a fresh juice. Our rooms were ready. All through the hosts, Michael and So Kheng, were more than ready to help us with any small things we needed. Whether it was helping us to fix a Tuk-Tuke for the temple-trail, or to get the bus tickets for Phnom Penh. We were able to spend some time during the evenings and it was an extremely rewarding experience to know more of Cambodia from Michael.

So all in all, the place comes with a high recommendation and on your visit to Angkor, do check ‘The Bayon Villa’. I hope this was useful