Raffles Grand Hotel D Angkor Siem Reap
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1 Vithei Charles de Gaulle, Khum Svay Dang Kum Siem Reap, Cambodia, 63-963888
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Traveler Photos of Raffles Grand Hotel D Angkor Siem Reap
Travel Blogs by Travelers Who Stayed at the Raffles Grand Hotel D Angkor Siem Reap
long bus journey to siam reap, but fairly good condition roads and bus sat 18th march Bought tickets to angkor wat complexes. spent the first of 3 days hardcoring it to see most of the main temples. most beautiful of which was angkor wat itself. its a huge complex and the state of preservation is amazing. the amount of hard carving that is on every surface is breathtaking. the most fun temple though was ta prohm otherwise known as the tombraider temple. its all overgrown with vegetation and i...
Siam reap, Cambodia doughboy
hello alors hier soir on n'a rien fait on est reste a l'appart a papoter today ct 1 peu imprevu : g prends 1 tuktuk pour aller de l'autre cote de la riviere car le guide du routard disait ke ct interessant ; ji suis alle et c tres pauvre et pas super imteressant alors avec le tuktuk on a fait le tour de la villle : en gros ct tuktuk avec chauffeur pdt 3 heures ; il est super adorable le tuktuk driver et il m'a emmene ou g voulais : grand hotel, monument de l'independance... super sympa et apr...
Phnom Penh, Cambodia enterreinconnue
Happy 40th birthday to Cindy..... Two of my "children" are 40 now. Wow. Who would have thought the mother of two 40 year olds could climb the Harbor Bridge? (I hope I did). I love you, angel girl. Happy Birthday. And, here are multiple cakes because it's also Alice's grand-daughter's 16th birthday!!!! Two precious girls celebrating their birthdays on the first day of spring. Here's a message for you, Stephanie. Dear, dear Stephanie, I want to wish you only the best on your Sweet Sixteenth bir...
Siem Reap, Cambodia gramcb
Pre-Trip Itinerary: Angkor Wat The great ruined cities of Angkor on the shores of the Tonle Sap stand in mute testimony to the power of the Khmer Empire. Built between the 9th and 15th centuries AD, this complex of temples, palaces and terraces is an architectural masterpiece. The great ruined cities of Angkor on the shores of the Tonle Sap stand in mute testimony to the power of the Khmer Empire. Built between the 9th and 15th centuries AD, this complex of temples, palaces and terraces is a...
Siem Reap, Cambodia gramcb
Christmas in Angkor has been truly an amazing experience for both of us. The first order of business is without a doubt the biggest of thank yous to Kristinas grandparents. They went out of their way to make sure that we would have a wonderfully luxurious treatment for the Christmas season and it was genuinely a treat. We have been traveling on a tight tight budget for 4 months now, and we rarely have a chance to let our hair down, let someone else do something for us, and not have to worry a...
Phnom Penh, Cambodia hancocjb
This is definitely one of the travel destinations I highly recommend to any tourists with interests in ancient civilizations, as well as cultural and architectural wonders. The top attractions of Siem Reap are no doubt the Angkor Wat and the numerous temples and palaces that exude the elegance and exuberance of the ancient Khmer civilization at its prime era. Almost all buildings have traces of both Buddhist and Hindi architecture elements, as sculptures and decorations continued to overlay o...
Siem Reap, Cambodia michelle.kwock
To lure both Adam and Andrew's mom to SE Asia, we had to do two trips to Angkor Wat (ancient capital of Cambodia, located next to Siem Reap). Angkor Round 1: We arrived from Luang Prabang, Laos with Adam on February 14. We booked ourselves into the Raffles Grand Hotel D'Angkor, one of the best hotels anywhere. Being Valentines day, Andrea and Andrew had a dinner alone at the Grand Hotel and went to the Apsara Dancing Buffet Dinner. The food was excellent as was the show. Adam went into town t...
Siem Reap, Cambodia mirandrea1
It's been a while since my last entry. On Friday the 25th I had breakfast as described before, after writing the last entry I decided to treat myself with a Traditional Thai massage right at the beach. Very nice indeed! Then I met up with Melissa for lunch (had some seafood Pad Thai) and headed to the diving school. Here I was picked up by a pickup truck that took me to the pier at Mae Hat. Here I got onto a 2 hour catamaran that took me to Chumphon on the mainland. From there I had to wait a...
Siem Reap, Cambodia ratmmmb
Yesterday we finally hit the dirt. As serious a 4x4 track as I have ever done. A jungle road and add to that warnings of unexploded land mines and it made for an exciting day. The route was called HWY 66. The Avalanche is the longest and widest vehicle on the event. Simon was first through the track and helped a local in a busted motor bike and gave him and his companion and motor bike a ride for 24 kilometers in the luggage rack. Along the way they cleared all the low hanging branches for me...
Siem Reap, Cambodia sallyboydHistorical Traveler Reviews of Raffles Grand Hotel D Angkor Siem Reap
Grand Angkor What?
I would strongly recommend May as a time to visit. It can be very hot although we live in Bali so are familiar with tropical climate and were lucky on this trip because the rainy season had come early with heavy rains several days before our arrival, which cooled things down. Angkor is getting very popular now that the region can be visted safely again and the joy of the low season, basically April through September with rain usually from June through September, is the lack of visitors. We were able to experience the true beauty of many temples in total solitude and to experience the sound of total silence. Unusually, especially for us Asian hands, not even the sound of cicadas. The side benefit is that the room rates in all the hotels are lower at this time and the hotels are also less crowded. Incidentally, most tourists visit Angkor Wat in the late afternoon to "See" the sunset, which is actually nonsense because when facing the temple from the front main entrance which, of course is to the East, the sun sets behind you. Especially with this in mind, we recommend that it is well worth the pain of getting up early to watch the sun rise behind the temple and, again, to be totally alone in the experience.
Regarding the Grand Hotel, my wife and I have stayed in most of the finest hotels in the world and we would definitely include this amongst them. We read the earlier reviews with some trepidation before we left and can now only assume that all of the problems aired in these reviews have been fixed. The rooms are not the biggest or the best for sure, but there are architectuaral limitations in renovating such an old property. Remember that there are only 132 rooms, which fill up quickly during the high season but, during our stay there must have been only about 10 rooms occupied. This is not to support or justify predatory pricing but, at the end of the day, supply and demand applies also to the hotel business!!Our conclusion was that earlier reviewers must either be totally jaded (And should probably stay home) or else have no sense of romance. We loved this hotel and found the staff to be quite extraordinary at all levels. The fine dining restaurant was simply superb. The pool is almost Olympic size and the other facilities are also excellent.
On balance, we thought that this hotel was the best value for money also. We would recommend FCC for dinner also, but not Shinta Mani (ordinary) or Amansara (ordinary and highly overpriced). For information, the locals call Amansara "The prison hotel" because of the high walls and constantly locked gates!! In our view we made the correct decision not to stay in this Aman property, although we love them and highly recommend them in Bali, because the room rate of USD750 is not worth the price when you will be out most of the day exploring.
We would highly recommend the Grand hotel to anyone who has a sense of history and romance.
Grand old hotel
Not too great
The look of the hotel is great. Rooms are well decorated and the swimming pool is exceptional.
The food is very standard fair. I recommend journeying outside of the hotel for lunch and dinner. We went to Victoria Angkor Hotel for Lunch and Dinner.
The service is horrible. No one speaks English at a level that is useful for the guests. Many of the guests were frustrated with the staff members. We always had to refer to the Singaporean staff to get something done.
In addition, many of the staff are not very informed about the services offered at the hotel. For instance, I was directed to four staff members before someone was able to tell me when the Apsara Show at the hotel was taking place and he provided me with the wrong date and time.
For a luxury hotel, I was very disappointed. The hotels that I visited were all very nice and new, so if you are intending on visiting Angkor Wat, you should really look at other options.
Such a grand place
In the price of your room-meals are included. They have two different restaurants, the formal Cambodian French fustion place and a general buffet. The fusion restaurant is fantastic. The general buffet is nothing too special. They have a really nice pool. Gamalan musicians play around the pool at night. The Amarita spa is very overpriced.
A few nights a week, the hotel has an outdoor dinner with Cambodian/Apsara dancers in front of the hotel. This is a lot of fun.
The service at the hotel was really good. There is a desk near the reception where they can confirm your flight reservations.
There are so many hotels of this caliber in Siem Reap that are much cheaper-so unless you are going for a splurge or the experience, it's probably not worth it. But you should definately come to the Cambodian French restaurant for dinner no matter where you are staying. Also, make sure you make a reservation (that includes hotel guests)-it's very popular.
Resting on its Laurels!
The price is (truly) top dollar and for that one expects a level of service, sumptuous quality and rich ambience that is second to none. Admittedly the pool area is attractive, the hotel has easy access to town, the food is good, the legacy is rich, the service is attentive (but cold), but the overall experience left much to be desired.
In short, we stayed in the higher ends rooms that were austere making them not particularly comfortable or welcoming and were connected to corridors that were very noisy. The beds were basic and the showers randomly fluctated between boiling hot and cold. The gym in the hotel was dated and worn along with the pool furniture that was more akin to a hotel at a third of the price. Even though a meal plan was included it did not cover the price of one entree in the higher end restaurant and we had only one of three restaurants available as our first choice upon arrival.
Siem Reap and Angkor is incredible, but it is becoming discovered. With all the new hotel builing, this hotel can no longer rest on its laurels. We ended up with much better value at the Hotel Sofitel at nearly half the price.
Very disappointing
To be fair the hotel is on beautiful grounds, garden, pool, etc. And the lower level staff are genuinely polite, helpful, sincere, and always smiling. But the room is what I would consider a 3-star level at best for Asia. I understand Siem Reap is not Bali or Phuket, but at least they could have used better bedding, made sure the shower water does not turn hot and cold so much (and I stayed in the new wing, wondering what it's like in the old wing). I nearly scalded myself twice during my stay. I think if you're a senior person with slower reaction this could be very dangerous. I reported this situation to the management and was promised they would look into it. But I never heard back from anyone and the next day exact same thing. It must be something that's not fixable.
Many minor problems also made me not want to return to this hotel. For example on the day of arrival we were told that the only restaurant open for lunch had no tables left indoors, even though it was 2/3 empty we were told "all the tables had been booked by tour groups". Mind you it was 34 degrees Celsius that day and outdoor was just not acceptable. They did finally made room for us indoors after much complaining. But I find it hard to believe a resort hotel would treat their guest this way. Not like the Raffles I've heard of in other cities.
Even though we didn't stay at other hotels in town on this trip, we did try the Sofitel lunch and compared to the Raffles buffet lunch it was much better in quality and selection, at about the same price (maybe even a bit less). Sorry Raffles, you're not so grand in Siem Reap.
Great Hotel/Bad Company
We stayed here for about a week. The building is beautiful and the Staff are charming and brilliant. However no-one wants to leave a country and then feel you've short-changed the people you visited.
I would advise anyone to stay here. However the managment of the Raffles group is not so good. The staff are paid about 80 US dollars a month. Visitors are changed (as happens elsewhere) a service change (say when you order a drink).
As the service is so great you are happy to pay this. However none of this goes to the staff (it all goes to the hotel). Recently all of the staff were fired because they requested (in accordance with Cambodian law) that they receive the sevice charge. Even institutions such as the normally not leftish US-based Republic Institute came out in support.
Cambodia is a poor country, and if this Hotel is great it is because of the wonderful people who work there. As a guest of the hotel it has tarnished my experience to find out the above after rather than before I visited.
I would highly recommend this hotel, but when visitors pay Cambodian staff for being great they want the money to go to them, not some company based in Singapore.
Truly Wonderful Raffles
The little wrought iron lift in the lobby is so quaint and although you don't really need to use it, you just have to because it is so gorgeous.
We stayed in a Landmark Room, the decor of which was very much in keeping with the 1920's theme.
Staff, food, service, tourist information, everything - wonderful and totally in keeping with what we have come to expect from Raffles Hotels.
Siem Reap was on our list of places to visit before we die and it really was everything and more than we expected. The Cambodian people are a delight although the realisation that the war has only been over such a relatively short time is very apparent when you see the number of land mine victims.
The temples which are a "must" - Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat, Banteay Srey & Ta Prohm gives you a good overview of the different styles. A helicopter ride gives you a great aerial perspective of the sheer size of the temples. The silk farm is well worth a visit as is the floating fishing village at Tongle Sap lake.
Shop at Les Artisans D'Angkor - best quality and the money goes back to the locals.
Try to get to the "Khmer Kitchen" restaurant (down a little alley to the left of the Soup Dragon in Siem Reap town) - worth the effort to find - the best food ever and so reasonably priced.
Enjoy
Simply FANTASTIC
Go to Cambodia this is a sfe hospitable country and its tuly an awesome destination.
Mike.
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