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Kulen Mountain and Tonle Sap: Angkor's Birthplace Tour
5.0
30 Ratings
Siem Reap
Embark on a private tour of Phnom Kulen Park and Kampong Phluk village. Explore the lost capital city of the Khmer Empire, witness stunning waterfalls, and experience the unique floating village lifestyle.
Duration:
9 hours
Cancellation:
1 day
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Highlights
- Siem Reap - Start your journey with a convenient pickup service from your hotel between 8:00 AM and 8:30 AM. Travel via a shared vehicle to Phnom Kulen National Park. Journey through rural Cambodian villages and observe locals going about their everyday lives and admire beautiful landscapes such as rice paddies and traditional dwellings. Stop at the most authentic village of Phum Preah Dak where you can learn how the local people make traditional palm cake.
- Phnom Kulen National Park - Continue to the hilltop of Phnom Kulen as your knowledgeable local guide takes you to the most spectacular tourist attractions in the national park, including the largest and most beautiful waterfalls, the reclining Buddha sculpture, and the River of Thousand Linga, which was constructed in 802 AD.
- Phnom Kulen Waterfall - After exploring, stop for a picnic at a nearby waterfall, where you can enjoy grilled chicken with seasonal fruits. Vegetarian options are also available.
- Kampong Phluk Floating Village - Finish lunch and see the most beautiful landscape of Kulen Mountain’s cliff before heading to the famous floating village of Kampong Phluk. Take a local boat to explore the flooded mangrove forest, home to a variety of species and 3,000 inhabitants. Visit a Buddhist monastery built on an artificial island.
- Siem Reap - Finally, you’ll be dropped off at your hotel, concluding this day of adventure and cultural immersion.
What's Included
- Professional English speaking tour guide
- Vegetarian option available
- Picnic lunch (Grilled chicken with jasmine rice) & Seasonal fruits
- Transportation with air-conditioned minivan or minibus
- Cool bottle of water and cool towel
What's Not Included
- Phnom Kulen mountain pass: $20 per person
- Tonle Sap pass & a shared boat ride: $15 per pax
- Soft drinks
- Tips (optional)
Additional Information
Explore Kulen Mountain and Tonle Sap. Discover Angkor’s birthplace. Ascend the mountain, admire views, relax by the waterfall, enjoy a picnic, and take a boat ride to Kampong Phluk floating village.
-Discover the birth place of Khmer Empire at Kulen Mountain
-Visit waterfalls, Reclining Buddha statue and 1000 Shiva Linga’s river
-Enjoy a picnic lunch at a nearby waterfall
-Boat ride to floating village of Kampong Phluk, Tonle Sap lake
-Interact with the locals, witness rural life, and taste the palm cake
- Bring a swimming suite or towel if you take a shower at the Kulen waterfall.
- The end of March to the end of June is a crucial time in all the floating villages in Siem Reap, as the water levels start to recede and present a unique opportunity for tourists to experience a new perspective. Although the picturesque landscape of the floating community may lose some of its charm during this time, visitors have a chance to immerse themselves in the daily life of the villagers living in the dried season. While some boats may become stuck, and smaller canoes are unable to traverse the jungle forest, these challenges add to the thrill of the experience. The dry season in floating village of Kompong Phluk may not be the ideal time to visit for those seeking postcard-perfect photos, but it offers a chance to witness a facet of the village’s daily life that is not typically seen. As they say, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We recommend visitors to embrace this rare chance to witness a different facet of this incredible destination and truly get a different taste of life in the village.
- For lunch, there is a vegetarian option like fried rice vegetable with eggs and fried spring rolls, but no vegan.
- Children are under 10 years old are not suitable to participate our small-group tour option.
Location
Siem Reap
Cancellation Policy
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.
Customer Ratings
5.0
(30 Ratings)
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Sherpa08618075884
Aug 10, 2024
A wonderful journey in the heart of Cambodia - A wonderful journey with the nicest guide. He gave to this journey amongst an extraordinary nature a rich cultural background. It gave us a better understanding of the relationship between the people and their beliefs. The picnic was succulent and ecological . Our guide, Mr Sa was a very kind person. Kind with us and kind in generally to the persons we encountered. Finally, the local activity provider was easy to contact and helpful.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Beka273
Jul 21, 2024
Great day, every stop was super - The whole day was good. Big highlight was the spot Mr Jan chose for lunch; incredible views and felt very special, I loved how we picked up the food locally on route too. Jan was friendly informative and offered to take photos throughout. Kulen waterfall was incredible- definitely take swim stuff!
Highly recommend
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Itan00
Jul 4, 2024
Excellent tour to get a glimpse of Mt Kulen and Tonle Sap (Kampong Phluk) at same time - Highly recommended tour. The mountain is still very natural. The temple with statue carved in the rock is impressive and the stop for picnic lunch by the waterfall is nice (food prepared by local family to help them earn some income).
Visit to Tonle Sap to see the village life is nice and an eye opener. Thanks to the friendly tour guide Mr Sa.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Sunnyallday
Jun 26, 2024
Don’t miss this tour! - Brilliant informative tour. Waterfalls, mountain and picnic lovely. Boat trip on Tonle Sap with floating village should not be missed to get a real flavour of Cambodian life. Sotin our guide was very informative with great English. Definitely recommend this tour company as I booked less than 24 hours but had a swift confirmation and picture of tour guide within 5 minutes of booking.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jennilyn
Jun 25, 2024
Amazing tour - It’s a beautiful day. If you come to Siem Reap after visiting all the important temples and you want to just relax and enjoy the day with nature, join this tour. Tour guide and driver (Mony and Tra) will look after you best. They will make you feel extra special, they know the locals and would guide you to the most affordable food and products/souvenirs (we bought the glow in the dark bracelet). We stopped by a shop that sells the best palm cake, went to see the river with 1000 Lingas with its history of course well explained by Mony. We also get to see the reclining Buddha and visited the Kullen mountain. We were amased by the presence of rock formations similar to what you can see close to the ocean. So happy seeing lots of yellow, black, brown and white butterflies as well! We swam close to the water falls and had a picnic. We ate yummy freshly cooked barbecue chicken, spring rolls, rice (of course) and fruits as a bonus. The tour was well organised. It would be much better if you take the private tour but joining the group tour should still be fine. This one is highly recommended.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Heidi_w
Jun 5, 2024
Stunning Views, Excellent Trip - We had a wonderful trip with our guide Seila, he was friendly, helpful and knowledgeable throughout, making us feel safe and comfortable. He was not only a wonderful guide but also took some wonderful pictures of us. The trip is a full day packed with experiencing many things to make the most of your time. This included stopping off in a local village for cakes, the Kulen Mountain View’s are breathtaking, seeing the reclining Buddha complex, and the waterfall with a fruit basket picnic and opportunity to swim in the waterfall which we did (quite the walk back up!).
Before the trip I notified the tour I am vegetarian, however they didn’t seem aware of this on the day and mentioned they would usually get chicken at a certain place, so felt slightly like we missed out on a foodie stop with no alternative. Due to this, we opted out of the restaurant stop too.
After this was a visit to the floating village, which even though it was dry season was super interesting to see, and had a boat ride out onto Tonle Sap. The only thing I would say is perhaps the Tonle Sap part would be better value for money when it wasn’t dry season as we were told the boat ride would have been much much longer.
Overall a fantastic trip I would recommend to see the beautiful landscapes of Cambodia.
Review provided by Viator
Navy_m
Jan 31, 2024
Kulen mountain and floating village excursions - Our guide Mr Sam was helpfull and very flexible. He is nice and knows a lot. I highly recommend him.
Review provided by Viator
Navyv2021
Jan 30, 2024
Kulen and floating village excursion - Our tour guide was nice and very acknowledged. His important qualities are flexibility and helpfulness. I highly recommend Sam Ath.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jet62613590589
Jan 28, 2024
A must! - What an amazing day! I was picked up by my fabulous guide, Sam, accompanied by super good and safe driver Trea. Sam was extremely knowledgeable and willing to share information about the tour, what we were doing next, and give details about the licatuins. He has an amazing sense of humour and great English.
The tour itself surpassed my expectations! I recommend it 100%. You get to see so much of the Kulen mountain, from various standpoints, the village on stilts was incredible as well as the boat ride. I could gush about today forever.
Do not miss this incredible tour.
Review provided by Tripadvisor
Jv71684
Jan 19, 2024
Service oriented and informative - Had an amazing time on this tour (i personally call it peak to lake tour). A few minutes swim in the waterfall is a must, so bring some bathers and towels. The floating village and way of life of people living in the lake was very intersting to learn. These two locations are hard to find combined in one tour, it allowed us to effeciently cover as much spots as possible with-in our limited amount of time. But this tour would not be at 5 stars with-out our ever so knowledgable tour guide, Borin and driver, Sothea. They are more than 5 stars. If you want info, personalized serviced and a lot of instagramable photos; you need Borin & Sothea in your team. Thanks once again for a great day trip experience. Hope to see you in our next trip tomorrow (cross-fingers).
Review provided by Tripadvisor
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