Great Tour of Angkor Wat
This was one of the best tours I went on in Siem Reap. You'll find no shortage of people offering a similar tour of the major Angkor sites -- Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Bayon, and a few additional miscellaneous sites for $15-$20pp. What makes this tour great is the level of customer service.
The guide (Sothea) was very friendly, from hotel pick-up to hotel drop-off. He was timely, gave just the right amount of history and talked about each of the sites as we saw them, and was pleasurable to be around. He always looked out for each of the people on the tour to make sure they saw everything and that they didn't get lost (although a few did, sorry Sothea!).
Having been on other tours in Siem Reap with other companies, two things really stand out on why you should tour with Sothea / Green Era:
1) He is generous with water bottles. EVERY site stop, Sothea and the bus driver were physically handing out water and making sure everyone had a nice cold bottle of water to take with them. Compared to the cost of the tour, a few bottles of water are cheap, but make for an enjoyable experience as it is hot walking around in the sun for hours. I was on 2 other full day tours with other companies, and the guides hoarded water like you'd guard a pile of cash -- rationing out 1 single bottle per person for the whole day. One literally even asked me what I thought I was doing when I grabbed a second bottle mid-day. Sothea's water generosity in looking after his guests' health & comfort definitely stood out among his peers.
2) Pictures! Our group happened to be 4 couples and a trio. Sothea was always offering photos, photos, and more photos. That's what you come to a place like Angkor Wat to do, take photos to remember your trip. The other company tour guides rushed everyone along, never offered to take photos for couples, and on one tour the guide even refused when a couple asked (claiming he "wasn't good at taking photos"). Looking through my album, Sothea probably took about 60 photos for my travel buddy and me. My tours with other companies? Zero :(
If my words aren't enough, you can look at tips. When Sothea dropped everyone off, he got out, opened the door for them, thanked them for choosing him as their tour guide, and without request EVERY couple passed him $5-$10. My 2 tours with other companies, on one nobody at all tipped the guide, and the other everyone only gave a dollar when the guide directly said it was "time to tip".
Choose Green Era & Sothea, you'll be happy.
Review of: Small-Group Explore Angkor Wat Tour with Guide from Siem Reap
Written Feb 27, 2018