Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor

The Hotel

The Grand Hotel d'Angkor opened on 1 March 1932 as the first international-standard hotel ever built in Cambodia, commissioned by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (the French archaeological institute that managed the Angkor restoration through the colonial period) to host visiting archaeological-and-diplomatic guests. The building, designed by French architect Ernest Hébrard in the Art Deco-meets-colonial-French vocabulary, stands directly opposite the Royal Residence Gardens at 1 Vithei Charles de Gaulle, two blocks east of the Old Market. Charlie Chaplin spent his honeymoon here with Paulette Goddard in March 1936; Jacqueline Kennedy stayed during her famous 1967 first visit to Angkor; the Norodom royal family used the hotel as the principal foreign-press accommodation through the 1960s. Singapore's Raffles Hotels group acquired the property in 1997 and completed a comprehensive restoration in 1998 that preserved the original 1932 Hébrard architecture, the cage-elevator, the original Cuban-mahogany flooring, and the property's signature 1,500-square-metre formal gardens.

The 119 rooms — including 25 suites — are arranged across the original 1932 building (76 Heritage rooms with restored period furnishings) and the 1998 Cabana Wing (43 rooms in the addition along the south-east garden, with contemporary marble bathrooms). Standard categories begin at 35 square metres in Heritage and at 42 in Cabana; the State Suite at 110 square metres is the milestone unit, in the original 1932 wing with an outdoor balcony overlooking the Royal Gardens; the named Personality Suites (Charlie Chaplin Suite, Jacqueline Kennedy Suite, André Malraux Suite, Somerset Maugham Suite) are the booking categories for travellers who want the heritage register at the suite tier. Bathrooms in Heritage are travertine and brass; in Cabana, contemporary marble. Bath products are Aviance Singapore, Raffles' signature.

The Restaurant Le Grand is the named fine-dining room — opened with the hotel in 1932 in the original Hébrard ballroom — running a contemporary Cambodian-French tasting register. Café d'Angkor handles the all-day brasserie programme. The Elephant Bar — the building's most photographed interior, with the original 1932 mahogany counter and a deliberately Cambodian-meets-colonial decorative scheme — is the unambiguous Siem Reap cocktail-and-aperitivo destination, with the Cambodia Sling (the Raffles invention specifically for Siem Reap) as the signature drink. The Royal Pool at the centre of the gardens (the largest hotel pool in Siem Reap at 35 metres) and the Raffles Spa (eight treatment rooms, including the only authentic Khmer-tradition treatment programme in any Siem Reap five-star) complete the wellness layer.

The Royal Gardens position is the booking decision relative to Amansara's Road-to-Angkor address. The Raffles is in central Siem Reap proper, two minutes by car or eight minutes on foot to the Old Market and Pub Street, four minutes to the Royal Residence Gardens (the address is opposite), and 12 minutes by car to Angkor Wat (versus Amansara's 12 minutes — both properties are roughly equidistant from the temples by motor vehicle). For travellers wanting the heritage-grand-hotel-and-central-Siem-Reap brief over the Aman discreet-resort-and-Road-to-Angkor brief, Raffles is the unambiguous answer. Amansara is the discreet alternative; Raffles is the central-and-heritage answer.

Best Occasion Fit

Practical Information

Also Great in Siem Reap