HotelChatter

Tags: Siem Reap Hotel Guide / Cambodia Hotels / Luxury Hotels / Raffles Hotels / → All Tags

Siem Reap Hotel Guide :: Raffles, In Contrast, Is Fit For A Queen

Where: 1 Vithei Charles de Gaulle , Siem Reap, Cambodia

Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor provides what's expected of it...no more and no less. Like Amansara nearby, the hotel focuses on understatement to liken itself to royal tastes and emphasize its subtle class. The hotel's sterile, colonial exterior continues inside the building's hallways and guest rooms. The result is a removed feeling from the air and bustle of Siem Reap--welcome to some and disconcerting to others.

Still, it's the best way to see how high society of yesterday (and today) experience Angkor, from a safe, removed distance. The newly-built extension continues the hotel's austere feel that the more critical might (and do) call "uninspired." The rear gardens resemble a place where Queen Elizabeth might let her basset hounds roam. And the buiscuits served at tea resemble something she might serve her guests, though the confections seem a bit too rich for such a disciplined woman.