I'm pulling most of my information from wikitravel.org anyone have any experience or pointers?

How are you traveling and where are you thinking of going to? I traveled there for a month...

I have been many times, are you looking for temples, beaches or cities ?If you want to fly I would think the cheapest way would be to fly to Thailand and bus it from there.....you could bus the whole way but its far! How long do you want to go for?

howdy! Thanks for the responses. I have about 2 weeks. Siem reap and phnom penh were on my to do list. I would love to see temples, beaches, AND cities. What would you suggest for a 2 week time frame? Which city would you fly to in Thailand for the bus? How long is the bus? Any information from your best experiences there would be appreciated.

I went to Cambodia direct from Kunming with a 1 hour layover in Nanning, Guangxi.

www.hugoyunnantravel.com/des_cambodia.asp

Depends on how much time you want in temples. I spent 5 days around Siam Reap and didn't see everything, the place is huge. By the end of that though I was pretty templed out! Its still a must see/go place though, completely awesome.

Phnom Penh isn't that amazing of a city, I wouldn't recommend staying there for longer than necessary as there are much nicer places in the country.

There are some nice places in the South though! Sihanoukville is OK, a bit too many touts etc but still a nice beach and not too bad. Kampot is a cute little town and I would recommend it for a couple of days! There is an old hill place you can stay up out of Kampot - Bokor which is really cool too, again a high recommendation. In the north you can still head up to Preah Vihear temple, I believe, but it is most likely full of army guys with guns pointed towards Thailand still (its a disputed area), which takes a lot away from the place. But it does have some bullet hole ridden temple sides - it was one of the last places occupied by the Khmer Rouge.

Khmer people are pretty awesome, very motivated and ingenious but let down by years of successive wars and a fairly inept government. If you are traveling out of the tourist areas be prepared for some poverty - I was asked if I wanted to buy peoples children many times. Plus if you come across any older army guys keep away from them.

Siam Reap is completely not like the rest of the country economically or from a services viewpoint. Its the only place in the country westerners can really feel "taken care of" other than a few hotels in Phnom Penh as well.

Oh yeah - there are literally hundreds of only barely explored other temples off the tourist path, but you have to be very vigilante about keeping on formed paths as there is still UXO all over the place. I saw about 10 teams of UXO clearers when I was there, pretty hard core!

Pretty much agree with blobbles, ...With 2 weeks i might check out flying from here(kunming) to siam reap.. 2-3 days of temples is enough for me...couple tips on ankor...go the night before the day you want to go and buy tickets for the next day(S) ..they will let you in for free that night...also do you temple tour backwards start away from the main temples and work your way back,that way you miss all the Koreans and Chinese in tour buses!....where me and Blobbs disagree is Phenom Phen, Its awesome!! Its cool to really get down and dirty with some partying...great food, fun guesthouses, really fun locals, and a crazy night life! stay away from the hookers..and cocaine(its heroin)..do try the happy pizzas!! Then the beach, start in Sihanoukville...fun for some beach boozing...i would recommend you hire a boat and get your island hooping on!! also a nice place to rent a motorbike! an hour down the coast will be alot more peacefull than SV!

@rojosuave You would need to fly into Bangkok for the bus to Cambodia, then again, the vast majority of flights into Thailand land in Bangkok first, due to the Thai government's unofficial primate city policy where everything including transportation is centered around the Thai capital.

Anyway, right now there is a daily Bangkok-Siem Reap bus service that leaves from the main Mo Chit bus terminal. Unfortunately, the Bangkok-Phnom Penh service has been temporarily suspended but at least the Siem Reap service, which takes about 6-7 hours including the border crossing, is still running. That would be the way to go I think. Sure there are other options like taking a separate bus/train or minivan to the border and then joining another bus or taxi on the Cambodian side, but that is too complicated and usually more expensive for most people - stick to the cross-border bus especially if you are heading there for the first time - it provides fewer opportunities for scammers. However, make sure you only pay US$20 for the visa (unless you want a business visa, which is US$25) and no more. Get your visa inside Cambodia after Thai immigration, refuse all offers for "help"; you don't need it, it's quicker if you do it yourself anyway and most importantly the scammers will charge you more! That's how they make their money.