Review of Angkor Village Hotel, by Caroline Major

The Angkor Village Hotel is a luxury retreat situated among lush gardens in Cambodia, providing the perfect getaway from an urban environment. Immediately striking are the charming, happy staff of this chic hotel, who greet guests in traditional Khmer dress. Their relaxed attitude towards service compliments the slow pace of this tropical oasis in Angkor Village.

The facilities

The verdant gardens flanking Angkor Village are breathtaking at this luxury retreat. Beautiful shades of lush greens in pleasing stands are punctuated by clusters of crimson ginger flowers, white lilies and clutches of orchids. Large trees front the cottage style room pavilions screen balconies and terraces, cocooning rooms in a lush, hushed privacy. The plant filled courtyard also has a 200-metre long serpent pool- the perfect solution to the Cambodian heat.

The rooms

Choose a room upstairs at the luxury retreat, for your own quaint balcony overlooking the swimming pool. Because the Angkor Village Hotel is built along the flanks of the pool, all rooms have views of it. Designed in the style of a traditional Khmer rice barn, each "cottage" is in fact a cluster of four rooms, two up, two down. Upstairs rooms rise to a rather quaint pyramid in the centre while those downstairs content themselves with a flat but soaring ceiling. While neither style is huge, they are more than comfortable, particularly when the front doors to the pool are opened out.