History

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Cambodia, in One Sentence The alarm went at 4:30 and I almost ignored it. But we dragged ourselves out of the guesthouse in Siem Reap, climbed into a tuk-tuk in the dark, and joined a few hundred quiet strangers on the edge of a reflecting pool. Then the sky behind Angkor Wat’s five towers turned from charcoal to rose to fire, doubled perfectly in the water, and nobody said a word. It was late December, the air dry and almost cool, and I understood in that moment why everyone bangs on about the timing here. Come in the wrong month and that same sunrise is a sweaty, hazy scrum. Come in the right one and it is the best morning of the trip. ...

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you make a booking through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. The Best Time to Visit Egypt, in One Sentence I’ll never forget standing on the Giza plateau just after the gates opened in late November, the sandstone glowing gold, the morning air still cool enough for a jacket, and almost nobody around. By midday the tour buses had arrived and the sun had real bite, but that first hour, with the Great Pyramid looming silent above me, was worth getting up at dawn for. I’d deliberately skipped the Christmas crowds and the summer furnace, and Egypt rewarded me for it. ...