Siem Reap Nightlife: Best Bars, Pub Street and Night Shows 2026

Once the sun goes down, tourists, expats and locals all end up in the same few streets around the Old Market. Most visitors spend the morning at Angkor Wat, nap through the hottest hours, and come back out once the lanterns go on along the Siem Reap River. This guide covers what is actually open in November 2026. That means the bars, the shows, the night markets that have reopened (and the one that has not), what things cost in rupees, and how to get home safely.

On this page: At a glance | Pub Street hour by hour | Best bars and clubs | Phare and Apsara shows | Night tours | Night markets | What to drink | Late-night food | Money | Safety | Getting back | One night plan | By traveller type

Siem Reap nightlife at a glance

Rupee figures use US$1 = Rs 95. Check the live rate before you travel.

Pub Street after dark: hour by hour

Pub Street is a single short block between Sivatha Boulevard and the Old Market, closed to traffic in the evening so the bars can spill tables onto the road. Bars face each other across the road, each playing louder music than the last, and on a Tuesday it looks much the same as on a Saturday. The crowd changes by the hour, though, and knowing that is the difference between a pleasant family dinner and walking a 7-year-old past a bucket-cocktail party.

The street prices are low by any Indian city standard. Typical November 2026 rates, as reported by travellers and long-stay expats:

For the history of the street, its restaurants and its daytime side, read our full Pub Street guide. This page covers the whole night out in Siem Reap.

Best bars, clubs and rooftops in Siem Reap

Siem Reap does not have the big-ticket clubs of Bangkok or Ho Chi Minh City. Its bars are small, cheap and close together, so you can walk between most of them in five minutes. These are the places we would send a friend, grouped from loud to quiet.

Angkor What? (now closed)

"Angkor What?", a clever play on the most famous name in Cambodia, was the very first bar on Pub Street, opening in 1998, and its graffiti-covered walls were a backpacker landmark for 25 years. siemreap.net's October 2026 Pub Street guide lists it as closed, though many older guides still send people there. For the same loud, late, cheap-beer night, go to Temple Club next door.

Temple Club

Temple Club, in the middle of Pub Street, works as two venues in one evening. Upstairs, a traditional Apsara dance show runs nightly from about 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm and is free to watch as long as you order food or a drink from the menu. Later the ground floor turns into one of the town's busiest dance bars, peaking between 11 pm and 2 am and running into the early hours on weekends. It is the easiest way to see Apsara on a budget, though the setting is a bar, not a theatre.

Red Piano

Red Piano sits on the corner of Pub Street with a first-floor balcony that is the best seat for watching the crowd below. It is famous for a "Tomb Raider" cocktail, named after Angelina Jolie's visits while she was filming Lara Croft: Tomb Raider at Ta Prohm in 2000. It is calmer than the bars around it and serves food all day, which makes it a good pick for a group with mixed plans.

X-Bar

X-Bar is the rooftop on the corner of Sok San Road and Sivatha Boulevard, a 5-minute walk from Pub Street. It has a skateboard half-pipe on the roof (boards for rent), pool tables and a crowd that arrives after the Pub Street bars start closing. It holds 4.2 stars from 800+ Google reviews (November 2026). Treat it as the last stop, not the first.

Laundry Bar

Laundry Bar on Street 26, just north of the Old Market, is where expats go when Pub Street gets too loud. It runs from about 4 pm to 2 am, with DJs and regular live music nights, so check its Facebook page for the week's line-up. It holds a 4.6-star Google rating (November 2026). In the June to October low season it sometimes shuts before midnight, so go earlier on a quiet weeknight.

Miss Wong

Miss Wong is a small, red-lantern cocktail bar styled on a 1930s Shanghai lounge. It has moved from its old home in The Lane to Street 26 in the Wat Bo area, across the river and a short tuk-tuk ride from Pub Street. Martinis are the house strength, though the cocktail list is long, and the jasmine-tea syrup they use in several drinks is worth asking about. Cocktails cost about US$5. It opens Tuesday to Sunday from 5 pm to midnight (closed Mondays), and it has a long reputation as a gay-friendly bar.

Asana Old Wooden House

Off the lane between Pub Street and Street 7, Asana is unlike most places in Siem Reap. It is a 1960s Khmer wooden family house fitted out with couches, reclining chairs, floor divans and hammocks, so it feels more like a friend's living room than a bar. The bar makes cocktails with Khmer herbs, lemongrass and rice spirit, and runs a cocktail-making class if you book ahead.

Elephant Bar, Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor

For a quieter, dressier evening, the Elephant Bar at Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor has been the town's classic cocktail bar for decades. Happy hour runs daily from 4 pm to 6 pm, when selected drinks are half price. Outside that window, expect about US$10 to 15 (Rs 950 to Rs 1,425) a cocktail. It is a 10-minute tuk-tuk ride from Pub Street and a good start for honeymooners before dinner.

Mad Monkey pub crawl and Pub Street street bars

Solo travellers who want company should look at the pub crawl from the Mad Monkey hostel, around US$12 (Rs 1,140) with some drinks included. It runs on set nights of the week (listings show Monday and Friday), meeting at about 8 pm, so check the day at the hostel. For the cheapest beer in town, the open-front bars along Pub Street pour US$0.50 draughts during happy hour, and you can sit with your feet in a fish spa tank next door.

Night shows: Phare Circus and Apsara dance

The two best evenings in Siem Reap are both shows, and both work for families. Phare is modern and physical. Apsara is classical and slow. If you have two nights, do one of each.

Phare, The Cambodian Circus

Phare is the show most travellers rate as their best night in Siem Reap. The big top stands on Ring Road, south of Sok San Road, about 2 km from Pub Street, which is 10 to 20 minutes and US$3 to 5 (Rs 285 to Rs 475) by tuk-tuk. The performers are young Cambodians trained at Phare Ponleu Selpak, a Battambang arts school founded in 1994 by former refugees who had learned to draw in a camp on the Thai border, and every show tells a Khmer story through acrobatics, theatre, live music and juggling under a big top. Section A gives reserved seats in the front half of the middle block (US$38 adult, US$18 child). Section B is open seating behind it (US$28 / US$15). Section C costs US$18 / US$10, and some seats there have pillars partly in the way. Arrive 30 minutes early for B and C so you get a clear view.

Apsara dance shows

Apsara is a centuries-old Khmer tradition and part of Cambodian heritage, the same celestial dancers you will have seen carved on the walls of Angkor Wat that morning. The performance can be folk, classical or shadow puppet dance. Several restaurants and theatres around Sivatha Boulevard run nightly buffet-and-dance packages, and the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor stages a dinner show on set nights of the week. Book one with hotel pickup. Most packages bundle the tuk-tuk both ways.

Night tours you can book

If you would rather have someone else plan the evening, these are the most common night tours in Siem Reap, at typical 2026 listing prices:

Vegetarians should tell the food-tour operator when booking. Most will swap the meat stops for tofu, vegetable amok and fresh fruit. For the boat option, see our page on a river cruise in Siem Reap, and for the daytime plan, the full list of things to do in Siem Reap.

Night markets that are actually open in 2026

The original Angkor Night Market, with its rows of bamboo huts and bars, has not reopened since the pandemic, according to siemreap.net's October 2026 update. Many guides still list it. Go to these instead:

Bargain at Phalla and the Old Market, starting at about half the first price. Made in Cambodia stalls have fixed prices. For what to buy and what it should cost, see our guide to shopping in Cambodia.

What to drink in Siem Reap

Cambodia's most famous drink is Angkor beer, a light lager brewed in Sihanoukville and sold on every street in the country. Cambodia beer, Anchor and Kingdom are the other local names on the menu. For something you cannot get at home, try Sombai, a Siem Reap rice liqueur infused with fruit and spices and sold in hand-painted bottles. Its workshop in the Wat Damnak area is free to visit, and a guided tasting costs about US$5. Palm wine (sra thnot) is sold by roadside sellers outside town in the dry season, but it ferments fast, so drink it the same day or skip it.

Non-drinkers are well served. Fresh sugarcane juice (about US$0.50), coconut water and fruit shakes cost US$1 to 2 on Pub Street, and every bar makes mocktails.

Late-night food, including vegetarian and Indian

Pub Street's restaurants serve until 11 pm or later, and the fried-noodle and rolled-ice-cream carts work until the crowd goes home. Easy Khmer dishes to order vegetarian are vegetable amok (curry steamed in banana leaf), lok lak with tofu, and fried rice. Ask for no fish sauce (teuk trey) and no oyster sauce, because both go into many "vegetable" dishes by default.

There are Indian kitchens within a few minutes' walk of Pub Street, including Curry King at the top of the street and Vanakkam India nearby, and most offer a thali for a few dollars. Jain-friendly cooking is possible if you explain it to the kitchen before you order. Our list of Indian restaurants in Cambodia has more options in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh.

Money: dollars, riel and UPI

Every bar, tuk-tuk and market in Siem Reap prices in US dollars. Change below one dollar comes back in Cambodian riel at about 4,000 riel to the dollar, so a 2,000-riel note is worth roughly Rs 48. Carry US$1, US$5 and US$10 notes, and bring clean, untorn bills from India, because torn notes are often refused. Don't count on UPI at bars. Cards work in hotels and the better restaurants. Pub Street ATMs dispense dollars but add a fee per withdrawal, so take out more in one go.

A sample night out for one person:

Is Siem Reap safe at night? Scams, drugs and the law

Siem Reap is a low-risk town for a night out, and violent crime against tourists is rare. The common problems are small and avoidable.

• Bag snatching. Thieves on motorbikes target bags and phones held out of a moving tuk-tuk. Keep bags on your lap, on the side away from the road.

• The baby-milk scam. A woman with a baby asks you to buy formula at a nearby shop. The shop takes it back after you leave and splits the money. Give to a registered charity instead.

• Drinks. Watch your drink being poured and do not leave it unattended, especially in crowded clubs after midnight.

• "Happy" pizza and drugs. Some Pub Street menus still advertise "happy" pizza, which means cannabis. Drugs are illegal in Cambodia, the law is harsh, and nobody can tell you how strong a given pizza is. Don't order it.

• Solo women. Stay in the lit, busy section of Pub Street and The Lane, book tuk-tuks through an app so the trip is tracked, and share your ride with a friend.

• Emergency numbers. Police 117, ambulance 119. Keep your hotel card and the Embassy of India in Phnom Penh's contact details on your phone.

Getting back to your hotel

Most guides skip this part, but it decides how the night ends. Most Siem Reap hotels are 1 to 4 km from Pub Street. A tuk-tuk booked through PassApp or Grab shows the price before you ride, typically US$1.50 to 4 (Rs 140 to Rs 380) within town. PassApp tends to have more drivers in Siem Reap, and Grab may add a surge charge on busy nights. Street tuk-tuks outside the bars ask more after midnight, so agree the fare first. A remork (the larger tuk-tuk) seats four, which suits families. If your hotel is out on the airport road or in the countryside, ask reception to arrange a return ride before you go out.

One perfect night in Siem Reap

1. 4:45 pm. Buy your Angkor Pass after 4:45 pm and it also lets you in for that evening's sunset at no extra charge. A one-day pass is US$37 (Rs 3,515). Angkor Wat itself closes at 5:30 pm, so watch the sunset from Pre Rup or Phnom Bakheng instead. See our Angkor Wat guide for timings.

2. 6:30 pm. Tuk-tuk straight from the temple to Phare on Ring Road (about 30 to 40 minutes from Pre Rup). Happy hour at Elephant Bar ends at 6 pm, so save Raffles for another evening.

3. 7:00 pm. Eat at Phare Café on the circus site (Khmer dishes such as fish amok, and set menus you can pre-order with your tickets), then take your seats by 7:30 pm if you are in Section B or C.

4. 8:00 pm. Phare, The Cambodian Circus. Book seats a day ahead in December and January.

5. 9:15 pm. Tuk-tuk to the Old Market (10 to 20 minutes, US$3 to 5) and walk through Phalla Angkor Night Market on the way to Pub Street.

6. 10:30 pm. Cross the river for a cocktail at Miss Wong on Street 26 (open to midnight, closed Mondays), or stay on Pub Street for Temple Club if you have the energy.

7. Before 1 am. PassApp tuk-tuk back to the hotel. Angkor Wat opens at 5 am for sunrise, so don't stay out later if you plan to go.

Siem Reap nightlife by traveller type

Couples who want the whole trip arranged can look at our Cambodia honeymoon packages, and families at our Cambodia family packages.

How many nights do you need in Siem Reap?

Three nights is right for most travellers. That gives you two full days at the temples and two evenings, one for Phare and one for Pub Street and the markets. Our 3 nights, 4 days Angkor Wat Cambodia tour follows that rhythm, and we can add Phare tickets or an Apsara dinner to any evening. To compare every itinerary, see all Cambodia tour packages. Nights are pleasant from November to March, so check the best time to visit Siem Reap before you pick dates, and our page on how to reach Siem Reap for flights from India.

Siem Reap nightlife works best when you mix it. Spend one night on Phare or Apsara and one on Pub Street, with an early start for the temples in between. For Phnom Penh and the coast, our Cambodia nightlife guide covers the rest of the country, and the Siem Reap travel guide has everything else you need for the trip.

How we checked this page. The TravelTriangle Editorial Team compiled this page in November 2026 from venue and official sources, recent visitor reviews and Google Maps listings, and cut every bar from the old version of this page that showed no sign of trading in 2025 or 2026. Phare prices and times are from pharecircus.org, the Elephant Bar happy hour is from Raffles, and night-market status is from siemreap.net (October 2026).

Sources: Phare, The Cambodian Circus (pharecircus.org/tickets) | Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor, Elephant Bar (raffles.com) | siemreap.net, souvenir and night markets (updated October 2026) | Sombai (sombai.com) | Angkor Enterprise, Angkor Pass prices.

Edited by TravelTriangle