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Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor
Siem Reap, Cambodia · Raffles · Grand Luxury
Ernest Hébrard's Grand Hotel d'Angkor opened for the 1932-33 season on the colonial axis aimed at Angkor Wat, replacing inadequate lodges for temple travelers. Charlie Chaplin, Jacqueline Kennedy, Charles de Gaulle, and Bill and Hillary Clinton signed the book before Raffles bought the house in 1994 and restored it for a 1997 reopening. Still called La Grande Dame of Angkor, it remains one of Asia's surviving colonial grand hotels.
- 119 rooms
- Opened 1932
- Neighborhood: Old French Quarter
- Architect: Ernest Hébrard
- Interiors: 2019 renovation sensitive to original architecture; curators Andreas and Carola Augustin
About Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor
- Opened for the 1932-33 season as Siem Reap's purpose-built grand hotel for Angkor travelers.
- French planner Ernest Hébrard sited it on the north-south axis linking town to Angkor Thom and the royal summer palace.
- Charlie Chaplin's guest companion here was Paulette Goddard.
- Raffles acquired the hotel in 1994 and reopened it in 1997 after an extensive restoration.
- A 2019 renovation kept the 1930s French Art Deco character; Michelin awards Two Keys.
History
The Grand Hotel d'Angkor was already rising in 1929, Ernest Hebrard's concrete Art Deco palace on the north-south axis aimed at Angkor Wat, meant to replace the old lodges for temple travelers. Governor-general Robin walked the unfinished sixty rooms in 1931. Guests arrived in the 1932-33 season, with Alfred Messner, the Saigon restaurateur, as director.
H.W. Ponder, writing in 1936, thought the white palace looked more Cote d'Azur than Cambodian plain, then sat down to the food anyway. That Christmas Messner lit Angkor Wat. The garden in front of the hotel was levelled the same year and is still there. Henri Chatel refreshed the rooms in 1957-58. In 1959 it became the flagship of SOKHAR, the royal hotel company. Jackie Kennedy checked in in November 1967.
The Cambodian military took the house from June 1970. On the day the Khmer Rouge walked into Siem Reap in 1975, there was not a single guest. Cadres stripped the furniture. It reopened in December 1991. Raffles took the contract in 1994 and reopened the restored house on 30 December 1997: one hundred and nineteen rooms, the 1929 wooden-cage elevator running again. A six-month campaign closed it in 2019 and brought it back on 1 October, still called La Grande Dame of Angkor.
The setting
Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor stands on Preah Sihanouk Avenue in Siem Reap's Old French Quarter, positioned on the colonial axis that French planners aligned toward Angkor Thom and the royal summer palace in the 1920s. Opened in 1932 for society travelers discovering the newly publicized temples, the hotel's French Art Deco facade faces the Royal Crusade for Independence Gardens, with the Angkor National Museum a five-minute walk and the lively Old Market 19 minutes on foot along the riverside promenade. Sharing its storied block with another landmark luxury address, the hotel anchors the city's most prestigious hospitality enclave, 8 km from the UNESCO temples of Angkor.
Restaurants and bars
- The Conservatory — Restaurant
- Elephant Bar — Bar
- Cafe d'Angkor — Café · pan-Asian and international favourites
- 1932 — Restaurant · Cambodian (rich and royal culinary heritage)
Experiences
- Raffles Butler service — A personal butler accompanies every stay, available 24 hours a day to assist guests.
- Raffles Curated Journeys — Private discoveries through Siem Reap that fuse adventures with mindful sojourns.
- Restaurant 1932 — Named after the year the hotel opened, it takes guests on a journey through Cambodia's cuisine and history.
- Bespoke Temple Dinner — An evening with the Angkor temples as backdrop, local cuisine and a performance of traditional Apsara dance.
- The Conservatory afternoon tea — Traditional afternoon tea, light bites and evening cocktails with piano.
- Cultural Immersion — Early morning blessing ceremonies with monks, lotus flower folding, and classes in Khmer cuisine.
Amenities
- Spa
- Pool
- Sauna
- Hot tub
- Fitness center
- Kids' club
- Wine cellar
- Butler service
Awards
- Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star (2026)
- MICHELIN One Key (2026)
- MICHELIN Two Keys (2025)
- Travel + Leisure World's Best Hotels (2025)
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