The queue for Angkor forms at four. Here is what earns the alarm.
Which Angkor pass you actually need. Whether the Borobudur climb-up ticket is worth the extra. What to wear at Uluwatu so the sarong hire is optional. Reviews of the temple and shrine days you can book, from Siem Reap to Kyoto.
Four mornings a first temple trip is built around.
Angkor before dawn, the Borobudur climb-up, the Bangkok three, and the torii path above Kyoto. What each costs, what time it starts, and what the people who went say.
01Before dawnAngkor Wat Highlights and Sunrise Guided Tour from Siem ReapThe northern pond fills by five. A guide who does this daily walks you past the crowd to the corner where the reflection actually works.
02The climb-upBorobudur sunrise(guarantee climb up)& PrambananOnly so many feet reach the top terraces of Borobudur each day, in timed groups. The sunrise ticket includes the climb; the standard one does not.
03Bangkok in a morningGrand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided TourGrand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun before the heat lands. Covered shoulders and long trousers, or you queue for the loan sarongs at the gate.
04Past the first gateFushimi Inari Hidden Hiking Tour (Private Option Available)Most visitors photograph the first hundred torii and turn back. Keep climbing Inari-san and the paths empty out completely.
Shoulders, knees, shoes off: what the gate expects of you.
Sarongs are lent at Uluwatu and Besakih, rented at Tanah Lot, and expected almost everywhere in Bali. Wat Pho turns bare knees away. Shoes come off at every Thai and Japanese hall, so wear something you can step out of. The Angkor pass is bought at the ticket office rather than the temple, and a one-day stamp cannot be upgraded once it is issued. Cover up, start early, carry more water than feels sensible.
Indonesia hands you four kinds of temple day. Pick one and the island arranges itself around it.
A cliff temple at sunset with the fire dance below it, a dawn climb onto Borobudur, a spring temple between rice terraces, or the macaques who run three shrines in a forest at Ubud. What it costs to join each one, and where it happens.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry Ticket
Cliff temples at sunsetUluwatu and Tanah Lot, the two that sit over water.
Borobudur before dawnJava: the climb-up ticket, Merapi behind, Prambanan after.
Water temples and terracesTirta Empul, the Tegallalang steps, a waterfall to finish.
The Ubud monkeysThree forest shrines, and the macaques who own them.
All 109 Indonesian temple days →
Six places where the temple day is the reason you booked the flight.
A forest of stone outside Siem Reap, Bali's cliff and water shrines, gold on both banks of the Chao Phraya, a hill temple over Chiang Mai, ten thousand torii above Kyoto and the Nile's two temple banks. Six starting points, and the best morning in each.
Angkor is a city, not a temple. These are the days that get you round it.
Sunrise at the western causeway, the faces at Bayon mid-morning, the roots over Ta Prohm before the coaches reach it. One day covers the small circuit; three days buy Banteay Srei and the empty outer temples. Whether you go by tuk-tuk or air-conditioned minibus decides how the middle of the day feels.
The temple days more travellers take than any others.
Every temple review on the site →Angkor at first light, the fire dance on the Uluwatu cliff, Borobudur's top terrace and the Bangkok three. What earns each of them the slot.
1
Jerónimos Monastery Entrance Ticket
Use your PDF voucher to enter Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, a UNESCO-listed Manueline masterpiece beside the Tagus. Explore the cloisters, see Vasco da Gama’s tomb, and visit independently without a guide. Advance tickets help, but they do not remove the outdoor queue.
From · $21
Read our review →
2
Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem Reap
from $18
3
Teotihuacan, Guadalupe Shrine & Tlatelolco Day Tour with Lunch
from $39
4
Ayutthaya Temples Guided Tour with Lunch
from $28
5
Angkor Wat: Small-Group Sunrise or Sunset Tour
from $15
6
Cape Sounion & Poseidon Temple Sunset Half-Day Trip
from $23
7
Monkey Forest, Jungle Swing, Rice Terrace, and Water Temple
from $31
8
Montserrat Monastery Half Day Experience from Barcelona
from $55
Thailand: gold beside the river, hill temples in the north.
Everything in Thailand →
The Grand Palace, Wat Pho and Wat Arun sit within one river crossing of each other and can be done before lunch if you start at eight. North of that, Doi Suthep hangs over Chiang Mai on its staircase of nagas, and Chiang Rai's white temple is a different proposition entirely.
Bangkok, shoulders and knees covered
The Grand Palace turns people away at the gate every morning. Long trousers or a long skirt, sleeves, and shoes you can step out of at Wat Pho. Loan sarongs exist, and so does the queue for them.
Doi Suthep, and the 306 steps
Fifteen kilometres up the mountain from Chiang Mai, with a naga staircase at the top or a funicular when the knees object. Mornings are cooler and the valley is still clear; by afternoon the haze usually wins.
Chiang Rai: white, blue and black
Wat Rong Khun is a contemporary artwork you walk through rather than an old temple, and the blue hall down the road is its opposite in every way. It is a long day out of Chiang Mai, so most trips fold in the hot springs on the drive.
Egypt's temples are a river with stops.
Karnak and Luxor Temple on the east bank, the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut's terraces on the west, Philae on its island at Aswan and Abu Simbel three hours further south. Almost every good day here begins before seven, because by eleven the sandstone is too hot to lean on.
- 1Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel Pickupfrom $70
- 2Luxor Day Tour: Valley of Kings & Queens & Hatchepsut Templesfrom $89
- 3Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsut Temple Day Tourfrom $50
What a morning at the temples actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Entry to some of the largest religious sites on earth still comes in under the price of the taxi from the airport.
Entry tickets, tuk-tuk circuits, sunrise runs and the half-day city temple walks.
Full-day Angkor circuits with a guide, Borobudur climb-up mornings, both Luxor banks in one go.
Private guides, multi-day passes, and the days with a car, a driver and nobody else in it.
Japan: shrines you walk through, temples you take your shoes off in.
Fushimi Inari's gates run four kilometres up a hillside and the shrine never closes. Senso-ji fills from eight. Nikko is two hours out of Tokyo and deserves the whole day, and Kamakura's Great Buddha has sat in the open since a tsunami carried its hall away in 1498.
Every Japanese temple and shrine day →
Three things that happen at these gates and nowhere else.
Old stone and incense are everywhere. Seventy men chanting instead of an orchestra, a sun that lines up with a tower for a fortnight a year, and a mountain path paved in company donations are not.
The Kecak on the Uluwatu Cliff
Seventy men in checked sarongs sit in a ring and chant cak-cak-cak for an hour while the Ramayana plays out inside it. There is no gamelan and no instrument of any kind: the voices are the orchestra. The amphitheatre faces west over the Indian Ocean, so the fire scene lands as the sun drops. Seating is open and unreserved, and the good rows go long before the gate does.
- 1Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 5,189 reviews
- 2Uluwatu Sunset, Kecak Dance, and Dinner Jimbaran Beach★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,681 reviews
- 3Kecak Fire Dance Show & Uluwatu Temple Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,023 reviews
Angkor Wat in the Reflecting Pool
The photograph everyone comes for needs the northern pond rather than the southern one, and it needs you standing there while the sky is still grey. For a few weeks either side of the equinoxes the sun rises directly behind the central tower; the rest of the year it climbs off to one side and the water does the work instead.
- 1Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem Reap★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 12,109 reviews
- 2Angkor Wat: Small-Group Sunrise or Sunset Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 9,444 reviews
- 3Angkor Wat 2-Day Tour with Sunrise and Sunset★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 4,429 reviews
Ten Thousand Torii Up a Mountain
Every vermilion gate on the path up Inari-san was paid for by a family or a company, the name and the date inked on the back, which is why the climb reads one way going up and another coming down. Most visitors stop at the Senbon Torii. The shrine has no closing time, and the upper trails are yours at dawn or after dark.
- 1Tea Ceremony in a Traditional Tea House in Kiyomizu★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 3,519 reviews
- 2Fushimi Inari Hidden Hiking Tour (Private Option Available)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,750 reviews
- 3Osaka/Kyoto:Kinkakuji,Arashiyama,FushimiInariShrine,NaraPark★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 1,596 reviews
Four temple bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of a temple trip can be arranged over breakfast the day before. These four run on ticket-office hours, daily headcounts and convoy times that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem ReapThe pass is sold at the ticket office rather than the temple, and a one-day stamp cannot be upgraded later. Sunrise runs leave Siem Reap around half past four.
- 02Borobudur sunrise(guarantee climb up)& PrambananA fixed number of people are let onto the upper terraces each day, in timed groups with a guide. The sunrise slot goes first, and the climb-up ticket is separate from plain entry.
- 03Uluwatu Kecak and Fire Dance Show Entry TicketThe Uluwatu amphitheatre seats a few hundred and the performance runs once, at sunset. Seating is unreserved, so the queue starts well before the gate opens.
- 04Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel PickupAbu Simbel is three hours south of Aswan and the day runs on convoy departure times. Miss the morning one and there is no second attempt.
By place — from the Mekong to the Nile
By kind of day — sunrise, sunset, on foot or by tuk-tuk
Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Siem Reap, Bali, Java, Kyoto: the run most people do first.
The newest temple and shrine reviews.
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2-Day Angkor Wat, Kulen Mountain, Beng Mealea and Tonle Sap
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Kumbhalgarh & Ranakpur Day Trip from Udaipur with Guide and Lunch
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Nikko Private Car Tour – English Driver, Flexible Schedule
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One Day Private Tour to Nikko With English Speaking Driver
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Kyoto Tea Ceremony & Kiyomizu-dera Temple Walking Tour
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Karnak Temple Sound & Light Show QR Ticket with Transfer
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Ex-monk city & temples walking tour: (3.5 hours / 1.7 km.)
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Transfer to Jodhpur via Ranakpur & Kumbhalgarh Fort
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Borobudur and Prambanan Temples Shared Guided Tour With Transfer
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