The gates open early. Be inside before the buses.
Which Angkor sunrise ticket includes breakfast. What a Grand Palace guide adds over the plain entry. Whether Borobudur earns a four o’clock alarm. Reviews of the temple, shrine and monastery tours you can book anywhere in the world.
Angkor at dawn, Wat Arun from the river, Bali’s water temples, Rila in the pines.
Four temple days that carry a whole trip. What each one costs, and what the people who set the alarm say about it afterwards.
01The dawn shiftAngkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem ReapInside the park before the sky turns, with a guide who knows which gallery catches the first light. The rest of the day is downhill from it.
02The day out of BangkokAyutthaya Temples Guided Tour with LunchAyutthaya’s brick stupas and the reclining Buddha, an hour and a half north, lunch included. The old capital in the time it takes to see one Bangkok wat properly.
03The Bali circuitBesakih Temple & Lempuyang Temple Gates of Heaven TourBesakih on the slope of Agung, then the split gate at Lempuyang with the volcano framed inside it. Sarongs are handed out at both.
04The mountain monasteryRila Monastery & Boyana Church Day TourRila’s striped arcades two hours from Sofia, with the frescoed Boyana church on the way back. Cool air, no queue, no crowds.
Six countries where the temple day is the day you remember.
A jungle city in Cambodia, gilded wats along a Thai river, water temples on a Balinese hillside, colonnades on the Nile, moss and cedar in Japan, and marble carved to lace in India. Six places to start, and the best day out in each.
Thailand: choose the temple day first, then choose the city.
Three shapes of Thai temple day, what it costs to join each one, and the city it runs out of.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided Tour
Bangkok in one morningThe Grand Palace, Wat Pho’s reclining Buddha, then the ferry across to Wat Arun.
Chiang Mai up the hillDoi Suthep looking down on the city, plus the tunnel temple at Wat Umong.
Chiang Rai, white to blueWat Rong Khun in mirror glass, then the cobalt hall at Wat Rong Suea Ten.
All 99 Thai temple tours →
Angkor is a city, not a temple. Give it two mornings.
The moat at sunrise, the Bayon faces at nine, Ta Prohm before the coaches turn in. One pass covers the whole park, and a guide is what turns rubble back into rooms.
The temple tours more travellers take than any others.
Every temple tour we have reviewed →The days that go weeks ahead of time, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Jerónimos Monastery Entrance Ticket
Review of Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, with ticket value, queues, architecture, opening hours, access tips, and what you see inside.
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
A guide at a temple is the difference between old stone and a story.
Private tours run to your alarm clock, stop where you want to stop, and answer the question a headset cannot. Here is what the good ones cost.
Temples keep two good hours, and they sit at either end of the day.
Sunrise buys an empty courtyard and cold stone underfoot. Sunset buys the colour, and a gate that has stopped selling tickets. Both cost what the middle of the day costs.
Every sunrise and sunset tour →
What a temple day costs, from a turnstile to a private car.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. Entry to some of the great halls is the price of lunch. The guide and the car are where the money goes.
Entry tickets, shrine walks and the shared minibus out to the temples beyond town.
Full days with a guide: Angkor by tuk-tuk, the west bank at Luxor, the Balinese water circuit.
Private cars, two-day passes and the sunrise trips that start before the gates do.
Three things that only happen at a temple.
Ruins and museums are everywhere. A fire dance on a clifftop, a spring you stand under fully clothed, and a moat that runs gold for four minutes are not.
The Kecak at Uluwatu
A hundred men sit in rings on a clifftop stage and chant one syllable, over and over, in place of any instrument. The Ramayana plays out inside the circle while the sun goes down behind it and the monkeys work the wall. Tickets are for a fixed start, the seats fill from an hour before, and the whole thing is done in an hour.
- 1Besakih Temple & Lempuyang Temple Gates of Heaven Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 3,243 reviews
- 2Kecak Fire Dance Show & Uluwatu Temple Entry Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,023 reviews
- 3Bali Sunset: Uluwatu Temple, Kecak Dance and Jimbaran Bay★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,397 reviews
Purification at Tirta Empul
Balinese Hindus queue at a row of stone spouts fed by a spring and step under each one in turn, fully clothed, praying between them. Visitors may join with a sarong and a guide who explains which spouts are for the dead and are not for you. Bring a change of clothes; you come out soaked to the skin.
- 1Waterfalls, Water Temple & Rice Terraces Private Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,484 reviews
- 2Nikko Toshogu Shrine and Kegon Waterfall Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,266 reviews
- 3North Bali: Sunrise Tour with Dolphins, Waterfalls & Temples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 831 reviews
Angkor at first light
The reflecting pools in front of Angkor Wat face east, so for a few minutes the five towers arrive twice, once in stone and once in the water. It works from roughly February to October, when the sun clears the towers rather than the trees to their side, and it is over long before breakfast.
- 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
Four temple bookings that will not wait.
Most temple days can be arranged the night before over dinner. These four run on capped sunrise slots, convoy departures and calendars that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Angkor Wat Sunrise or Sunset Tour with Guide from Siem ReapSunrise groups are capped and the good guides go first. The park pass has to be bought before you reach the gate, not at it.
- 02Abu Simbel Temple Day Trip with Hotel PickupAbu Simbel is three hours south of Aswan and the transfers leave in the dark, together. Miss the departure and the next one is tomorrow.
- 03Borobudur and Prambanan Temples Guided TourSunrise entry to Borobudur is a separate, limited ticket, and the platform closes to visitors on a schedule the ordinary day pass ignores.
- 04Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun Guided TourThe Grand Palace shuts for state ceremonies at short notice, and the dress code is enforced at the gate rather than at the ticket desk.
What a temple asks of you at the gate.
Shoulders and knees covered, shoes off at the door, and a sarong to borrow if you turn up in shorts. Some halls allow no photographs at all. A few monasteries close one day a week and one hall at a time. None of it is a surprise if you know before you queue, and a guided entry usually carries the sarong for you.
By kind of temple day
Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Chiang Mai, Siem Reap, Ubud: the run almost everybody does first.
Chiang MaiThe newest temple tour reviews.
The rest of the new temple reviews →
Yogyakarta; Sunrise from Borobudur Temple & Prambanan Guided
Read our review →
Xi’an: Daci’en Temple(Great Wild Goose Pagoda) E-ticket
Read our review →
Transfer from Jodhpur to Udaipur via Jain Temple in Ranakpur
Read our review →
SUNRISE Above Cloud & Explore UNESCO Temples w/ GUIDE
Read our review →
Terracotta Army, Big Wild Goose Pagoda&City Wall Full Day Tour
Read our review →
Hidden Corners of Varanasi Secret Alleys Temples and Traditions
Read our review →
Varanasi in a Day Ancient Temples Sarnath and Ghats
Read our review →
Private Transfer From Udaipur To Jodhpur Via Jain Temple & Kumbhalgarh Fort
Read our review →
Ubud Rafting – Rice Terrace – Tegenungan Waterfall – Tanah Lot Sunset Temple
Read our review →
Beautiful Beaches of Bali and Sunset at Uluwatu Temple with Kecak Dance Show
Read our review →
Akshardham Temple Tour Exhibition, Light & Water Show with Transfers
Read our review →