What to wear at Angkor: Following the strict rules and still looking cute

Angkor has a strict dress code put in place several years ago. Everyone visiting the site should follow certain rules. If you aren’t dressed appropriately, you may not be able to even buy a ticket for the site. The guards at the entrances to the temples may also indicate, if you are dressed improperly. We witnessed a couple of times, a guard asking people to cover their knees or their shoulders. Sometimes, this could be rectified by simply putting scarves on though.

Either way, better be prepared before you go, as near the temples, the clothes tend to get very expensive for the tourists, who need to buy them on the spot.

Clothes

No shorts, short dresses or anything that doesn’t cover the knee are allowed. Trousers, long skirts or long shorts covering the knee are the acceptable attire. Try to wear linen or other breathable material, as you won’t be suffocating in heat.

I also found that the skirts were more comfortable in heat than trousers. Of course, there’s one more thing to consider is the climbing, which was slightly complicated with the skirts I was wearing. I would put the skirt up to make it easier to climb. For the convenience purposes, trousers are far more comfortable. But even though they were thin, they were still quite hot. You have an option of buying the very common elephant style trousers at the markets. You will find many people wearing them. But personally I don’t like them and they don’t suit me. Of course, if you like them, go for it, they look very comfy.

So, maxi or midi dresses can be a great idea. If you find the thin colorful ones at local markets in the region, they can be the best option. We didn’t have time for shopping and I hate browsing markets, so I just brought what I had 🙂 I have since bought thin long dresses aimed for travelling to conservative countries. I use Shein and Amazon for cheap dresses.

The skirts you are wearing can have slits. There are no rules against them. That’s great, as they look much better 😛 I personally hate long skirts. To me they are not only uncomfortable, but not very cute too, as I am short 😀 So the slits are the best thing 🙂

I don’t recommend leggings at all, as they will be simply too hot.

Tops should cover the shoulders. There are no rules about decoltes, as far as I know, but I do believe, if it’s too revealing, it would be flagged. Any simple t-shirt will work fine. Another option is to wear a tank top and just throw a scarf on.

Whatever you wear, I advice to choose bright colors. They will look much better on photos. One day I wore a bright blue skirt and it looked great with the backgrounds, another day, I had a black and white striped skirt on and it looked far duller. See the photos and decide yourself 🙂

Accessories

That brings me to the major item that can help you in Angkor – scarf. The scarves really are very useful and you can make them work with many outfits. I did wear a sleeveless top one day and put a scarf around me. It looked quite cute and very much acceptable. But make sure that it doesn’t slip off your shoulders to avoid problems.

A scarf can also be a fashion accessory, it may lighten up your outfit.

Another important note: you are not allowed to just be covered by scarf, if you are going up the highest spot at Angkor Wat. A thin jacket can save you from this in such places, where they won’t like scarves.

A hat also wouldn’t be a bad idea to shield you from the sun and it may look lovely on the photos 🙂 Although I did lose my hat, when it flew off, while on tuk tuk 😀

Shoes

You can wear whatever type of shoes you like. There are no rules about it. But I do suggest to wear covered shoes with support, as you will be walking in very dusty places and will be climbing stairs and stones a lot. This would be quite difficult in sandals in my opinion. I myself wouldn’t dream of climbing those steep and uneven stairs in sandals. But so many people did wear slippers and sandals. I suppose, it’s comfortable in heat, if you don’t mind getting your feet very dusty and more tired of climbing.