June 20, 2026
People ask me what a day in one of our vintage jeeps is really like. The short version: an open-sided Willys, your own driver at the wheel, and the Angkor temples or the rice-field countryside going by at whatever pace you set. No doors. No glass between you and the morning. That openness is the whole point of it.
We keep a small fleet of these jeeps at Adventures Cambodia, and guests sometimes ask why we bother with old machines when a modern car has air-conditioning and a soft ride. A car with the windows up keeps Cambodia politely at arm’s length. Open the sides and there’s nothing between you and it: the smell of cut rice in the fields, the woodsmoke that reaches you before the first village comes into view.
I grew up in Siem Reap. The countryside that starts ten minutes past the last temple is the part of home I most want guests to actually meet, and a jeep is how I’d send them into it.
Key Takeaways
- A vintage jeep day is an open-air day with your own driver, around the Angkor temples or out in the Siem Reap countryside.
- Adventures Cambodia runs vintage Willys jeeps. Each one seats up to three passengers.
- The jeeps keep their vintage body and character. We re-engine them with cleaner engines and automatic gearboxes, so they run quiet and easy.
- Hold an international driving licence and you can take the wheel yourself. We call it Behind the Jeep Wheel.
- A jeep day suits families and anyone who’d rather watch the country than work through it. It’s open to the weather, so pack for sun and dry-season dust.
What a Vintage Jeep Day Is Like
A jeep day is built around a vehicle, not a schedule. The jeep collects you from your hotel, the driver is yours for the whole day, and the route is one you’ve agreed beforehand rather than a fixed loop you share with strangers. Want to linger at one temple and skip another? You say so, and the jeep waits.
It’s comfortable in a particular way. There’s a canopy overhead for shade and a proper seat to settle into, and the sides stay open so the air keeps moving through. You aren’t working at it. The day carries you, and the country stays right there beside you, close enough to touch.
I still take guests out this way myself when I can. There’s a moment, usually when the paved road first turns to red dirt, when the talking in the jeep stops. The temples are the headline, of course. But it’s often the ordinary countryside between them that people tell me about once they’re home.
A Willys on the road to a Bayon gate.
The view forward, windscreen and open air.
Akim with guests beside a jeep at the end of a day.
Where a Jeep Day Takes You
Broadly, a jeep day takes one of two shapes.
The first is Angkor itself. On most of our Angkor tours the jeep is simply your vehicle for the day, carrying you out to Angkor Wat and Bayon and waiting in the shade while you walk each one. A guide rides with you, so the carving you’re about to pass already has a story by the time you reach it. If you want the temple-by-temple version of a first day, our Small Circuit itinerary lays one out.
The second is the countryside, and this is where I think a jeep really earns its place. Ten or fifteen minutes past the edge of town the paved road gives way to red dirt, and the jeep is at home on it. Rice fields open out on both sides. A working pagoda. A stilted house where someone hands up a piece of palm sugar still warm from the pan.
The Banteay Srei and countryside jeep day is the one I’d point most people to. It’s a full day, and it earns the length. A pagoda and a monk’s blessing to begin. Num Banh Chok, the fresh rice noodles, pressed out by hand while you watch. The long drive through the villages, then Banteay Srei itself, the small pink-sandstone temple with some of the finest carving anywhere in Angkor. Lunch. Banteay Samre after it, quieter, often nearly empty. Incense being rolled by hand. One last village before you turn for home. Every jeep option sits on the jeep tours page.
Driving a Jeep Yourself
You don’t have to be a passenger. Our Rent a Vintage Jeep option gives you a jeep for the day, with a full tank of fuel and pickup and drop-off inside Siem Reap town. It seats three. A driver comes with it as standard, which is what most people choose, and it’s the easy way to spend the day looking out at the country instead of concentrating on the road.
But hold an international driving licence and you can take the wheel yourself. We call it Behind the Jeep Wheel, and for some guests it’s the part of the trip they came for. Here’s the good news. Our jeeps have automatic gearboxes, so driving one is nothing like wrestling a stubborn old manual. You get the character of a vintage jeep with controls that won’t fight you. I’ve watched people grin the whole length of a dirt track doing it.
The Jeeps Themselves
Ours are Willys jeeps, the original jeep, the small boxy four-wheel-drive the rest of the world’s jeeps were copied from. The body and the character are genuinely vintage, and we keep them that way. What we’ve changed is underneath. We re-engine our jeeps with cleaner, more eco-friendly engines and fit automatic gearboxes, so you get the look and the feel of a 1940s machine with a modern, reliable drivetrain under it. They run quiet. Nobody spends a jeep day raising their voice over the motor.
Our jeeps didn’t all arrive the same way. The middle of the last century pushed a great many of these machines through this region, and ours carry mixed histories. A few trace back to Cambodia. Vietnam sent others down over the years. And one of them, the jeep our drivers are quietly proudest of, started its life in Korea. I like that there’s no single tidy origin story to give you. Each jeep got here by its own road, the way most things in Cambodia did.
They’re not luxury vehicles, and that’s the point of them. You sit upright, and you ride far closer to the road and the weather than a sealed car would ever put you. That closeness is the character people come for. If a soft, cushioned cocoon is what you most want from a day out, a jeep won’t give you that, and I’d rather you knew it before you booked than after.
The dashboard of a Willys, gauges and all.
Under the trees on a back road, open to the air.
Parked where the made road runs out.
Who a Jeep Day Suits, and What to Bring
Families do well in a jeep. Children ride as passengers with the driver, there’s room to keep everyone together, and a long day out is far gentler on a child sitting in the shade than you might expect. Couples and pairs of friends take to it most naturally of all. Three is the comfortable maximum in one jeep. My favourite booking is the one where grandparents and grandchildren ride out together, three generations in the same jeep.
Pack for an open vehicle. In the dry months, roughly November to April, the back roads throw up a fine red dust, so sunglasses earn their place and a light scarf is worth having for the dustiest stretches. The canopy shades you, but the sides are open, so a hat and sunscreen still matter. Everything else, the lunch, the water, the cold towels, the guide and driver, is part of the tour, so you can travel light.
One note on timing. The jeep is an open vehicle all year round, so in the wet season we plan a jeep day around the forecast. Siem Reap’s rain tends to come in short afternoon bursts rather than all day, and we’ll talk the timing through with you if you’re travelling then.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a vintage jeep tour around Siem Reap?
It’s a day out with your own vintage Willys jeep and driver, around the Angkor temples or through the Siem Reap countryside, on a route planned with you beforehand. The jeep is open-sided with a canopy for shade. On a guided tour you also have a guide for the temples and the villages.
Is a vintage jeep comfortable?
Comfortable in the ways that matter. You have a proper seat, a canopy overhead for shade, and a driver handling the road. The ride is a little firmer than a sealed car’s, because the body is genuinely vintage, though the re-engined drivetrain runs quiet. It’s not a limousine, and most guests wouldn’t want it to be.
Can children ride in a vintage jeep?
Yes. Children ride as passengers with the driver, and a jeep day is one of the gentler ways to take younger children around Angkor and the countryside, since they’re seated and shaded for the day. Each jeep seats up to three passengers.
Can I drive the vintage jeep myself?
Yes, if you hold an international driving licence. The option is called Behind the Jeep Wheel. Our jeeps have automatic gearboxes, so driving one is straightforward rather than the wrestling match an old manual would be. If you would rather watch the country than the road, a driver comes with the jeep as standard.
Can you see the Angkor sunrise by jeep?
Yes. A jeep is one of the vehicle choices for an Angkor sunrise. You are collected in the dark and driven out for first light at the temple, and in an open jeep the cool air before dawn is part of the morning rather than something kept behind glass.
