Bongthom Homestay

Owner, Sou Say, set out to save Cambodia's old timber houses from disappearing by buying abandoned Khmer stilt houses and restoring them in San Day village, on the road to the 10th century temple of Banteay Srei. Three structures now welcome guests: a rural tycoon's house nearing 90 years old, a similarly aged patron's house, and a former almshouse well over a century old, its original columns still standing after a careful 2010 restoration. Rooms keep bamboo beds and mosquito nets rather than trying to modernise the houses out of character.

Time here is well worth spent touring the surrounding villages by ox cart, watching palm sugar being made over an open fire, and helping out with rice farming alongside local families. Cooking classes cover Khmer staples like mango salad, banana blossom salad and amok, using vegetables, mangoes and dragon fruit grown on the property's own plantation, with fish raised in ponds behind the houses. There's no wifi here, though a swimming pool offers a break from the heat between temple visits to Banteay Srei and Angkor Wat further afield.