VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Acapulco or Phnom Penh?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Acapulco for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Acapulco’s own page.

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Phnom Penh’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Acapulco 80, Phnom Penh 6: Acapulco leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, Phnom Penh 58: Acapulco leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, Phnom Penh 28: Acapulco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, Phnom Penh 34: Phnom Penh leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, Phnom Penh 32: Acapulco leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, Phnom Penh 50: Phnom Penh leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and Phnom Penh.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Acapulco
44match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Phnom Penh
44match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
168 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoPhnom Penh

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoPhnom Penh
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation18 m11 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoPhnom Penh
City population658,6092,129,371
People per km²3503,138
Museums within 10 km33
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or Phnom Penh somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.