VacationSelector
A palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay, Akumal
AkumalA palm-lined beach on Akumal Bay
The Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh
Phnom PenhThe Silver Pagoda

Photos: Akumal by Alfonzo Buscemi, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Phnom Penh by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Akumal 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 Akumal for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Phnom Penh for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • prices

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. Akumal 88, Phnom Penh 6: Akumal leads by 82 points.
Food & drink. Akumal 28, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Akumal 6, Phnom Penh 62: Phnom Penh leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Akumal 7, Phnom Penh 58: Phnom Penh leads by 51 points.
Nature & outdoors. Akumal 77, Phnom Penh 28: Akumal leads by 49 points.
Day trips. Akumal 68, Phnom Penh 34: Akumal leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Akumal 70, Phnom Penh 32: Akumal leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Akumal 18, Phnom Penh 35: Phnom Penh leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Akumal 7, Phnom Penh 46: Phnom Penh leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Akumal 36, Phnom Penh 86: Phnom Penh leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Akumal 4, Phnom Penh 32: Phnom Penh leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Akumal 55, Phnom Penh 50: Akumal leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Akumal and Phnom Penh.

Your match

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

Akumal
39match

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

Phnom Penh
Best match
44match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Akumal in July

30 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
119 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Phnom Penh in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AkumalPhnom Penh

Where the figures come from

Akumal has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Akumal: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Phnom Penh: 1991-2020 normals, Phnom-Penh / Pochentong (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAkumalPhnom Penh
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaKhmer
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Riel (KHR)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzACG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+7
Emergency number911Police 117, ambulance 119, fire 118
Elevation11 m11 m
Main airportCancún International Airport (CUN)85 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsTecho International Airport (KTI)23 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days21 days

By the numbers

MeasureAkumalPhnom Penh
City population2,1542,129,371
People per km²-3,138
Museums within 10 km03
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 Akumal or Phnom Penh somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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.